Happy Birthday, Chiara!

A very happy 48th birthday to my new — but already dear — friend Chiara!

Chiara and her cake from Two Little Red Hens.

We celebrated during her chemo today, because we’re crazy that way!

Eribulin and cake are delicious together.

Chiara has been living large with triple negative metastatic breast cancer since 2016, after first being diagnosed with cancer in 2014. I just met her this summer, thanks to Instagram. I can’t remember when I first started following her on the ‘gram, but it was a while back. I definitely was intrigued by her gray hair; I follow quite a lot of gray-haired wimmin, seeing as I have gray-hair goals. Anyway, when she needed someone to help her check into a New York hospital a few months ago, I was like, “Hell, my schedule is free,” so off I went. I’ve been hitting most of the chemo appointments ever since.

Nom nom nom.

As a result, I’ve also become quite a fan of Chiara’s oncologist, Dr. Kevin Kalinsky of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Dr. Kalinksy and Chiara, in a party mood.

I hope to have Chiara model jewelry for me some day, if I can afford her! She’s very in-demand with photographers. One aspect of herself that Chiara shares in her photos is that she ultimately decided to go flat after suffering numerous infections from breast reconstruction after her bilateral mastectomy. This is one of my favorite photos — I mean, you can see why she’s the right type for one of my “badass women” brand campaigns!

Here’s another photo that that I love, though it’s an entirely different mood.

You can follow Chiara on Instagram here. Her blog is Beauty Through the Beast. Some more beautiful portraits adorn her interview with Allure magazine, and I highly recommend the longer interview here.