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Not every book tells a story, but every book has one.

Headstrong: Embracing Alopecia and Becoming Pañuelo Girl is a book that both tells and has a compelling story.

Christy Bailey’s memoir is generous, openhearted, and a compelling story. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to know everything that came after, even though I already knew there wasn’t a lot of after to tell.

Headstrong is also a well crafted memoir. That is the story of this book.

In the summer of 2025, my friend Lia Woodall told me about the collaborative effort to complete and then publish Christy Bailey’s memoir.

Christy had written a draft of her memoir. When she fell ill, she asked Susanna Donato to be her literary executor.

Susanna, readers of this book owe you a debt of gratitude for saying yes.

Christy Bailey died in 2015 from Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC), a rare and aggressive type of breast cancer.

Susanna took on the task of revising Headstrong. She is credited on the cover as the editor, but completing a book is more than editing a book. Lia wrote the Epilogue: Whatever Comes. Terry Lynn Arnold, Founder of the IBC Network Foundation, wrote the Afterword. Susanna wrote the Acknowledgements.

Then, with help, Susanna took on the task of getting Headstrong published.

Well done, Christy Bailey. Well done, Susanna Donato. Well done, Lia Woodall and Terry Lynn Arnold.

You can find Headstrong: Embracing Alopecia and Becoming Pañuelo Girl here.

For the writers among us: Where you can find your own literary executor is a mystery to me. What I do know now is how much it matters.