Jasmine's grandmother is special not just because she is the BEST grandmother, but because she's also a breast cancer survivor. In her youth, Jasmine had a deeply affecting experience with her grandmother while shopping, post-mastectomy, that would shape her life. Sometimes it's not what happens to us, but what happens to the people we love that has the biggest impact. From She Comes First 2023: She Comes First features first-person stories told live in honor of Women’s History Month, our annual celebration of dope women doing dope shit. Get tickets to She Comes First 2024 at: [https://www.storydistrict.org/tickets/she-comes-first-a-tribute-to-womens-history-month](https://www.storydistrict.org/tickets/she-comes-first-a-tribute-to-womens-history-month)
Jasmine's grandmother is special not just because she is the BEST grandmother, but because she's also a breast cancer survivor. In her youth, Jasmine had a deeply affecting experience with her grandmother while shopping, post-mastectomy, that would shape her life. Sometimes it's not what happens to us, but what happens to the people we love that has the biggest impact.
In our third season of the podcast, we bring you I Did It for the Story as part of Story District Presents. All new episodes will feature true stories told live on the Story District stage and insights about storytelling from the host, Amy Saidman, Story District's Executive Director.
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Jasmine: So she opens the curtain and in my grandmother's steps and she's measured for a bra with this fitter who almost acts like she doesn't want to touch her. Maybe even as if cancer was contagious and that bright, beautiful grandmother that I had shrunk and she wasn't that same person anymore. Her eyes dropped to the floor.
I will always remember that moment and thinking that's not my grandmother.
Amy: You're listening to Jasmine Jones, this week's featured storyteller. And I am so excited. I absolutely adore this woman. She is such a rock star. So I'm not going to say too much cause I want you to hear her story. In the story that she tells this week, but let me just tell you, she is an entrepreneur, an activist.
She started a podcast and a community for smart women ready to elevate their businesses from the lens of presentation, passion, and perseverance. I'm reading from her Instagram elevate with Jasmine and um, yeah, she's a person to know, but I won't say more so you can learn more. Um, through hearing her story this week, if you're new to this podcast, we aim to do two things, showcase great storytelling and teach you something about what it takes to tell a great story.
First, we'll share one of our favorites. We're about to share from Jasmine Jones. She told this live on the story district stage in Washington, DC, and then I'll share my thoughts on something you can learn. Using this particular story. Why me? I'm Amy Saidman. I'm the director of Story District, and I've been doing this for over 20 years.
You can find out all kinds of things about us at StoryDistrict.org. We do shows, classes, coaching and consulting services, and lots more. And while you're there, subscribe to the newsletter. Let's get to this week's featured story.
Jasmine: My grandmother kept her breast in a drawer. Yeah, but they weren't really breasts, they were chicken cutlets. Yeah, like those beige, fleshy, squishy, plastic y things. Yeah, my grandmother kept them in a drawer because my grandmother was battling breast cancer. And like one in eight women that are sitting in this room, she was a breast cancer survivor.
But my grandmother was so much more than a breast cancer survivor. My grandmother was the best grandmother. And I know everyone says that their grandmother was like grandmother, but my grandmother was really the best grandmother. She would do all kinds of grandmothery things like make a big dinner and have us all hold hands around a table and say our grace before we ate.
Yeah, that kind of grandmother or the kind of grandmother who would sit on a porch and know all the neighbor's names as they walk by and would wave to them. That kind of grandmother. And she was really the kind of person who, if you were having a bad day, you could lay your head on her lap and she would make you feel better.
That kind of grandmother. And she was always very beautifully dressed, or how she would say it, sharp, right? And because she was a survivor, she would wrap her hair on special occasions and wear beautifully bright colored caftans. She was just a vision to behold. She was such a beautiful person. And my grandmother would take me with her when she would go out, and I will never forget this one day.
My grandmother and I went to go buy her bras. After breast cancer and we drove out, I'm talking like way out like La Plata, Southern Maryland out and we pulled up to a medical supply store, which was a little surprising to me, but you know, I was about nine years old. I didn't think much of it when we walked into this space and immediately I'm hit by the smell of Bengay.
Yeah, so we walk past aisles of bedpans and laxatives and adult diapers, and we get to the back of the store where we meet the bra fitter, who's not very nice. Yeah, she's pleasant, but she doesn't really seem like she wants to be there. And there's a curtain with a rod in the back, and that is where my grandmother, this beautiful breast cancer survivor, is supposed to go and be fit for her bra.
So, she opens the curtain and in my grandmother's steps, and she's measured for a bra with this fitter, who almost acts like she doesn't want to touch her, maybe even as if cancer was contagious. And that bright, beautiful grandmother that I had, shrunk. And she wasn't that same person anymore, her eyes dropped to the floor, and I will always remember that moment in thinking, that's not my grandmother.
Fast forward a few years later, I'm in college and about 19, and I'm eating ramen noodles out of my coffee maker. And I'm reading fashion blogs in my dorm room, and I come across this article. And it says that Victoria's Secret was petitioned by one hundred and 50, 000 people to acknowledge breast cancer and to carry mastectomy bras.
I'm like, Oh, this is awesome. Now women like my grandmother can shop with dignity in a regular store, like the way me and my mom and my sister get to shop and Victoria's secret responded that they politely decline because they didn't feel like they could do the service justice. And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking.
Someone needs to do something about this. There's 150, 000 people that signed this petition. We need to stop begging corporations and just do it ourselves. Like, someone will do it, right? Yeah, thanks. A few weeks later, I'm in that same dorm room when I get a call from my father and I learn that my grandmother's breast cancer had returned and that she passed away.
It was in that exact same space. Fast forward, a few years later, I was crowned Miss District of Columbia. And, yeah, thank you. But breast cancer had never really left my life. My makeup artist, a gem of a person, was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she had the distinct honor of being able to speak at the Susan G Komen 5K.
And she invited me to come out in my crown and sash for a celebrity appearance, and of course, I was happy to, uh, to appear. And as I'm walking up, I'm greeted by this very sweet woman, and she introduces herself as Dr. Regina Hampton. And because I have my crown and my sash on, I'm not really going to run this 5K.
I'm going to, like, walk and take pictures casually. I'm not going to run. Um, and neither was Dr. Hampton. So, we're walking and we're talking in this 5K and I tell her the story of my grandmother. And she tells me that her patients were still driving out. Way past La Plata in Southern Maryland to buy post mastectomy bras and breast forms after she performed their surgery.
And we both agreed that someone should do something about that. So as we're walking and we're talking, we're sharing these ideas about what we would do if we were ever to have this store. And as we separate, I tell her, well, it was great to meet you. Good luck on that store you're going to start. That sounds like a lot of work.
And we agreed to exchange phone numbers, and after a few dinners and a few glasses of champagne, we decide we're gonna do it.
So, we did it! And we opened the doors of Cherry Blossom Intimates, a first of its kind, fully accredited medical facility that's housed within a lingerie store. open like in Prince George's County right now, um, we're open seven days a week and it's a place where breast cancer survivors can shop alongside their best friends for their post mastectomy bras and prosthetics. And the best part is that we accept most major health insurance plans so women don't have to pay out of pocket.
Thank you. But wait, there's more. Um, it gets even better because using 3D printing, we can actually create a custom breast prosthetic that looks and feels like the breast a survivor had before her cancer diagnosis.
Yeah, they come in, thank you, thank you. They come in 36 different skin tones and our patients can actually add custom veins and freckles and customize their nipples. It's this whole fun thing. It's, it's really amazing. Thank you. Um, so that's what we've created and we house it though where women can shop if they have not had breast cancer and we have bras in over 200 sizes.
So, we opened the doors of this store in October of 2018, and on opening day, I hung a picture of my grandmother on the mantel, sort of a symbolic of this angel watching over us and over this space. And then I think, like, I did it, my life is complete. Well, thank you. A few weeks later. In walks a woman with her granddaughter and she asks if she's in the right place.
And I tell her, absolutely. And she pulls me to the side and she tells me that she's had breast cancer, but she doesn't want her granddaughter to know. So I say, no problem. This is my moment. I spring into action and I whisk her away behind our eight foot tall, living, breathing hot pink moss wall and into our fitting rooms and I close a pink door behind us.
I sit her down in a big velvet chair and I measure her for her custom breast prosthetic and we're laughing and we're smiling. We're having the best time as Beyoncé plays in the background. She gets up to leave and I give her a hug and as she walked out the door, I realized now that my mission in life is truly complete and that women don't have to suffer through chicken cutlets and they don't have to hide their breasts in a drawer.
Thank you.
Amy: Jasmine is such an inspiration to me personally, and I'm so glad I got to meet her. I could have her in our show and get to know her and she's an inspiration to me in large part because she's built this business from the ground up. She had a vision and she has just. Like hustled and raised money and learned and just been so driven by the love of her grandmother, which I so feel from her story, but also in wanting to provide this service to women.
And, um, yeah, she's just a absolutely beautiful, beautiful soul. And I'm so glad we got to have her in our show. So what I want to get into for this week's. Sort of, you know, teachable takeaway is about the setup of her grandmother. So Jasmine had been, you know, pitching her business. And so she's been telling a form of this story, a much shorter form of this story for a while.
But what we invited her to do, because it's such a different environment to be on a stage like this, you have just more. Um, relationship you have with your audience, you have more time. They're there to hear you. They're there to get into it with you. Um, they want to really walk in your shoes and understand you and, um, get, get to be a little like invited into your world.
So since in other environments she had to sort of speed to making her point and making her pitch, she didn't have time to really bring her grandmother to life. And that's one of the things we often tell people. If there's a character in their story. That's important. We don't want you to skip over it. We, we often will say, Hey, well help us get to, we want to get to know that person, help us get to know that person.
So we fall in love with that person too. So you don't just tell them, Oh, they were an amazing person. We can't hold onto that. We can't feel that. So it's really important when someone's in your story that matters, especially when When, you know, this relationship with a grandmother is so pivotal to her career and this memory of how this woman that she loved so much and had so much spirit and personality shrank, we would never have understood that if she wasn't able to set that up and help us see this wonderful, loving, well dressed grandmother and then put her, put that person, that real person into this environment where she's not able to thrive, then we get it. We get it.
Um, but if you don't do that, you run the risk of just sort of making your, your person a caricature of a, of a real person. It lacks depth and we can't, it's just not real. It's not a real person. It's just like a symbol of a person that happens a lot in stories that people tell about like romance, but they'll mention a person that they love, but they don't.
We just don't get it. We don't get why they love them. We're not, we're not connecting to it. So I think that's a decent takeaway from this story. And I hope that this story is getting you to think about your own stories. And if you're interested in telling them, Story District is here for you. You can visit us at storydistrict.org, join our mailing list, follow us on Instagram, Facebook. We have a YouTube channel. Keep listening. And tell your friends subscribe and leave a review really helps until next time I'm Amy Saidman and this is I did it for the story