You already adore her as country crooner Scarlett in the tv show Nashville, but you’re about to love her more than you love her electric duets with Gunner. 

The Aussie actress just chopped off her signature long, long blonde tresses (and looks amazing, but that’s beside the point). She did it in response to hearing about a little girl battling cancer who thought she couldn’t feel like a princess if she didn’t have long hair. Hearing that resonated with Bowen because she actually battled stage 4 cancer as a child, and spent a large part of her childhood in hospital. Here’s how she describes it in a super-moving post on her FB page:

“Life in the White Palace (Granddad’s nickname for hospital) meant I got to grow up surrounded by children just like me. We were mostly bald, all tubed, taped, bandaged up and stitched back together. We were all missing parts, some obvious like eyes or legs, others more hidden, like lungs and kidneys. Those who still could, tip-toed around like little fairies because chemotherapy had destroyed the muscles in our legs and it hurt to put our heels on the floor. But we were all together, so no one’s appearance came into question. No one got laughed at or teased. We were all we knew.”

And althought Bowen eventually beat her cancer, she says she still feels like that “same stitched back together little creature, in a world where people are judged so harshly for the way they look.” That’s why it was so important for her to show that little girl that hair does not a princess make. 

“Every scar tells a story, every baldhead, every dark circle, every prosthetic limb, and every reflection in a mirror that you might not recognize anymore. Look deeper than skin, hair, nails, and lips. You are who you are in your bones.”

And yes – this means her character in the show will also be sporting a pixie!

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