I think I always knew that I wanted to be a mother. I was that kid that had the Barbies and the cabbage patch doll and the little baby that felt like a real baby in a stroller. I mean, that was me. I was raised to nurture and to give love, and to me those are really endearing qualities of a mother.

I didn't think that that option wouldn't be open to me as I got older. I believed that you go to college, you graduate. You meet someone, you get married, you have kids. That was like, the Gen X way of thinking about the future. And so when it didn't happen for me as easily as I thought it would, you know, I felt like my world was crashing and I didn't really know how to process any of that.

I decided to look into a community of women that we were having the same problems that I was having with infertility. I believed that it was my responsibility to make my pain, my platform. I built the initiative- the Red Alert Project- about uterine fibroid awareness. I wanted the women who were having the same issue that I was having to know that they weren't alone.

Even though there's no known cause or noninvasive cure-all for this reproductive health disease, there's community, answers and understanding that can help to heal the millions of diagnosed women who should know that there's more to fibroid treatment than a hysterectomy and that they should be more than a patient number. Through this work, I've found my own voice as I help to amplify the voice of others. I am honored that women trust me with their stories and all the emotions they feel after being diagnosed. As an advocate and fibroid fighter, I know that we will one day get the right forms of healthcare and health justice we deserve.