Meet Liara

18-year old Shining Star Liara is on a mission to help others gain confidence, know they are beautiful and inspire change. Not only has Liara bravely battled Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, she has also had Bells Palsy, which causes facial paralysis. 

Liara shared with us that, “It was my freshman year of high school when I got Bells Palsy. When you think about it, like it’s not that big of a deal. But it hurt so bad and destroyed my confidence. I had the worst self-image for years. I covered the left side of my face with my hair day after day. When I lost my hair due to cancer treatment, I lost my safety net and my shield that hid my biggest insecurity. I was forced to get out of my comfort zone and see beauty in the left side of my face. I was forced to see that bald is beautiful on me and so is short hair. I am still getting over the last bit of these insecurities, but I am miles ahead of where I used to be. We are all beautiful."

Liara has used her challenges as a platform to help others and bring hope to peers who may be struggling. She recently started an Instagram page called “Liara’s Awareness Account” to help bring together a community of peers who need support.

“Eventually I beat cancer, but the short hair and Bells Palsy still leave me very insecure. I’ve been on a mission to find self-confidence ever since and know there are other people like me, so I decided to make this account to help others and give them someone to relate to…If I could help anyone with that journey in anyway, then that would mean something to me.”

For Liara, her time at the 2020 Winter Games Program helped her to find her voice after realizing the life-changing power of connecting with peers understand what you are going through. “I wouldn’t have done something like this before the Shining Stars trip. I was terrified to talk about it. Now I am not.”

When she got diagnosed, “People avoided talking it. They didn’t say anything about it to me. I only had one person who wasn’t one of my best friends say anything to me about my cancer. That is why it was so cool to be able to go to Aspen and be able to talk to people who understood… It literally changed my life being able to talk to people that understood in Aspen.”

We can all take a lesson from Liara and her powerful words, “We are all beautiful.”

Click here to check out Liara’s Instagram account.