Hi, welcome back to Monocycle, a podcast by a man-repeller hosted by Leandra Medine.

In this week's episode of Monocicle, I wanted to spend some time talking about breast cancer awareness

and Estee Lauder enlisted me earlier this month as a spokesperson for the company, presumably because I carry this gene

called the BRCA1 gene, which is a genetic mutation that predisposes me to breast

and ovarian cancer. This week, we actually have a friend of man-repeller who was diagnosed

with breast cancer when she was 21, is that right? Yes, that is. Her name is Alyssa Vingen. She's the executive editor at Fashionista,

and she's sitting right next to me and the sound booth. Hi, Alyssa. It's very high-tech, isn't it?

Yeah, it's kind of cushy in here. I like it. Yeah.

So you were diagnosed with breast cancer when you were 21.

Yes, I was a second semester senior in college.

And it's a big light at the end of the tunnel.

I was at Tulane in New Orleans.

So it's going to be a really cushy six months for me until all of a sudden

it wasn't.

How did you find it?

I found a small lump in my breast during a hot yoga class, and when I would lay on my stomach

for some of the positions it would hurt and I figured it was just swelling

from my period or something like that which is what my father who was a doctor told me

it probably was but then it got more and more painful and the lump got more

noticeable to myself and to others, like my boyfriend, my husband

now, but my boyfriend at the time he could, you know, see it through my skin.

And then we figured it was time to go to the real doctor, the breast surgeon.

...