Welcome to The AloPeace Project. We're glad you're here. My name is Renée Reyes and I am the founder and CEO of The AloPeace Project. In my day-to-day life, I work as a professional horticulturist. I also recently served my city — Stamford, Connecticut — as Miss Stamford USA 2021, and competed as a state finalist in the Miss Connecticut USA 2021 pageant. Prior to the onset of my alopecia, I competed in Miss Connecticut Teen USA and did some freelance modeling. After I began to lose my hair, I left the industry because being bald wasn’t exactly in line with conventional beauty standards. This year, however, I decided I would no longer hide — and challenge others to reconsider their idea of “beautiful” by competing in Miss Connecticut USA 2021 wigless.
I wanted to tell that woman she is beautiful enough — not just to step outside her home as herself and simply be seen, but even to stand proudly on the stage of an internationally recognized beauty pageant if she so dreams.
For most of us, alopecia can feel psychologically devastating. Alopecia women especially tend to feel shame over their appearance and pressure to disguise themselves and stay out of the public eye. Sometimes, no matter how beautiful a woman may be on the outside and inside, she will never feel beautiful enough. I wanted to tell that woman she is beautiful enough — not just to step outside her home as herself and simply be seen, but even to stand proudly on the stage of an internationally recognized beauty pageant if she so dreams. I wanted to use my title to expand the definition of beauty, and publicly declare we are here, we are beautiful and we are valuable assets to the community.
This yearning for positive visibility revealed to me a need for a movement that would make the conversation around alopecia much more positive and uplifting. So I decided to establish a non-profit organization — The AloPeace Project. I wondered how we could change the way we went about alopecia awareness to make it more humanizing, empowering, and optimistic and my first thought was, “It’s much harder to make fun of a person when they are actively striving to make your life better.”
Other organizations dedicated to helping people with alopecia provide valuable and necessary support for alopecians by supplying educational materials, resources for finding medical help, fundraising for treatments and cures, and much more. However, materials targeting alopecians tend to teach ways to hide the condition through cosmetics like makeup or wigs and don’t always give enough reassurance that we ourselves are not the problem.
Here at the AloPeace Project, we believe there is already a cure for the disease. But it’s not a medication or chemical, it is simply compassion.
Providing group volunteer opportunities as a means of spreading positive awareness will always be a core function of The AloPeace Project, but in the process of establishing this organization we realized this platform could offer so much more. We hope to connect with all of you and cultivate a positive community for people living with alopecia in all its forms. We are a support network that informs, empowers, inspires and encourages its members — uplifting you and embracing what makes you different. We are a safe space for personal testimonies, feel-good stories, uplifting resources, and more! I want to show you all that your worth and value in society is not dependent on access to the resources that any organization provides; your worth is not measured by the breadth of your wig collection, or the quality of your eyebrow transfers and makeup. We want to share these resources with you — not because we think you need them to “fix” alopecia — but because you deserve them! You deserve to find joy and fun in using these resources, because you are already worthy, wonderful, one-of-a-kind, YOU.
Renée Reyes
Founder & CEO
Renee Reyes is the founder of The AloPeace Project. She works as a professional horticulturist but also uses her title as Miss Stamford USA 2021 to pursue a passion for community service and alopecia advocacy.
Taylor Yellin
Treasurer
Taylor Yellin is the Chief Finance & Administration Officer here at The AloPeace Project. A writer and activist, he has a passion for telling stories and helping those in need.
Kenny Green
CPA
Kenny Green is a special advisor and nonprofit consultant to The AloPeace Project. He serves on the boards of several local nonprofits and is dedicated to social and environmental advocacy.
Interested in connecting or
collaborating, contact us!
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