Talia Castellano Praise: Does age or looks play a factor?

Originally posted on 7/16/2013

First I want to clarify that this is not a blog bashing her. This is more in reference to everyone else. I just heard of Talia today and have nothing bad to say about her. All I know is she was a driven girl with dreams, who fought cancer the best she could. I have seen photos all over Facebook stating that she died on this day. I felt bad and sad for her and her family, but then i read the comments. My opinion changed. Why so much support and sadness for this girl? Is it because she's a cancer victim? Maybe, but not that much. Is it because she made Youtube makeup tutorials? No, because many people have them and don't get much attention. (she got attention because well, she's 13 and bald due to Chemo. Hey if it works to your advantage, why not?) The reason so many people are sad is because this is a 13 year old with talent (for makeup) and was taken away from us at such a young age. And yes partially because of cancer. I believe all kids have talent, some just discover it before others. She had a lot of spirit in her too. I do feel bad that a life was lost too, I can also understand why so many people are sad, but I feel even worse for other cancer victims that have died or even survived and go unnoticed. They are probably watching the news at home or in a hospital struggling after chemo thinking "Oh I guess I'm not good enough to talk about. I'm not special enough." Ok maybe they aren't saying that, but I would if i had cancer. It reminds me of how someone else gets praise for doing the same work you do, the only difference between you and the is that they are younger. That would offend me. They go through the same struggles, but no one cares, at least on the media and internet. Why is the media giving her so much attention? Her looks. regardless of age, the media loves a pretty face and Talia had one. it's by no surprise every person that has some kind of disease that ends up on TV is in some way attractive and mostly female. So we know the media's agenda, what about the people? I find the comments to be a bit hypocritical also because many of these people critique children who wear makeup and Talia wore a lot of it. All of a sudden here is a child with makeup and they don't say a word about it and why not? Because she had cancer.They don't say anything out of respect. I don't think it's right to only respect kids with life threatening diseases. I also don't think it's fair for us to praise these kids struggling as if the adults are not.  Let's not just support one person with a special story attached to them. Let's support all cancer victims and survivors. Again I have no problem with Talia, a young girl with tremendous talent.