About the Bring Your Brave Campaign

Background

CDC launched Bring Your Brave in 2015 to provide information about breast cancer to women younger than age 45. The campaign tells real stories about young women whose lives have been affected by breast cancer. These stories about prevention, risk, family history, and survivorship bring to life the idea that young women can be personally affected by breast cancer.

Through these testimonials, Bring Your Brave aims to inspire young women to learn their risk for breast cancer, talk with their health care provider about their risk, and live a healthy lifestyle.

Audiences

The campaign's main audience is women aged 18 to 44 years, particularly those whose family history and backgrounds predispose them to a higher risk for breast cancer at a young age. This includes some women with a family history of breast cancer, women with a family history of ovarian cancer, and Ashkenazi Jewish women.

The campaign encourages women of average risk to live a healthy lifestyle. The campaign also works to educate health care providers about the risk factors for early onset breast cancer and how their young women patients can manage their risk.

Goals

• Encourage young women to learn their family history of breast and ovarian cancer.
• Educate young women on the risk factors for breast cancer before age 45.
• Inspire young women to talk to their health care provider if they think they may be at a higher risk for breast cancer.
• Encourage young women to live a healthy lifestyle and be aware of their own breast health.
• Educate providers on the risk factors for breast cancer before age 45.

Breast cancer in young women

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States. About one in eight women will get breast cancer during her life.

Although most breast cancers are diagnosed in older women, in rare cases breast cancer affects women under age 45. About 10% of all breast cancer cases in the United States are found in women younger than 45 years of age.

Breast cancer in young women is more likely to be hereditary than breast cancer in older women and more likely to be found at a later stage, when it is often more aggressive and harder to treat. Many young women do not know their risk for breast cancer or how to manage their risk.

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