Talia Joy Castellano

Talia Joy Castellano was born on August 18, 1999 at Winter Park Hospital to Desiree Castellano. She grew up with her Mother and Sister, Mattia Castellano, in the Orlando area and enjoyed her many friends and her doggie Bella. Her battle with cancer began when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at the age of seven, on February 14, 2007, Valentines Day. In August of 2012, after over five years of chemo, surgeries, treatments and multiple relapses, Talia was diagnosed with a secondary cancer, MDS preleukemia. Talia was then told that there were no longer any options to fight her now two types cancers. During this past year, she continued treatments knowing there was no cure, but hoping to slow down the progression and prolong her life. At 11:22 am, July 16th, Talia lost her battle to childhood cancer after fighting for six and half years. Talia wanted "to leave her footprints, and handprints" on this world so she will never be forgotten, and she has definitely done more than that. Talia started doing makeup tutorials on YouTube in 2011 and also used this social media platform to share her life living with cancer. Talia said she always wanted to be remembered "as the bubbly girl who is the voice of childhood cancer". With one video, Angels on YouTube, she went viral and from there she became the voice for children with cancer everywhere. Talia started wearing makeup at the age of seven, learning from her friend Tammy, and started using makeup to make her feel beautiful when all of her hair had fallen out from the chemo. Talia hated wearing wigs and came up with the saying "Makeup is My Wig". In the last two short years Talia's also became a world-class beauty guru and was featured on The Ellen Show and was made an honorary COVERGIRL. Ellen also asked Talia to be her personal correspondent for the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas where she interviewed stars like Usher, Gwen Stephanie and No Doubt, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lavato, Miranda Lambert, Ryan Seacrest and Jason Aldean. COVERGIRL had Talia perform two makeup tutorials for the Ellen channel, a day look and night look. She appeared in many magazines including People, Reader's Digest, J14 and many other social media platforms. Talia's love and light brought people together from all over the world, all races, all religions, all genders and all ages. In the short time Talia's been with us, she inspired people to live their life to the fullest and to love themselves as they are. In Talia's personal life, she was a typical teenage girl who, loved her friends, dancing, music, fashion, shopping, going to the beach, texting on her phone, watching YouTube, social media and loved reading about the latest celebrity news and gossip. Talia wanted to achieve so much more and created an amazing bucket list full of items she hoped to check off. Talia's Sister and Mom vow to make many of her unfulfilled wishes come true. They also vow to keep her memory alive and her message strong. A public tribute in Talia's honor will be held on August 18th, which would have been her 14th birthday, more details will be announced. In lue of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to Base Camp. http://www.basecamp.org/talia-joy-castellano