I'm a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader with alopecia. Performing without a wig for the first time was nerve-racking and liberating.

• Armani Latimer, 26, is a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader in her fifth season.
• During the 2024 "My Cause My Boots" game, she performed without a wig.
• She hopes her performance inspires people to take a stand and start impactful conversations.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Armani Latimer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm in my fifth season as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, and the 2024 "My Cause My Boots" campaign game was the first time I performed without a wig.

Each year, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders choose a different cause to highlight for the campaign. During that game, members can customize their boots to highlight their cause.

Some of my teammates chose to raise awareness for things like mental health and human trafficking. We each pick a cause that's near and dear to us personally or has impacted someone we're close to. This year, I chose alopecia awareness as the cause I wanted to highlight.

In college, my alopecia got worse

I was diagnosed with alopecia when I was 12 years old. It didn't affect me that much when I was younger, partially because I didn't fully understand what having alopecia even meant, but I also didn't have many bald spots. Even when I started seeing more bald spots, I still had enough hair to cover them, so it wasn't really an issue.

It wasn't until I began college in 2016 at the University of Southern Carolina that the spots started to get bigger, and my hair took longer to grow back. My best friends I grew up with, and my family knew about my condition, but the friends I made in college didn't know until years later.

When you're starting college, you're just trying to make friends. It's hard to say right off the bat, "Hey, I'm not feeling like going out and doing my hair today because I found a bald spot on my head this morning." It was kind of hard to navigate my alopecia getting worse by myself, but I had to just push forward. My alopecia worsened during college, and that's also when I decided to opt for protective hairstyles in the form of wigs and sew-ins for the first time.

Shortly after graduating from college in 2020, I auditioned for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and decided I wanted to try wearing my natural hair. I removed all of the extension from my sew-in and went into 2020 training camp with my natural curls.

I loved wearing my natural hair out, but the demands of having your hair game-day ready every single day and trying to make the team can create a lot of stress. Stress can increase the rate at which your hair falls out with alopecia. The combination of that stress and doing my hair every day, whether it was the tension of using a brush or styling my hair with curlers, sped up the process of losing my hair.

When training camp ended and I officially joined the team, I decided to go back to wearing a wig because of the rate at which my hair was falling out. During my second season on the team in 2021, I lost my hair completely, and I've been bald ever since.

This year, I wanted to make a bold alopecia awareness move

This is my third year highlighting alopecia awareness for the "My Cause My Boots" campaign. I've revealed more and more about my alopecia journey with each year. One year, I filmed a video of myself getting ready and posted it on my Instagram. But this year, I wanted to take things a step further. At the beginning of the season, I decided to go without my wig for the game this year. Stepping out and doing something bold was a decision that felt placed on my heart.

I woke up the morning of December 9 feeling very excited, but the nerves started to kick in as we got closer to game time. When you know you're about to make a big impact on people, there's extra weight on you to do the moment justice. Most of the nerves came from knowing this would be a conversation for so many people and so many eyes would be on me.

I was both excited and nervous on game day

My teammates were extremely helpful in calming my nerves, and reassuring me they were completely behind me. My parents and close friends were also in attendance for the game. I remember hearing a few gasps when we started to walk on the field for the performance. I looked out to see a ton of phones and cameras everywhere. In my head, I was like, "Whoa, this is a lot of attention." I almost forgot one of the moves for half a second because I was too distracted. But once I settled into the dance, I had a great time and even shed a few tears.

My dad also has alopecia, and I've looked up to him my whole life as someone who has it and still is happy with life. Jada Pinkett Smith has also been an important representation of alopecia for me. It's comforting to see someone who looks like me rocking her alopecia without any fear of what someone might say.

I hope that my performance serves as a representation to other little girls struggling with alopecia that you can still go out and reach for your goals. I also hope my performance serves as a reminder that regardless of your platform, you can take a stand, make a difference, and start a conversation.