 Hi, my name is specialist Emani Keanu Gale. I am a E4 in the Army National Guard. Growing up with alopecia was very hard. I had a drill sergeant come up to me, and she was yelling in my face. And she was like, you think you're cute. You got a weave on. You think you're cute. I think she wants to be cute. And I was like, I didn't break down at that moment. But soon as the shark attack was done, I just broke down crying. And the drill sergeant put me inside and was like, she didn't know. So when I got back, it was just, hmm. If these strangers that don't know me, never met me, they could come to my defense and do everything that I thought people at home could do, then why couldn't people at home do it? So once I came home, I just started wearing my wigs. And I got a lot of attention. I got a lot of offers and stuff from people locally that done fashion shows, that make clothes, that make jewelry, different makeup artists, different hair stylists. Like I've done hair photo shoots and everything. And it kind of helped me build like a platform for young girls in New Jersey with alopecia. And people are surprised that I'm in the National Guard, like in the Army with alopecia, because they usually a lot of sergeants now, they ask me, is it, was it a bet? Like the day I had a sergeant ask me, was it a bet? Or they asked me, was it because I just didn't want to wake up early in the morning and have to do my hair. And I don't know what goes through their minds, but it's just a lot of questions like that. So once I got more familiar and comfortable with the people around me, family wise and everything, like close family friends and everything, with me not having my hair on, it was much easier for me. I always liked having my head out though. I've never really liked it to be covered, but growing up with it, it has actually made my skin thicker. So now a lot of stuff don't really affect me that much. Like it might affect somebody else that that's not as accepting as me. But it kind of helped me grow as a person, just to understand like if I was to look at someone else and look at them and they don't look like me, I would be like, okay, I understand. Like I know how you feel. Like we have something in common.