Undeniably That Girl: Tiana on Love, Survival, and showing up anyway.
There’s a certain kind of strength that doesn’t announce itself, but quietly in the background it’s there. It’s not a performance piece, it’s real, lived-in and layered with a humor that can only come from someone who’s stared fear in the face and decided to laugh anyway. This is Tiana, here’s her story.
Q: How would you describe yourself in three words?
“Undeniably that B*$!@”
And if you know Tiana, there’s something about her energy, that reflects that answer. She bold and walks like a woman who can say “I’ve seen some things, and I’M STILL HERE. Even in her bold nature a softness. It’s the way she speaks of her husband.
Q: What brings you the most joy day-to-day?
My family. Hands down. This includes friends and chosen family, but especially my husband.
Atum has been such a rock. This hasn't been an easy journey. It's completely changed the shape of our relationship - the impact of cancer on co-survivors should not be underestimated.
But he makes me laugh every day. I'm pretty sure he makes it a point. He's made me feel beautiful every day since my diagnosis, even right after surgery when I was mangled with deflated tissue expanders for breasts and drains filled with blood and tissue coming out of my sides. I can honestly say he's never once looked at me differently. Never stopped flirting, and playing, yet also giving me space and grace and understanding. Whatever I need in the moment.
I know myself and I'm pretty tough so I don't want to say that I couldn't have gotten through this without him. Especially when there are so many women who navigate this un-partnered or start this journey with someone, they thought was a partner only to learn they didn't understand the assignment when times get hard.
Tiana's story isn't just about surviving breast cancer; it's about rediscovering joy in the middle of it.
But would I have been this happy, this silly, this genuinely joyful amidst such a tumultuous situation without him? Absolutely not. There is something special about marrying your best friend and a journey like this is when that cream rises to the top. When all the superficial things were forced to fall away what remained was the essence of who we both are and the bond we've spent decades nurturing.
I couldn't be more grateful.
She doesn't sugarcoat the hard parts — the surgeries, the scars, the drains, the shifts in how she saw her body. But through it all, there's LOVE. A lot of it.
A Journey that didn’t happen overnight…..
Q: Can you share the moment that first made you realize something wasn't right?
I was in the shower. I had 30 min to get ready for a birthday gathering after hot yoga so I was booking it. But there was breast exam hang tag on all of the shower heads in college, so it had just become part of my shower routine to give myself a breast exam. And that day as I did my lateral line, I felt something weird.
I went back and did it slowly. And then again. Something was definitely there.
The next day I called my mom - even though I didn't know it yet as I wasn't diagnosed until 2 years later, the journey had begun.
Q: Who or what inspires you the most?
Honestly, at first I didn't realize I had an answer to this. I had to pause and consider for several moments.
Then I realized that quite often since my diagnosis I've replayed memories of women I know who are survivors. Like little mini movies.
In one, we're doing a photoshoot for work. It's our first time back in the office since
Covid. Her first time back since she took a break to fight her cancer. The second time. A bunch of us are talking in the kitchen and she's laughing.
In another one, she's sharing a selfie of her buzz cut on Facebook. She's taken the time to draw on her brows, her winged eyeliner, her lipstick. She's smiling.
In another, she hasn't shared her journey with most. She doesn't even know that I know. But I do, and I never would have if I didn't, if that makes any sense, because she never misses a beat.
I think of every photo of every women in my support group. Posing with a peace sign in their hospital gown. The first sexy selfie after reconstruction.
Unconsciously I think I play the mini-movie to remind myself that if they showed up, then so can I. If they got through it, so can I.
And even for the ones who didn't get
through it. Who didn't come out the other side. If they could keep showing up with care and love and grace, even knowing without a doubt that there time on Earth was coming to an end, then I can suck it up and get to my appointment on time. Go to the birthday party with my uneven prosthetics. Return the text even though I'm tired.
So can I.
Showing yet still in the midst of it all, how strong she really is.
Q: What do you wish more people understood about breast cancer?
It's not just about your BOOBS!
When I was diagnosed - I thought fine, easy, chop em off! Build them back better. I worried of course about chemo but that was my only knowledge about the systemic component of breast cancer until I spoke with my team. I did not know that many breast cancers feed off of our female reproductive hormones. So if you're still young, to be cured, doctors have to induce menopause for 5 or sometimes even 10 years. And not just menopause. A radioactive menopause that not even women who arrive there naturally will experience.
That's tremendous. It can feel like your youth is being stolen from you, which is a lot to grapple with when you've been walking around assuming you're a relatively healthy human. Even if life hasn't ended, life as you know it has.
There also isn't just one type of breast cancer. There are many different types which come with different levels of aggression, treatment, life expectancy - all the things.
And it matters because a lot of people think once you have surgery and it's out, as long as it hasn't metastasized - you're done!
But you're not done.
We live in treatment for years, sometimes decades. And risk of recurrence is never 0%.
Your life really changes forever.
Q: How has this journey changed the way you see life and yourself?
You know old people are? Like to the point, wasting no time, taking no shorts, brutally honest. I feel like I'm an old person now in that way.
Even though I have a tendency to hermit I make it a point to pick up the phone or call back when a loved one calls. I'm also quick to cut off any and all time wasting or soul draining energy.
I don't feel like I'm really different per se l think I just approach things with a different sense of urgency. But it has definitely put some other things in perspective.
For example: Getting stuck in an elevator used to be one of my biggest fears. On my last day of radiation the elevator got stuck for 10 min as I was leaving and I literally started laughing. That fear had completely lost its power.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who may be afraid to get checked?
DON’T WAIT!
Trust your gut. Do the most.
If I'm honest, I knew in my gut something wasn't right from the moment I found the lump. I did self-checks in the shower regularly and it seemed to have appeared overnight, already a significant size I could pinch and roll between my fingers. If I could go back I would push for a biopsy at that first appointment. But I was so afraid of the possibility of cancer, so desperate to hear that it was nothing, that even though I didn't really believe it in my gut when they told me I was fine I accepted it until it became undeniable. Because I was afraid. But it only grew to be scarier, with scary and irrevocable treatments.
So, as scary as diagnosis might seem, it's not as scary as what could happen if you delay.
So don't. Delay. A minute.
Tiana's story is proof that strength doesn't always roar. Sometimes it's quiet.
Sometimes it's a laugh in a stuck elevator. Sometimes it's love that holds your hand
while the world shifts around you. And sometimes it's being undeniably
that GIRL - even in the middle of the storm. Stronger than one may know, a journey of many sorts.
Tiana Jewels Collection was born from that spirit - faith in motion, beauty in resilience.
Each piece - is inspired by her light and the women who carry their strength quietly but boldly.
And though she's now cancer-free, her story still reminds us that healing doesn't end when the treatment does - it just shifts.
