Kristy Greenwood spreads the love with Victory Love + Cookies

Facing adversity not only inspired Greenwood to do what she loves, but also to help other women in similar situations. A year after her diagnosis, she created a series of videos to help women who are losing their hair to chemotherapy learn different ways to tie and wear headscarves. "Now, imagine if you suddenly find yourself bald, and it's not just your head hair, it's your eyebrows, your nose hair, all the little fuzz. And for some reason, that's nothing to [doctors]," she says. "But to you, it's a lot. It's like when you're walking down the street, everybody knows you're struggling."

Losing her hair was a big shock to Greenwood, who'd always had long locks. "Before I learned how to put a scarf on my head, I remember going to Safeway and feeling like I was a man in drag, like people must think that I was pretending to be a woman, because I just felt so stripped of my femininity," she says.

This year, she began another business within Victory Love + Cookies. Through Mission Mine, she sends head-scarf kits to women all over the world. The kit costs $30 and includes a skull cap, a scarf and pins to hold everything down. With this starter set, women can practice the techniques in the videos and become confident in scarf tying. Greenwood has sent them as far away as Spain, and says many of the buyers are purchasing them for a loved one going through cancer. "It's a real gift of validation and acknowledgement," she notes.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, Greenwood says, the information became overwhelming. Doctors began to throw out options and it was hard to take it all in. "My goal with the scarf kit was to make it so simple, so that then the noise can quiet a little bit," she explains. "The reason I call it Mission Mine is because when you are in that period of challenge and you can quiet your mind enough to hear your own inner voice, you can find your own vision."

Challenge forces people to stop and take a look at their lives, Greenwood says, and she hopes to inspire people to use their own challenges as an opportunity to find their path. Whether it's facing cancer or struggling economically, she has always been able to stay optimistic. "My mind doesn't go to those [negative] scenarios," she says. "I'm not saying there aren't those fear moments in the middle of the night when you're in challenge, but for the most part I've always just known that I was going to be taken care of and I was going to be better than fine."

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