About

“Why doesn’t anyone on TV look like me?”

When Kaili was born in 2008, she had a full head of hair. It was long, curly, and beautiful. Strangers on the street would stop her mother and I to comment on Kaili's gorgeous curls.
But in 2010 when she was 2 years old, those soft, beautiful curls started to fall out. A few months later, she was completely bald.

We found out that this hair loss was a result of the auto immune disease Alopecia, where your immune system attacks your hair follicles. There is not a cure in sight.

We were devastated at the thought that our little girl would have to endure laughing and staring from kids who were used to the norm. In the beginning, I naturally questioned why this would happen, but then it hit me: Kaili had struggled a little at first, but then she had become extremely confident. She truly believed that when she looked in the mirror, the girl staring back was beautiful. She was a leader in school and a great role model for her peers.

Fast forward to 2014, when we were sitting on the couch and Kaili asked me why no one on TV looked like her. She couldn’t understand it—and rightly so. Society and mainstream media were telling us what was normal, and Kaili didn't fit that mold. 
At that moment, UCBU was born.

UCBU is not just about Kaili and Alopecia. UCBU is an acronym for U CAN B U. It's letting people know that no matter what you are facing, you can still be successful, even when society says you cannot. Think about it, EVERYONE has a UCBU story—from the young teenage girl who lived out of her mother's car and in a women and children's shelter only to become her high school Valedictorian, to the Supermodel who has a rare skin condition called Vitiligo yet has become the face of several high end modeling campaigns.

Right now there are kids dreaming of one day becoming doctors, teachers, actors, engineers, and more. And why shouldn't they? 
UCBU was created to champion the success stories of those who don’t fit the norm: to show by example that being yourself—and being confident in who you are and what you believe in—is what it’s all about.