See How These Three Sisters are Changing the Game in Breast Cancer Care

This article was originally published on BLAC Media.

For the Breast of Us, the first-ever blog and online community for all women of color affected by breast cancer, has launched a brand new campaign to increase the representation and inclusion of minority breast cancer survivors.

#WhenYouSeeUs

We’re excited to showcase our new brand photography. Not only are we celebrating the visual diversity of our community, we are demanding to be SEEN and acknowledged by the breast cancer community at large.

We are For the Breast of Us.https://t.co/4hB56F1rzB

— forthebreastofus (@thebreastofus) July 9, 2021

For the first time since launching in 2019, it has revealed new brand photography featuring its founders and members of its diverse Breast Cancer Baddie Ambassador team.

The photos, taken by Ride the Wave Photography in Orlando, Florida, provide a sharp contrast to the mainstream breast cancer narrative centered on the experiences of white women. With photo highlights featured on its website, the community demands for women of color to be truly seen, valued, and understood with its #WhenYouSeeUs campaign.

After struggling to find stories and images of women who looked like themselves, For the Breast of Us LLC, was created in 2019 by two young, black breast cancer survivors, Jasmine Souers and Marissa Thomas.

“I remember searching online just a few years ago trying to find images of black women with breast cancer,” said For the Breast of Us cofounder Marissa Thomas who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 35. “So many of the women in our community did the exact same thing because it’s not easily available.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by For the Breast of Us®️ (@forthebreastofus)

“Being part of this photoshoot gave us the opportunity to be the women we were once searching for. It’s an amazing feeling to create something that screams ‘You’re not alone!’ It’s a big deal for our community.”

An opportunity to harness the collective power of marginalized communities, For the Breast of Us empowers women of color to share their honest experiences with breast cancer and provides educational content to help them navigate the challenges to accessing quality healthcare. From taboo topics like sex and intimacy to living with metastatic breast cancer, For the Breast of Us has captured the attention of women going against their cultural norms to keep quiet about health matters.

“Every woman featured in this campaign knows what it feels like to be invisible as a person of color navigating the health system,” said For the Breast of Us cofounder Jasmine Souers, diagnosed with breast cancer at the age 26 after an initial misdiagnosis.

“From the breast cancer campaigns and the cancer center support groups to having our concerns dismissed by our doctors and not being given all of our treatment options. This photoshoot is our way of saying, ‘We’re here, we matter, and we’re done dying in the dark and suffering silence.’ We are living boldly and loudly. And as long as we’re alive, we’ll be fighting to make the journeys easier for the women diagnosed after us.”