For nearly two months, Paulette Leaphart, accompanied by her 8-year-old daughter, Madeline, walked topless through towns and along highways from her home in Biloxi, Mississippi to Washington D.C. Leaphart was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2014, and underwent a double mastectomy. Walking topless with her daughter, with the goal of reaching D.C. by June 27 — her 50th birthday — is Leaphart's way of raising awareness of breast cancer and fighting social norms about breasts and women's bodies.
"Yellow is the new pink," Leaphart told ESPN W. "We're taking lemons and making lemonade." The quote is a reference to Lemonade, which Leaphart appears in. While on set for the visual album, Leaphart was able to spend some one-on-one time with Beyoncé. "She said I inspired her — that she admired me," Leaphart said. "It was great to hear that. I asked her to join me for a block of the walk, and she offered to join me for a mile."
As Leaphart told ESPN W, Beyoncé has yet to make her mile-long appearance. But that hasn't slowed Leaphart down. She walked across the country topless to make a powerful point about breast cancer, and how common it is, and how many women there are who undergo mastectomies like she did and then struggle to pay incredibly high medical bills.
"When I got sick, I had to sell my cars," Leaphart said. "That made me walk to the doctor. I'd walk the 5 miles there, recover for an hour or two, then walk the 5 miles back." On her trek to D.C., she tried to walk five miles in an hour, for a goal each day of 30 miles.
The journey hasn't been easy. For a while, a documentary crew was following along with Leaphart and her daughter, and they had a recreational vehicle with them that offered a safe place to be at night. But the relationship with the documetary crew dissolved, and that left Leaphart and her daughter without a guaranteed place to stay each night. It also meant they had to start traveling a lot lighter. A relative came by to pick up their luggage, and from that point on, the pair traveled with only three changes of clothes each.
"People expected me to quit now that there wasn't any publicity," Leaphart told ESPN W. "I made a promise to make it to D.C., and that's what I'm going to do."
Leaphart also had more than a dozen run-ins with the police, who were concerned about seeing a topless woman — even one without breasts — walking down the side of the road. In those instances, Madeline would take pictures off to the side. Leaphart did her research. In most states, indecent exposure is defined as exposing genitals, and she explained that to cops who stopped her.
"It's amazing that I've got to educate the police on the law," Leaphart said. "I took the time to do the research before I ever got started. I knew this was coming."
On her chest, Leaphart has two long scars. She doesn't have breasts or nipples, and so to be topless technically isn't indecent exposure. Police stop her anyway, simply because she's a woman and the norm is that women shouldn't be topless.
"We need to tell the truth about cancer," Leaphart told ESPN W. "They're using the slogan, 'Save the ta-tas,' but the ta-tas aren't what's important. It's the people with the breasts. You can still be alive without your breasts."
Leaphart isn't really considering breast reconstruction at the moment. She has a medical condition that would make the surgery risky, and she said she doesn't need them to feel like a real woman.
"I'm still beautiful," Leaphart said to ESPN W. "I still turn heads even though I don't have breasts. It doesn't make me less of a woman. I'm a girly girl. I like getting dressed up, putting on makeup and everything else, but I refuse to allow one standard definition of beauty to exist in my household. That sets us all up for disappointment when things change. Regardless of what we look like, we should be celebrated."
Leaphart and her daughter made it to D.C., and while staying in a hotel in Stafford, Virginia along their route, she received word that she had an official appointment with lawmakers. As she approached the Capitol building on June 27, her birthday and the goal she had in mind for the end of her trek, she looked up and said, "Thank you, God." From the end of her long walk, Leaphart's fight continues.
You can read Leaphart's full story on ESPN W.
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