After Brooke's friend Rachel was diagnosed with cancer, Brooke and her parents decided to shave their heads in solidarity.

After Brooke's 7th grade year, just toward the end of middle school, her friend Rachel was diagnosed with cancer. All of her friends were really supportive and they did everything they could to lift her spirits and to raise awareness on social media, and gather donations to help her family pay for treatment, which of course involved chemotherapy and lots of counseling. One of the side effects of chemo is that the patient loses most or all of their hair, and it becomes harder to grow back while being treated. So, to help make Rachel feel better and not so alone in what she was gong through, Brooke and her parents decided to shave their heads in solidarity - get the clippers - full head-shave. Rachel appreciated the gesture so much, and it meant so much to her that Brooke was willing to walk around with a shaved head, much less, short hair, that Brooked decided to keep her hair short, to be that girl with short hair for a little while longer. In fact, she made a commitment to keep her very short hair for the duration of Rachel's cancer treatment, so she wouldn't be the only with super short hair, and, wouldn't be the only one who was constantly being mistaken for a boy. After a while Brooke decided that she actually really liked having a shaved head, and so she kept it that way, even after Rachel's cancer treatments were finished. The only real problem for her was that everyone thought she was a boy. Every time she would go to the bathroom at a store someone would try to stop her, and people call her sir, and young man. She thinks it's pretty funny that people assume gender just because of her short haircut. Now Brooke is a senior in high school, and she still keeps her hair pretty short - she shaves it every once in awhile - and people still mistake her for a boy, but it doesn't bother her anymore. It gives her a lot of good stories to tell. Her friend Rachel is totally cancer free, but she also keeps her hair short. She just likes it that way, too.