Abby, an L.A.-based makeup artist, didn\u2019t always feel comfortable with people\u2019s gaze. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2006, while in high school, she started to notice clumps of hair falling out in the shower. She and her mother made multiple doctor\u2019s visits outside her small town in Montana until she received a diagnosis: alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss as a person\u2019s immune system attacks hair follicles by mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being the subject of stares while doing normal American teenager things like walking in the mall frustrated Abby. She just wanted to blend in. Now, if you ran into her on the street and you looked at her head, she\u2019d probably greet you with a big smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to show that it\u2019s OK to look,\u201d Abby said. \u201cI want you to look.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She encourages people to ask questions, and she\u2019s eager to educate and connect: \u201cI don\u2019t want this to be an isolating experience, because there\u2019s more going through it than people know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After high school, Abby attended the University of Alaska to study psychology. She wanted to work as an art therapist, which she felt was her calling at the time. But after moving back home to Montana, she felt a disconnect.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2022\/04\/Firefox_Presents_Ep1_Abby_Twitter_16x9_3-scaled.jpg\")
With her mother\u2019s encouragement, Abby decided to pursue something she\u2019s loved since owning her first eyeshadow kit in the sixth grade, a color palette she still remembers to this day (\u201ca shimmer, a light brown, a bright teal and a purple\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abby moved out of the country to attend one of the top makeup programs in Canada. By then, about a decade after high school, her hair had grown back. She started modeling her own work on Instagram, her face conventionally made up and her hair long and blonde. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her talent brought her to the Emmy Awards, where she did makeup for a team of HBO producers, and New York Fashion Week, where she worked on a show for a Denver-based fashion line<\/a>. She was riding a career high \u2014 until Abby started to lose her hair again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was completely freaking out,\u201d she remembered. \u201cI had really gotten used to myself with hair again.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She associated her success with how she looked, and that made her more self-conscious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was so worried that someone would see the bald patch, or the extension would slip and they would see the track,\u201d Abby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her partner, Wade, who recently became her fianc\u00e9, encouraged her to shave her head. \u201cHe was like, \u2018It’s just hair, who cares?\u2019 And I felt the same way,\u201d Abby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wade gently took clippers to her head, a sweet episode that Abby shared<\/a> on her Instagram and TikTok feeds. Commenters responded with supportive messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI started to paint my head and paint the sides of my face and down my neck,\u201d Abby said. Her bald head became her signature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abby said she approaches her \u201clittle slice of the internet\u201d with boldness: \u201cHow can I do things a little differently? How can I spread my message in a way that\u2019s going to uplift? I want to make people\u2019s day better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She became an advocate with an organization called Baldtourage<\/a>, where she found a community of \u201cmoms, daughters and little boys\u201d affected by hair loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are all these other people who had alopecia that I didn\u2019t know existed before the internet brought us together,” Abby said.<\/p>\n\n\n Of course, she said, there are still less-than-perfect moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomeone in a bar the other day asked me \u2018what\u2019 I was,\u201d she said. \u201cMy approach is always like, \u2018Well, I\u2019m a woman. And I\u2019m a makeup artist. I\u2019m a home chef. I\u2019m a partner to my fianc\u00e9. I\u2019m so many things, and my hair doesn\u2019t define me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abby said she recognizes the privilege of having a platform, which has allowed her to tell her full story widely through collaborations \u2014 including with Firefox<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe internet is really powerful, so I don\u2019t take the responsibility lightly,\u201d she said. \u201cI always try to communicate my message with a lot of love and color.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abby finds joy in getting to work with young kids experiencing alopecia. She recalled receiving a card from an 8-year-old girl that had an image with a message saying, \u2018That is me bald with a painted face. I\u2019m beautiful. And so are you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said she\u2019s so happy with the person she\u2019s become that if her hair grew back, she\u2019d probably just shave it off again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wish 15-year-old Abby could see this now,\u201d she said. \u201cAll I can do is hopefully be there for other young kids going through this. \u2026 To know that someone else is going through it with you and has gone through it, it\u2019s powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said if she could, she\u2019d tell her younger self that \u201cit\u2019s OK to just be the way you are. You don\u2019t have to wear anything to cover your baldness. Be bold. Be vibrant. Be courageous. It\u2019s all going to be OK in a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Firefox is exploring all the ways the internet makes our planet an awesome place. Almost everything we do today ties back to the online world in some way \u2014 so, join us in highlighting the funny, weird, inspiring and courageous stories<\/a> that remind us why we love the world wide web.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Abby Wren wants you to look. With her face and bald head as her canvas, she creates wildly elaborate and colorful makeup designs that have gained her more than 177,000 followers on TikTok. She\u2019s transformed herself into an Easter bunny, the Cheshire cat and Homer Simpson. Once, she turned herself into Bernie Sanders from that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1889,"featured_media":68684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,461998],"tags":[464131],"coauthors":[464117],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2022\/04\/Firefox_Presents_Ep1_Abby_Twitter_16x9_5-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Abby](\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2022\/04\/Firefox_Presents_Ep1_Abby_IG_1x1_4-1-800x800.jpg\")
<\/div>\n Get the browser that makes a difference<\/h3> Download Firefox<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"