That Bald Chick

Dear readers, 

For almost a year now we have been keeping track of Talia Joy. A thirteen year old girl who loves life, make-up, YouTube, and her dog Bella. However she has also been battling cancer for over six years. She is described in her Facebook as, "Talia Castellano was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma on February 14, 2007. She was cancer free for 13 months but relapsed in Sept. 2008. Again she was cancer free for almost 2 years, but sadly relapsed a second time on August 13, 2010 and has now relapsed again for a third time on April 8, 2011. She will never give up and does not let multiple surgeries, hospital stays, lab tests, chemo treatments, experimental treatments or anything else get in her way of being simply AMAZING. She loves makeup and has her own YouTube channel, TaliaJoy18 and is an inspiration to many."

Talia is my hero. She is one of the most bright, positive, dream chaser, amazing people I have ever met. Even though she is battling this horrid disease she is so strong and motivated. She has been able to be featured on Ellen and is now an honorary Covergirl. She has over one million Instagram followers and thousands of Facebook fans. And she is still fighting the good fight and working towards more of her dreams. 

As of late, her Facebook page lets you know about her clothing line that will be coming out. It is called 'That Bald Chick.' Here is a sneak peak: 

"**Sneak peek of TBC** - "That Bald Chick" is the name of Talia's clothing line. This is one of the items on Talia's bucket list. To design a clothing line for teenagers and inspire them thru fashion. She also wanted a line for for girls who are petite like her to be able to shop for clothes that are trendy. Talia has paired up with Urbana, a fashion designer from LA."

I am so excited to see her dreams coming true. At only 13, she is accomplishing so much. However, we do need to keep Talia in our thoughts and prayers. 

This was shared on May 4th, "We are receiving a large amount of messages from so many with questions and links to options for Talia. We are so grateful and appreciate everyone's support and kindness, however, at this point there are no options left. Please don';t think for one minute that Talia has given up or has decided to stop fighting, as she would never do that. Please know that Talia has considered everything and has discussed in detail much of the suggestions you are recommending for her. 

The bone marrow transplant was never an option as Talia has two forms of cancer. If she was given the choice to have the transplant, it would have only treated the MDS, the NB (neuroblastoma) would have grown rapidly and Talia would have had to be physically strong enough to handle this huge procedure and recovery. Talia chose to fight and do the chemo, which at the time was the only option she was given. And now she is choosing to have an IV medication to help with the bone pain and to strengthen her bones. She is also choosing to consider radiation to the areas where the cancer is growing when the time comes and she feels she needs it.

Talia has chosen to live as pain free as possible so she can continue to do the things she loves. And most of all Talia has NOT given up... The cancer has now given her no other options to chose any longer. She has fought this monster long and hard and did everything she could to beat it, and will continue to fight with all her might, but the options are no longer available...

In the mean time, Talia is going to live the way she wants to and will still be our spunky, amazing, beautiful Talia, so please don't treat her any differently than before this news. Thank you all so much for all the love and support. We will need it more now than ever before!"

It just reminds us all, we just need to be a little more like Talia. 

Love, 

Megan