Good Golly,Miss Dolly!

There’s a special reason  why I want to look like this.

- Jade Smith

Pulling up my knee-high socks, I teased my ringlets into place.

Perfect! I thought, admiring my reflection.

In my hair was a pink, fluffy headband covered in bows.

My bag had a Hello Kitty design, and I completed my look with a pink, frilly dress.

Looking at me, you’d be forgiven for thinking I was a little girl. 

But I’m a 22-year-old woman. 

In Japan, this fashion is described as Lolita style. Lolita fashion is cute, pink, and girly. And I love it! I’ve always been a girly girl. When I was a tot, my mum Cassie, 37, adored dressing me in princess dresses.

But my style is much more than a trend. It’s an escape...

You see, it’s never been easy for me. As a little girl, I was always in pain. Agony actually. ‘It hurts,’ I’d cry to my mum. 

But I was unable to explain exactly what was hurting. 

Worried, she took me to the doctor. 

When I was just 5, I was diagnosed with the chronic pain disorder fibromyalgia. It causes arthritis-like pain affecting all my joints and muscles.

I suffered from fatigue, insomnia and migraines, too.

Instead of running around with other kids, carefree, I was covered in bruises from falling over.

My hands would seize up in pain, I’d suffer tremors or my legs would simply fail me.

I’d collapse in the school playground, spend days in bed. I became isolated, lonely. It drove me intomy shell.