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HAMILTON COUNTY

Carmel teen shaves head for film, finds bigger cause

Olivia Lewis
olivia.lewis@indystar.com

Her hair was parted down the middle, and two long pony tails were held in place with rubber bands. But not for long.

The hairdresser swiftly cut 17-year-old Georgia Simmons’ strawberry blonde locks. Within 10 minutes the Carmel High School student was bald. A crowd of people watched as Georgia admired her newly shaven head before congratulating the teenager for committing to the cut.

Olivia Rusk, 18, broke from the crowd to privately speak to Georgia. They were the only women in the salon without hair atop their heads.

Georgia had agreed to shave her head for the lead role in “Wig’d Out,” a Noblesville-produced film about a teenage girl with alopecia whose mother entered her into a beauty pageant. It’s a dramatized story of Olivia’s experience growing up.

“I’ve had alopecia since I was 18 months old,” Olivia said. “So from 2 to 4 I was bald, like I am now.”

Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that attacks hair follicles and results in sudden hair loss. In most cases, hair falls out in small, round patches, but in some people the loss can be extensive, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Scientists are unclear what triggers the disease, which affects nearly 2 percent of Americans of both sexes.

Georgia Simmons gets a haircut before filming begins for the locally made film “Wig’d Out.”

In 2007 Olivia and her mother, Sandy Rusk, began making plans to write and produce the film, which will wrap in Noblesville this week. With the help of co-writer, director and producer Kate Chaplin, their hope is the local movie will spark discussion about beauty standards and spread alopecia awareness.

The corporate sponsored film will be sent to film festivals, but Sandy said they will also host private screenings and seek traditional distribution.

As reflected in the film, Sandy admitted that she had struggled with what to do when she learned her daughter had alopecia. The single mother bought hats and bows for Olivia to cover the bald spots and to shield her from potential bullies. Sandy, a real estate broker, said when Olivia’s hair disappeared it happened quickly and she went from doctor to doctor looking for ways to “fix” her daughter’s hair loss.

Georgia Simmons took a glance in the mirror before shaving her head for the part of Olivia in the film “Wig’d Out.”

“I was uncomfortable with myself,” Sandy said. “What should I do in this situation? Once I kind of accepted the situation, then I was in a different mindset.”

But it took her a while to get there. Sandy said at the time she decided the best thing to do was to buy a custom wig for her daughter. Olivia wore it for five months.

The then-8-year-old woke up one morning and told her mother she wanted to go to school without her wig. Sandy objected.

“To show up from hair to no hair overnight,” Sandy said. “I thought it was a huge mistake. I thought the kids were going to be mean to her, something bad would happen and she would be traumatized by it.”

And so they argued. The third-grader insisted upon going to school without wearing the wig she had to glue on every morning.

“I told her this,” Olivia said. “Mom, I feel like I’m hiding myself from others, wearing a wig, and I don’t want to do that anymore.”

From then on, Olivia never hid behind a wig again. By the time she was a freshman at Fishers High School, Olivia was a talk-show host for Radio Disney, wrote a book and was a motivational speaker on bullying through her group, Olivia’s Cause.

The women said they want the movie to serve as a similar platform.

Chaplin, owner of Karmic Courage Productions, is an INDY Award and Gold Award winner and also a Hoosier Lens Award nominee. Her projects have appeared on MTV, VH1 Discovery Channel and film festivals.

Chaplin said she has talked to women about beauty standards and how a woman’s physical appearance has overshadowed the most important thing — her character.

“We’re all beautiful, and we’re all imperfect, and we’re all just struggling,” Chaplin said. “The people I love most in my life don’t wear makeup, don’t care what they look like, but they’re true to themselves.”

On the set of Wig’d Out, Olivia, played by Georgia Simmons, tries on wigs for a beauty pageant.

Chaplin said her films include strong female characters that she says are flawed, wise and strong because she doesn’t think women see enough of those characters. She said she found a gem in Georgia taking on the lead role while dismissing traditional beauty standards.

Georgia said she sees her peers engulfed by such expectations at school every day.

“(For) High school girls that care about how they look and how many likes they got on Instagram … shaving my head will bring a message,” Georgia said. “It’s not just what you look like but how you can perform and what you can do within, just the way you are.”

When Georgia auditioned for the part in the film, she said she knew she may leave the set without hair. The teenager said she had a discussion with her mother about altering her physical appearance for the film. Georgia said she decided it was the right thing to do.

“I think that Olivia, going through this her entire life, going through this so confidently, I think that shaving my head for such a temporary thing is going to be an amazing experience,” Georgia said.

Olivia said she learned to be confident quickly after shedding her wig in the third grade. The Ball State-bound student said she has never understood others’ attachment to their hair but was impressed that Georgia was willing to let go of her long tresses so quickly, noting not everyone would be so bold to do so.

That bold confidence is what Sandy says has kept her daughter accepting herself from the inside out for years.

“I had to come to that acceptance,” Sandy said. “She’s OK, she’s fine, she’s confident, she’s happy, she’s healthy, she’s accomplished. What more could a mom ask for, and she’s beautiful.”

Call Star reporter Olivia Lewis at (317) 444-6126. Follow her on Twitter: @TheWrittenPeace.

For more information about “Wig’d Out” go to www.facebook.com/wigdout.