‼️ EIGHT YEARS AGO, AUSTEN WAS A FIVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL FACING CANCER. TODAY, SHE IS A HEALTHY EIGHTH GRADER — AND HER JOURNEY IS HELPING OTHER CHILDREN FIND COURAGE. ❤️🎗️

Today, Austen is growing into a confident and vibrant teenager.

She spends her days doing the things children her age should be doing — learning, dreaming, making memories and discovering who she wants to become.

But eight years ago, her family was living through a reality no parent ever expects.

Austen was only five when doctors delivered devastating news: she had been diagnosed with Stage III rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of childhood cancer.

In an instant, ordinary childhood was replaced by hospital visits, medical procedures and difficult conversations.

For Austen and her mother, Elizabeth Lowman, the road ahead would demand extraordinary strength.

Austen underwent a hysterectomy before beginning six months of weekly chemotherapy at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

For a young child, treatment meant repeatedly returning to the hospital instead of simply enjoying the carefree years of childhood.

For her mother, watching her daughter endure cancer treatment was heartbreaking.

A parent’s natural instinct is to protect their child from pain and fear. But Elizabeth could not take the treatments away. She could only stay beside Austen, comfort her, trust her medical team and help her daughter face one difficult day at a time.

Throughout those months, Austen was surrounded by family, friends, doctors and nurses who wanted the same thing: to see this little girl finish treatment and have the future she deserved.

Then came the moment they had been praying for.

Austen was cancer-free. 🙏

For her family, those words meant far more than the end of chemotherapy.

They meant hope.

They meant the possibility of childhood returning.

They meant Austen could begin looking ahead instead of constantly looking toward the next treatment.

And she did.

Eight years later, Austen remains cancer-free.

The five-year-old who once spent so much of her childhood in hospitals is now an eighth grader, growing into a teenager with an entire future ahead of her.

Her mother describes Austen as an inspiration and her greatest hero.

But Elizabeth never forgot what those early years had taught their family.

She remembered how frightening cancer could be for a young child. She remembered how difficult it was to explain unfamiliar medical experiences and overwhelming emotions. Most of all, she remembered wishing there had been a story that could help Austen understand that being afraid did not mean she was weak.

Eventually, Elizabeth realized that the book she had wished for did not exist.

So she wrote it herself.

Inspired by her daughter’s journey, Elizabeth created a children’s picture book called The Girl with the Golden Ribbon.

At the heart of the story is a simple but powerful message:

Being brave does not mean you are never afraid.

A child can be scared and still be courageous.

A child can cry and still keep going.

A child can face something incredibly difficult while holding onto the hope that tomorrow might be better.

That message comes directly from Austen’s experience.

She was not brave because cancer was easy.

She was brave because she continued through something that was incredibly hard.

She took one step at a time, even when she could not know what the next step would bring.

For children facing serious illnesses, that kind of reᴀssurance can matter enormously.

Hospitals can be frightening. Treatments can be overwhelming. Medical words can be difficult to understand. Children may not always have the language to explain everything they are feeling.

Elizabeth wanted them to have a story that could remind them of something important:

They are not alone.

Austen’s journey began with a diagnosis that changed her childhood.

But it did not define her future.

Today, she is living that future — healthy, growing and discovering the person she wants to become.

And through her mother’s book, the little girl who once faced cancer at five years old is now helping give other children something she once needed herself:

a reason to believe that courage can exist even in the middle of fear. 🎗️❤️

🙏 Please share Austen’s story for any child and family who may need a little extra hope today.