When you think of October you may think of pumpkin spice lattes, and crunchy leaves. However for others, like myself, I think of Pinktober.

Pinktober is breast cancer awareness month, where we raise awareness of the disease throughout the entire month of October. As the saying goes, “only real men wear pink.” And athletes in the NFL are doing a wonderful job of raising awareness by wearing pink gloves, cleats, towels, and mouthpieces during their games. Instead of seeing these athletes play in their regular team colored gear, it is really refreshing to look out onto that field and see so much pink. It’s heart warming to watch these professional athletes run, tackle and be so aggressive while wearing pink in support of breast cancer patients, survivors, or loved ones. In addition it’s such a good thing to see these famous football players, who are always in the limelight, use their voice to support such a great cause and bring awareness to this horrible disease.

These NFL stars have so many followers on their social media, not to mention all of their dedicated fans that cheer them on every Sunday, so it is awesome to see them use social media as a platform to also spread awareness. When kids see the pictures of their idolized football players on their social media news feed proudly wearing pink it will inspire them to also find out how they can support breast cancer too. Furthermore, breast cancer awareness is also being taught in some video games. In certain video games, there is a game mode, which the player can choose. In this game mode, the football players in the game are dressed up in pink in support of breast cancer.

Pink October is an amazing way to raise awareness of breast cancer especially for young teenagers who are unaware of this disease. Dressing up these virtual athletes in pink gloves, cleats, etc. allows kids to become aware of breast cancer through a video game, which is really powerful. When kids learn about why their favorite NFL player is wearing pink it will make them want to wear pink as well. Also, it will hopefully cause these kids to ask their parents on what they can all do to help. It really influences these video gamers to support breast cancer and look into different ways to spread awareness, or on how to donate to cancer patients. Moreover, seeing so much pink and support for breast cancer is encouraging and reminds me of a tough experience I went through when my grandma battled breast cancer. Although she was battling this dreadful disease it was always reassuring to see her smile when she saw my family wearing pink shirts and breast cancer pins supporting her every step of the way. After a strong fight, thankfully, she overcame it, and I’m so proud to say that my grandma is a breast cancer survivor. So, just because breast cancer may not affect you, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t support it. Just like these NFL football players. If you’re not fighting for yourself then fight for someone else and wear pink.