She hopes to raise awareness of the condition which affects one in 100,000
By Tanith Carey
PUBLISHED: 14:10 GMT, 24 August 2013 | UPDATED: 17:00 GMT, 24 August 2013
A 14-year-old schoolgirl who became an internet hit when she posted a video of her first pop song on YouTube has bravely revealed how she lost all her hair after being diagnosed with alopecia.
Joelle Amery is seen smiling and laughing at locations all over Hollywood in the clip for her debut song, Big In LA, which has clocked up nearly 200,000 hits on the site.
But the teenager has told for the first time how the stunning, long brown locks in the video are, in fact, a wig.
Speaking out: Joelle, pictured with her proud mother Michelle, hopes to raise awareness of alopecia which affects one person in every 100 
Brave schoolgirl Joelle Amery, 14, who has become an overnight internet sensation after posting a video of her debut song on Youtube, has revealed she suffers from alopecia which causes a sufferer's hair to fall out At the age of eight, Joelle lost all of her hair to the most extreme form of the hair loss disease alopecia.
As a result, she has endured bullying from schoolmates who ripped off her hats and called her ‘cancer girl’, traumatising her so much she has never been seen in public without her hair - until now.
It is only through writing her own songs and performing them on the internet that Joelle says she has finally found the courage to show the world what she really looks like.
Joelle, a Year 9 pupil from Stanmore, North London says: ‘Alopecia has been the breaking of me, but also the making of me.
‘When I lost all my hair, other people couldn’t understand that I was exactly the same person - but I just looked different.
Internet hit: Joelle wears a wig in the music video for her debut song, Big In La, which has received more than 200,000 hits on YouTube 
Torment: Joelle, pictured in her music video, has revealed how bullies tormented her over her condition and how she was alienated at school because fellow pupils thought they could catch alopecia from her ‘For years, I hid myself away and begged my mum not to send me to school because other kids would call me ‘the girl with cancer’ and ‘clown face’ because I had to draw my eyebrows on when I lost those too.
‘A lot of their reaction was ignorance. They thought they could catch alopecia from me or that I was ill. But I am tired of living with the stigma, so I want to be honest about how I really am.’
Joelle had just finished Year 4 of primary school when her mum, Michelle, noticed that her daughter’s hair was starting to fall out in clumps in the shower.
Mum-of-three Michelle, 44, says: ‘When I brushed her hair after a shower, I saw there were massive patches where I could see her scalp. I can still remember my utter shock as it started blocking up the plughole. I tried to hide her hair loss from Joelle but within’ a few weeks all her lovely long brown hair had fallen out. ‘
Transformation: Joelle, pictured in the wig she wears to school, said everyone has been incredibly supportive after she placed her music video online Immediately doctors diagnosed Alopecia Universalis – the most serious form, estimated to affect about one in 100,000 people. Celebrity sufferers include comic Matt Lucas.
The condition is so extreme that every single hair, including body hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, falls out. The cause is not known but it is believed that the immune system mistakenly attacks the hair follicles.
Michelle says: ‘Even the top experts could not get to the bottom of it, although alopecia can be stress-related.
‘In fact a few weeks earlier, I had told Joelle for the first time that she had been conceived as one of two identical twins.
‘The placenta was split between them so most of the food was going to Joelle in the womb, who got bigger while her sister Mia got smaller and did not survive.
‘Losing my other baby was so upsetting, I had never told Joelle who barely survived herself when she was born at 26 weeks - until she starting saying she had an imaginary twin sister she liked to play with.
‘Then I took some advice from a counsellor who said I should tell Joelle what happened because twin survivors often have a strong sense of sibling loss.
‘When we sat down and explained it that she had been one of two babies, Joelle took it very badly and burst into tears. I explained she was lucky to be alive as she almost didn’t make it when she born.’
‘But still she developed a terrible sense of guilt that she had killed her sister and it all her was her fault. She still believes that Mia is part of her.’
By the end of that year, Joelle was completely bald.
Joelle said: ‘When I had just a few clumps left, I remember going to the hairdresser for the last time because we were told if we cut it, it might not fall out so fast. I just sat in the chair in the salon and sobbed. The hair stylist was crying too.
‘Hair is so important to how you look and feel about yourself especially if you are girl. I remember thinking: ‘This is it. My hair will never be the same again.’ It never grew back.’
Before: Joelle pictured left before she started losing her hair when she was eight-years-old At first Joelle tried to cover up her bare scalp with bandanas and hats – but soon found herself at the other end of cruel remarks and stares at school.
Already a shy child, Joelle’s hair loss made her retreat even more into her shell.
‘The other pupils thought what I had was catching or that I was dying of cancer so they did not want to ask me what was wrong but I could hear them whispering about me.
‘Then there were the other children who thought I was wearing a hat because I considered myself special or cooler than them.
‘At break time, I would makes excuses to stay in the classroom and do colouring or word puzzles because I just wanted to hide away.’
The worst moment came when she was nine and a group of older children on the coach home snatched her hat from her head.
‘They looked shocked when they saw I had no hair underneath and apologised - but it was so humiliating.
‘During the school day, I would try and hold all my emotions in. Then the moment I got home, I would shut the front door behind me and collapse in tears.’
Life changing: Joelle, pictured left with her mother Michelle, says people now concentrate on her music and not on her appearance Joelle’s mum Michelle recalls: ‘The whole family was traumatised by watching Joelle through this. To try and make it better I went into the school to give lessons about alopecia so the other children understood. But at the start of each school year, the teasing and comments would start all over again.’
When she moved to secondary school at 11, Joelle was terrified that no one would want to befriend her because she looked so different.
In order not to stand out, she started wearing wigs, supplied by the NHS, and every morning got up 6am to spend an hour applying false eyelashes and drawing on her eyebrows.
Her appearance was not helped by the fact that as a severely premature baby, born weighing 1.5lbs, Joelle has only 20 per cent eyesight in her left eye and needed thick glasses to read in class.
But behind her timid exterior, Joelle had big dreams.
Versatile: Joelle now owns several different wigs in a range of colours from brown to green After her mother Michelle split with her father Philip when Joelle was nine, she met music composer Norman Cambridge on a dating site. The pair have been together three years and are due to marry next year.
Norman, 36, says: ‘When I first came into the family after meeting Michelle, Joelle was so shy I hardly heard her talk, especially as she is the quiet middle one in between two very loud sisters, Annabelle, 20 and Rafaela, 12.
‘Then one day, I was driving and all three girls were singing in the back of the car. As usual it was a bit of racket!
“Then suddenly the other two stopped and I heard Joelle sing for the first time. She had such a lovely voice I literally stopped the car to check it was coming out of her mouth. It was a revelation.’
Over the months that followed, Joelle confided in Norman that she dreamed of becoming a singer - and the pair started writing songs together. The first track, which described her hopes for stardom, was Big in LA.
Over two holidays later that year, the whole family filmed some snatches of Joelle singing the song in different parts of Hollywood on a ?150 compact holiday camera.
When the teen returned to the UK, she posted it on You Tube – and the reaction at school was immediate.
‘Overnight, everything changed,’ says Joelle. 'Within the first week, everyone in school had seen it. Then their friends saw in.
‘Everyone was singing Big in LA– even the teachers, who have played the video in classes.
‘When I was in the loo, I heard of group of girls from another year singing my song, not realising I was in there.
‘Before this I had always tended to keep a low profile - in fact I tend to look a bit geeky - and I had kept my music completely secret.
‘So to come out with the video was a turning point and a huge shock to everyone. I even got asked for autograph for pupils at other schools. Everyone was really complimentary and supportive.
In hospital: Joelle was a severely premature baby, born weighing 1.5lbs, leaving her with just 20 per cent eyesight in her left eye 'The You Tube hits kept going up as people said their cousins or relatives abroad were watching it. My Facebook page got 150,000 likes – and Big in LA started being played in malls across America.
‘Now instead of coming home crying, I was coming home smiling and laughing. I was just so happy people were seeing me for my music finally - not as the nerdy girl with no hair.’
Since her first visits to the US to shoot her video, Joelle has been taken on by vocal coach Peggy Johnson, who trains American Idol finalists, as well as Daniel Thomas, who works with Girls Aloud.
Joelle, pictured with her mother Michelle, said she wouldn't have left the house without covering her head in the past but now has the confidence to go out without a wigDuring her school summer holidays, she has also sung at the MTV HQ in LA and recorded tracks of her upcoming album in Nashville with members of Taylor Swift’s band Her album will be released early next year on an independent label her family have set up for her.
Now far from being ashamed of alopecia, Joelle, who has nine wigs ranging in colour from brown to green, says she is now proud of it.
‘Until now, the only place I would have been seen without my wig was in my house. I would not have been seen dead in public without it.
‘But now I feel I can be open about it and people can concentrate on my music not my appearance.
‘In fact I love having no hair. There are so many advantages. I can change my look and personality instantly just changing my wig. When other people talk about having a bad hair day, I just smile and say: “What’s that?"'
Finally going wigless for her first pictures without her hair was a liberating experience, adds Joelle.
'When I turned up, I think the photographer expected me to be shy and nervous about being pictured without a wig for the first time.
‘But I just sat down in front of the make-up artist and said: 'Right let’s get with it’ – and took it straight off.
‘There were a few gasps but then everyone was kind enough to say I looked better without it.
‘I have reached a stage in my life where I am ready to ‘come out’ and do this. Alopecia is part of me, but it isn’t who I am.’
Watch Joelle's debut music video for Big In LA
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