Valerie is a makeup artist and creative writer. She’s absolutely obsessed about everything horror; horror movies, books, Halloween decorations, you name it! She loves oddities like Ouija boards, taxidermy or antiques. She is also a die hard Harry Potter fan!

Her biggest motivation in life is truly the people that surrounds her. She is so lucky to have such amazing friends and family. She is also very fortunate to have a life partner that motivates her and encourages her to be a better version of herself. 

Valerie suffers from PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), and she wrote a very important message to all women out there who might fight the same battle:

"It’s not easy being a woman. Facing society and all of it’s unreachable goals of a perfect body, perfect hair, perfect height and weight. It’s not easy living in fear that something we do comes off as “not feminine enough”. It’s hard being constantly harassed, cat called, receiving unsolicited pictures of male genitalia... I could go on and on. But hey, I love being a woman, women are amazing!

This being said, imagine being told that all your “woman nightmares” were to come true. You’ll gain weight very easily, and will have an extremely hard time losing some. You’ll start to grow facial hair, and slowly but surely lose the only hair you like to grow; the one on your head. Your hormones will be so out of whack that you’ll start feeling like you do when your period is about to hit, but almost 24/7. Speaking of your period, you may not get it at all, but if you do, it’ll be very unpredictable (like 5 months without bleeding, and then 4 weeks straight of it) and you’ll bleed like there’s no tomorrow. You’ll start having bad acne all over your face, it will hurt, and even a thick coat of makeup will not be able to hide it all. To top it off, you may not be able to carry a child.

This is my reality, as a woman diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), symptoms due to an imbalance of reproductive hormones, caused by multiple cysts in my ovaries. It is the leading cause of female infertility. This syndrome affects 1 in 10 women, so if you’re not the 1, you surely have a woman in your life facing this battle.

Please be mindful. Please think twice before calling a woman lazy because she is overweight. Please don’t say “wash your face’’ to a woman with acne. Please don’t think a woman is not “feminine’’ because she hasbody or facial hair. Please don’t assume all women have their period. Please be aware when speaking about the joys of pregnancy to a woman. You never know what they are fighting. Women are amazing, women are warriors.

To learn more about PCOS, click here" 

To inspire other women, Valerie says: “Know your worth. Your body doesn't define you. Stay away from poisonous people that bring you down, because you are worth more. You are worth feeling good about yourself. Someone that makes you feel otherwise doesn't deserve to be a part of your life. Put yourself first, always.”

You can find more about Valerie on her Instagram page.