I'm Ellie, I'm 16 and this is my story. I have been wanting to do this for a long time but it has taken a lot of time to build up the confidence. I have always had anxiety throughout my life but we put it down as me just being shy but throughout secondary school it got so bad i could no longer attend school. I lost all of my friends due to this and lost a lot of confidence.

I became depressed and then got diagnosed with autism at 14. I haven't been to school in 4 years and for a long time I didn't leave the house and this year I attempted to go to college but found it too difficult and overwhelming in that social environment . In 2019 I watched the women's world cup and became interested in football again. After many years of not playing it gave me the confidence to join a team. I then joined the Guiseley girls football team and gained a lot more confidence in my general life and finally had something I looked forward to doing. Im am now in my third season at Guiseley and I don't socialise with any of the girls but not because I don't want to, I just find it very difficult with social anxiety in social situations. I have been growing my hair for a few years now so that I can have 12 inch cut off to donate to the Little Princess Trust whilst also raising money for Mind as my life has resolved around my mental health. The reason I am donating my hair is because I struggle a lot with confidence and I hope giving someone else my hair will give more confidence. 

I also want to raise awareness for autism and the mental health issues that accompany it, sometimes people may think I'm rude or anti social but in reality I am struggling, my mental health has meant that a lot of my friendships have failed and I struggle to make any new friends and I'm hoping this gives comfort to those that feel the same to know they are not alone and also encourages them to reach out.