Surviving breast cancer is a feat in itself and the survivors who are lucky enough to overcome the prevalent disease sometimes must carry a reminder of their illness for the rest of their lives. This is the unfortunate truth for some survivors who must have a mastectomy, the partial or full surgical removal of one or both breasts, as part of their breast cancer treatment.
These women are faced with the burden of concealing their new appearance all while trying to be comfortable in their bodies and fit into the social norms that society has developed for the way a woman "should" look.
But not everyone fits the mold, and that is why a Virginia woman is working hard to petition Victoria's Secret to design bras for women who have undergone mastectomies.
Allana Maiden, 27, was 6 years old when her mother Debbie Barrett, 57, was diagnosed with breast cancer and has watched her struggle to find bras since her recovery.
"I know this is a minor inconvenience compared to the other things my mom's been through, and she never complains, but it is not fair," Maiden said in her petition that she filed on the site Change.org. "A strong woman like her should be able to feel as beautiful as she is. She should be able to go to a store in her local mall with everyone else and buy a beautiful bra like everyone else."
At the time of Barrett's mastectomy, insurance companies did not cover reconstructive surgery. And now, she must travel over an hour to find the kind of bra she wears, one that is fitted with a prosthetic breast, because she lives in a rural area of Virginia.
The popular lingerie store has not commented on Maiden's mission to make bras more accessible to breast cancer survivors.
But ABC News put Maiden in touch with the company that owns Victoria's Secret, Limited Brands, where she was able to explain her idea to their vice president of external communications Tammy Roberts Myers.
"She seemed genuinely interested in my idea," Maiden said. "She said she would get back to me when she learned anything new. She asked me about the design of mastectomy bras, how the pocket works to hold the prostheses. She said she was going to share my idea with the right people internally."
Maiden said that she has received a great deal of support in response to her cause and sees that a lot of women agree that a real issue exists.
"Every woman knows someone that has been impacted by breast cancer, and women are passionate about this cause," Maiden wrote in her petition. "What better way to give back to women than to help cancer survivors feel good about themselves?"