October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Usually, that means that people are fundraising, Race for the Cure races are going on, and you can see the iconic pink ribbon is everywhere. It's on shirts, bracelets, and even cupcakes (like at the bakery where I work) and others sweets. Just about everyone is familiar with the pink ribbon that represents Breast Cancer Awareness, but have you ever thought about why it is pink? Who chose it? Is it pink because breast cancer is more common in women? The origin is very controversial, but it’s thought to have been a spin-off from the idea of a woman who began making ribbons from her home. The year, 1992, was actually dubbed “The Year of the Ribbon” by the New York Times , because almost all organizations began using ribbons to raise awareness for different diseases or movements.
In 1993, Alexandra Penney, the then-editor of Self Magazine, wanted to create a ribbon for the second Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue, so she worked with cosmetic giant and Senior Corporate Vice President of the Estee Lauder Companies, Evelyn Lauder, who was a breast cancer survivor. Penney thought a collaboration between the magazine and Lauder would allow ribbons to be seen on cosmetic counters across the entire nation, and maybe help sell a few (or maybe more) magazines throughout the process.
The only issue with this idea to create a Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon was that Penney had read a story about a 68 year-old woman named Charlotte Haley who was producing handmade ribbons from her home. Haley had immediate family members that struggled with breast cancer (including her granddaughter, her sister and her daughter), and her peach colored ribbons raised awareness for the limited government funds being used to research breast cancer.
Penney and Lauder contacted Haley about furthering the peach colored ribbons, but she declined. She said the effort would be too commercial and refused to give them the rights to use the peach ribbon. Penney then consulted with attorneys, who told her to just simply come up with a different color, rather than fight to use peach. Pink was eventually chosen as the winning color. The pink ribbon quickly became popular and millions were distributed by Lauder. To this day, it's still used as one of the biggest ways to raise awareness for the education and research of breast cancer.
For more information about fundraising, donating, early breast cancer detection and more, visit nationalbreastcancer.org or www.komen.org.
