title: Creating beauty: the experience of a fashion collection prepared by adolescent patients at a pediatric oncology unit.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescent patients with cancer need psychological support in order to face the traumatic event of cancer diagnosis and to preserve continuity with their normal lives. Creative projects or laboratories may help young patients express their thoughts and feelings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Youth Project developed activities dedicated to adolescents to give them a chance to vent their creative spirit and express themselves freely. In the first project, the teenagers designed their own fashion collection in all its various stages under the artistic direction of a well-known fashion designer, creating their own brand name (B.Live), and organized a fashion show.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 24 patients from 15 to 20 years old took part in the project. The fashion project proved a fundamental resource in helping the young patients involved to regain a positive self-image and the feeling that they could take action, both on themselves and in their relations with others.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Facilitating the experience of beauty may enable hope to withstand the anguish caused by disease. This experience integrated the usual forms of psychological support to offer patients a form of expression and support during the course of their treatment.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Veneroni
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology, Psychology Section, Faculty of Medicine, University of Milan - Italy.|Clinical Psychology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo Alfredo
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Clerici
authors.affiliation: Pastoral Care Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Tullio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Proserpio
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Magni
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sironi
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chiaravalli
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Roncari
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casanova
authors.affiliation: Radiotherapy Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gandola
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Massimino
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan - Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001504:Beauty; D003020:Clothing / Q000523:psychology; D003405:Creativity; D000066498:Emotional Adjustment; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D065026:Hope; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000379:methods; D033262:Narration; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010372:Pediatrics; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D055815:Young Adult