My name is Sienna, I am 10 years old and I have had alopecia since I was born; sometimes patchy, and sometimes no hair, anywhere, at all.

A few weeks ago, in school, a little boy in reception started pointing and laughing at me while I walked across the playground for lunch. I tried waving at him and smiling but this didn’t stop him from pointing and laughing. In the end, I put my thumbs up at him sarcastically to show him that I didn’t think he was being cool!

I didn’t tell anyone at school that it had happened but did mention it to my mum when I got home. She thought that perhaps the reception class hadn’t looked at any of the Alopecia UK Schools Pack stuff because they didn’t have anyone with alopecia in their class. Mum suggested I talk to my teacher about it the next day, so I did.

I decided I would like to go and speak to the reception class myself. I have a friend called Ferne who has alopecia (who I met at Alopecia UK’s Birmingham Children’s Support Group) and she is younger than me, in my little sister’s class, and I know feels a bit shy about school. I was thinking that it would be worse for her to have someone pointing and laughing so I wanted to make sure that what had happened to me didn’t happen to her!

Over the weekend, me and mum took the presentation for 4-7 year olds from the Alopecia UK Schools Pack. We edited it so that I could practise it and remember all I wanted to say and then, on the Monday, I went to speak to the two reception classes. After the great response to my class talk, my headteacher asked me to do a virtual assembly to the whole school which you can see here: 

I now feel like a mini-celebrity in my school! The children in reception wave at me all the time and lots of people I don’t even know have smiled at me and said hello.

I received lots of great feedback too:

Ghassan thought my assembly was helpful for children who have hair and children who do not.

Fleur thought I was brave for sharing the information and my story with everyone.

Amelia hopes that people are kind whether they have hair or not.

Lily has thought carefully about my message of kindness.

The children in class 3A thought the assembly was amazing and were impressed I nearly have a black belt and have interviewed Matt Lucas! (Watch the Matt Lucas interview video here)

The children in class 1J thought my assembly was helpful and informative.

I am very proud of myself for raising awareness in my school and am really pleased that everyone liked my assembly and now know more about alopecia. 

A HUGE 'well done' to Sienna for not only raising awareness of alopecia in her school but for thinking of others too! What a superstar! You can find details of the Alopecia UK Schools Pack here.