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erinleeperkins

@erinleeperkins

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Author 👇🏻| Cancer survivor | friend
Young Breast Cancer Your Story and Mine: A Compact Guide
@youngbcorg board of directors
#youngbreastcancer

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👑 TNBC QUEENS, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU! 💗

We are SO excited to partner with the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation for a special TNBC BreastRest Retreat!

Every breast cancer experience is different, and the TNBC community has its own unique challenges, experiences, and conversations. Not better. Not worse. Just different. 💗

We’re honored to create a space for those conversations, meaningful connection, and healing alongside women who just GET IT!

✨ APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN! ✨

📅 February 18–21, 2027
📍 Jackson, GA
💕 All-inclusive, 4-day retreat
👑 Early Stage TNBC survivors ages 45 and younger, at least 6 months out from and within 3 years of completing active treatment

8 Queens will be thoughtfully selected based on shared experiences and circumstances. Applicants must be willing to participate in a brief interview.

⏰ Apply by November 8!
🔗 www.boobiequeen.co.org

Know a TNBC Queen? TAG HER! SHARE THIS! Let’s find our 8 Queens! 👑💗

#boobiequeens #BreastRestRetreat #TripleNegativeBreastCancer #BreastCancerSurvivorship #theboobiequeenco

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Join CFP member and local author Erin Perkins at Juliet Books for an engaging and informative conversation about breast health and becoming your best advocate. A portion of book sales will benefit the Young Breast Cancer Project.

Wednesday, October 28th from 5:30 to 7:30pm (free event)

https://julietbooks.com/event/breast-cancer-event/

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Forget ghosts, goblins, and haunted houses. 💀🎃

Because nothing gets your heart racing quite like an unexpected call from your oncologist, a new random ache, or seeing test results pop up in MyChart. 👻

And while we can laugh about some of these things (because dark humor is practically a survival skill at this point), the reality is that survivorship comes with fears that don’t magically disappear when treatment ends.

Sometimes the scariest things are the ones nobody else can see.

What’s something scarier than Halloween that only someone who’s been through breast cancer would understand?

Wrong answers, dark humor, and painfully relatable experiences are ALL welcome 😂💀

I’ll go first… “Your test results have been released to MyChart.”

#BreastCancerSurvivor #BreastCancerAwareness #LifeAfterCancer #CancerHumor #BreastCancerCommunity Survivorship

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Live with @drteplinsky TOMORROW October 22 from 3-330pm EST to talk all things Beyond the Pink which released at the end of Septemeber!! Come listen and ask questions while we chat! See you there!

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THANK YOU. ❤️‍🔥 Woke up to find I’m a Top New Release in Trauma Psychology ebooks. This is a really hard category to break.

Thank you to everyone sharing and posting and tagging. When you can, please consider also writing a review as those help immensely. Thank you online family. 🫶🫰

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“I’m learning to express my feelings and be ok sitting in those feelings as uncomfortable as they are.”👑

Queen Sara was diagnosed at 44 with Ductal and Micro Invasive HER2+ breast cancer.

Treatment ended. But the thoughts, anxiety, changes to her body, and changes within her relationships didn’t end with it.

“It doesn’t end after the surgery or treatment. Cancer thoughts, worries and anxiety doesn’t go away. Your mind and body is permanently changed. There is no going back or returning to normal.”

And when the people around her expected her to feel the joy of being “cancer free,” Sara wasn’t necessarily feeling what she thought she was supposed to feel.

“Not feeling ok after the treatment is “done” is normal . I wasn’t alone in feeling so many things when I was supposed to feel the joy of “cancer free”.”

For a while, part of surviving meant finding ways not to feel all of it.

“It helped me recognize that I am compartmentalizing feelings, avoiding feelings and literally running from my feelings.”

Now, Restore looks a little different.

“I’m learning to say no to things I don’t want to put energy into, I’m learning to express my feelings and be ok sitting in those feelings as uncomfortable as they are.”

She’s still grieving pieces of her old life, friendships, and activities. She’s also becoming more intentional about what—and who—gets her energy.

“I have been more careful with who I choose to share my energy with. While I’m grieving my old life, friends and activities I used to do. I’m embracing the freedom of choosing who and what I use my energy on.”

Restore doesn’t always mean finally feeling okay.

Sometimes it’s no longer running from the moments when you aren’t.

It’s sitting with what’s uncomfortable, allowing yourself to feel it, and becoming more intentional about where you choose to give your energy. 👑

#breastcancerhealing #lifeaftercancer #breastcancersupport #breastcancerawareness #breastcancerjourney

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✈️ Your dream vacation could help make a difference in the life of a breast cancer survivor!👑💗

Mountains? 🏔️ The Amalfi Coast? 🇮🇹 A little Disney magic? 🏰 Wherever your dream vacation takes you, this is your chance to turn that dream into reality while supporting a mission that matters!

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’re raffling off a DREAM VACATION to help us continue providing mental health support, meaningful connection, and restorative experiences for young women navigating life with and after breast cancer. ALL PROCEEDS go directly to our mental health programs at The Boobie Queen Co. 

Because while October brings awareness, the need for support doesn’t end when the pink ribbons come down. 💗

🎟️ HERE’S HOW TO ENTER:

✈️ $10 = 1 entry
✈️ $25 = 3 entries
✈️ $50 = 7 entries
✈️ $100 = 15 entries

🗓️ Winner drawn November 1, 2026!

A HUGE thank you to Hayley Arnold with **Journeys by Keli** for generously donating this incredible opportunity and helping us make the world a better place, one Queen at a time. 👑

✨ Enter through the link in our bio, and share with someone who could use a vacation!

#TheBoobieQueenCompany #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth #DreamVacationRaffle #BreastCancerSurvivorship BreastRest SupportOurQueens

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CARE FOR MY CROWN:
 👑A Survivorship Journal👑

Entry 7: D I S Q U A L I F I C A T I O N

Visible injuries get care. Invisible ones often get minimized.

I took this photo during one of the sickest seasons of cancer treatment. A season where I spend a lot of time by a toilet or taking epson salt baths because my body felt like it was going to explode.

After hearing a friend speak about feeling “qualified,” I put this sticky note on my mirror:

I AM QUALIFIED.

Illness has a way of making us question our worth, our ability to function, and our place in the world.

Think about it...

If you broke your leg, you wouldn’t just keep walking around expecting to function normally.

You’d see a doctor. Get X-rays. Maybe have surgery. Use crutches. Go to physical therapy. Attend follow-ups. Lean on others.

You’d use the resources available because healing requires attention, support, and time.
So why do we expect ourselves to function normally when we’re emotionally injured?

Anxiety. Grief. Depression. Fear. Avoidance. Exhaustion.

We walk around with invisible wounds, neglecting what needs care. Sometimes we even disqualify ourselves from showing up, asking for help, or taking up space.

On World Mental Health Day, from a therapist who has also been the client:
Mental health isn’t about feeling good all the time.
Sometimes we’re steady. Sometimes we’re struggling. Sometimes we’re deeply wounded.
Healing is rarely a straight line.

Our job isn’t to pretend we’re uninjured. It’s to learn how to walk again with the support our invisible injuries deserve.

2026 has been one of the most HUMAN years of my life.
More anxiety in my body than ever before. Beauty I didn’t know was possible. Overwhelm that keeps me in bed. Empowerment that keeps me going.
Some days I’ve felt emotionally debilitated. Other days, beauty has brought me to my knees.

Both can be true.

Take your invisible wounds seriously. Be gentle with yourself. Be responsible with your heart.
You are still qualified to be here.

Check on your Queens. And yourself, too.

#careforyourcrown #boobiequeen #breastcancermentalhealth #checkonyourqueens

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We talk a lot about surviving breast cancer. We don’t talk nearly enough about what it means to live after it.

Over the next several weeks, we’re introducing you to our Queens of Restoration—BreastRest Queens sharing, in their own words, what Restore can actually look like in survivorship. These aren’t stories of being perfectly healed, getting “back to normal,” or leaving cancer behind. They are stories of women learning to live within what has changed—to grieve, grow, reconnect, rest, set boundaries, rediscover themselves, and continue building lives that feel like their own.

We’re beginning with Queen Sarah, diagnosed at 34 with HER2+ Stage 2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Five years later, Sarah’s story reminds us that Restore can mean making room for every version of yourself cancer has asked you to become: “The stable, the sick, the healthy, the strong, weak, beautiful, ugly, tired, anxious, fear filled, sad, down, terrified, loved…”

Grief still comes in waves, but so does growth. “So many versions of me have walked through these past five years but I am so grateful for all of it because it has made me the me I am today.”

Sarah isn’t trying to erase what happened or return to who she was before. She’s continuing forward with all of it: “I’m proud of myself for moving forward. Pouring myself into those around me. Building a wonderfully beautiful life with people I love.”

This is Restore: an emotional and physical place in survivorship where grief and growth can exist together.

Over the coming weeks, our Queens of Restoration will share what that has looked like for them—in their own words, without a perfect ending and without one “right” way to Restore. 👑

What version of yourself are you learning to make room for right now?
#BreastCancer #BreastCancerSurvivorship #LifeAfterCancer #BreastRest #Survivorship

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After being diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer at 28, Lorelei Colbert turned her experience into kindness and advocacy, sharing her story to help others going through similar experiences.

Years later, she became a mother and found herself navigating a new relationship with her body after a double mastectomy and cesarean, while learning to love, live, and thrive in a new chapter.

#breastcancer #womenshealth #breastcancerawareness #artishealing #motherhood

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After breast cancer, survivorship isn’t simply divided into treatment and after treatment.

There are emotional and physical places we can find ourselves as we learn to live with everything cancer has changed.

We call one of those places Restore.

Restore is the space where you may begin to recognize what has changed—and start figuring out what you need now.

Physically, restoring might look like learning the capacity of your body today. Navigating lingering side effects. Rebuilding strength. Resting differently. Reconnecting with a body that may look, feel, or function differently than it did before cancer.

Emotionally, it might mean beginning to process what happened after spending months focused on simply getting through it. Learning to sit with grief instead of pushing it away. Setting boundaries. Asking for help. Rebuilding trust in yourself. Making room for joy while fear or uncertainty still exists.

Restore does not mean restored.

It doesn’t mean you’ve moved on.
It doesn’t mean you’re done grieving.
And it certainly doesn’t mean you’re “back to normal.”

You may be restoring in one area of your life while deeply grieving in another. You may move forward, backward, sideways—and find yourself somewhere completely different tomorrow.

That’s survivorship.

Not perfectly healed.

Not neatly wrapped up.

But grieving, growing, reconnecting, rebuilding, resting, setting boundaries, finding joy—and learning how to live in a life that cancer changed.

This is Restore. 👑

A gentle question to sit with: What part of you—or your life—are you learning to meet differently right now?

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🎀 I wear pink because I’m a 6-year TNBC survivor. 👸🏻💜💜💜

At 40, I found a lump in my breast. That moment changed everything. Triple-negative breast cancer doesn’t care about age, and it doesn’t play by the usual rules. Early detection saved my life, and it’s why I’m here today, still standing, still fighting for a cure.

Breast cancer will touch the lives of 1 in 8 women.

That’s not a statistic. That’s someone’s mother, sister, daughter, friend. Too many of us. And for those of us that have been touched by cancer, the path is often steeper, the options fewer, and the need for research even more urgent.

🎀 I wear pink for the women still in treatment.
 🎀 For the ones who didn’t get the chance I did.
 🎀 And for the researchers, advocates, and organizations working every day to change the ending of this story.

Please consider supporting groups making a real, first-hand difference in survivors’ lives like:
@305pinkpack • @theboobiequeenco • @youngsurvivalcoalition • @the_breasties • @tnbcfoundation • @flbreastcancerfoundation Foundation

💪🏼 Awareness is powerful.
💪🏼 Action is what saves lives. ‼️ Early detection matters.
‼️ Research matters.
‼️ We matter.
Who are you wearing pink for?

#tnbcsurvivor #breastcancerawareness #youngsurvivor #boobiequeen #tnbc

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