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In recent years, conversations around colon cancer and colorectal cancer in adults under 50 have become more urgent. What was once considered a later-in-life diagnosis is now affecting younger individuals, including women balancing careers, families, and full lives.
The Power Edit exists within this reality, not as a response rooted in fear, but as an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your health before something forces you to.
The Power Edit was created to bring a pause to life, to take a step back and consider what could happen if you don’t.
It is a self awareness initiative rooted in a simple but often overlooked truth: that women, and more specifically mothers, are conditioned to move continuously forward without stopping to prioritize their own health. Their time, energy, and attention are directed outward, toward their children, their families, their work, and the many responsibilities they carry each day.
In that constant motion, there is very little room left to check in with themselves in a meaningful way.
Over time, that pattern becomes normalized. Ignoring subtle changes in the body feels practical. Pushing through exhaustion feels necessary. Delaying appointments or second guessing intuition becomes part of how life is managed.
What begins as small moments of postponement can quietly accumulate into something much more significant.
The Power Edit exists to interrupt that cycle, not with urgency or fear, but with awareness.
It is an invitation to pause long enough to listen, to create space for self reflection, and to recognize that taking care of your health is not something to be deferred until everything else is handled.
It is foundational.
This conversation has taken on new urgency as we continue to see a rise in aggressive cancers, including colorectal cancer, in adults under 50.
Women who are otherwise healthy, active, and deeply engaged in their families and careers are increasingly finding themselves facing diagnoses that feel both unexpected and, in many cases, far more advanced than they anticipated.
Public awareness has grown in part because of highly visible stories, including the recent passing of James Van Der Beek, who died in 2026 after a battle with colorectal cancer.
His experience, like so many others, has brought a sharper focus to how quickly these diseases can progress and how deeply they affect families, especially when diagnoses come earlier than expected.
This is part of a broader shift, as colon cancer continues to rise in younger populations, including women who are otherwise healthy and active.
At the same time, there is a quieter and more complex issue that continues to shape these outcomes.
Many women do seek care when something feels off. They pay attention, they make appointments, and they try to advocate for themselves.
Yet the structure of the current medical system does not always allow for the level of time and attention that these situations require.
Physicians are often working within tight constraints, moving from patient to patient, which can limit the depth of evaluation and follow up that more nuanced symptoms demand.
As a result, patients can leave appointments without a clear path forward, sometimes reassured without full resolution, sometimes asked to monitor and return later.
These moments are not always dramatic, but they matter.
When a diagnosis is eventually made, the experience often becomes even more complex.
Care is not centralized, and patients are frequently referred across multiple specialists, offices, and institutions, each operating within its own system.
Coordination becomes the responsibility of the individual, requiring them to manage appointments, follow up on referrals, navigate insurance approvals, and research treatment options, all while processing the reality of their condition and continuing to care for their families.
It is an experience that requires persistence, clarity, and resilience at a time when those resources are already being stretched.
The Power Edit was created with an awareness of both of these realities: the need for earlier self awareness, and the need for more thoughtful, human centered support once care begins.
The initiative brings together a group of collaborators whose work reflects a shared commitment to women’s wellbeing.
Melissa Wood Tepperberg, founder of Melissa Wood Health, has built a platform centered on mental and physical health.
Ronny Kobo, an ovarian cancer survivor, brings both lived experience and a perspective on resilience and identity.
Rocky Barnes and Matt Cooper of Casa Del Sol contribute a lens of intentional living, with Matt’s personal experience supporting his mother through cancer shaping his connection to this work.
Alongside them is Crunch Care, contributing not only to the vision of The Power Edit, but to the tangible support embedded within it.
Each Power Edit box was curated with care, offering both practical and personal forms of support.
This includes a one year membership to Melissa Wood Health, childcare services through Crunch Care, and thoughtfully selected items that reflect presence, identity, and a moment of relief within the demands of daily life.
Only ten boxes were created, and each recipient was selected based on her voice, her influence, and her alignment with the mission.
Recipients include:
Sofia Karvela
Rikki Feerar
Alice Long
Nasreen Shahi
Katy Harrell
Kendra Bird
Jordan Baugh and Kemper Baugh
Azadeh Shirazi, MD FAAD
Olivia Craynon
Isabella Pringle
In addition to the direct support provided through the boxes, The Power Edit contributes to Do Cancer, an organization that provides complementary, concierge style care to individuals navigating cancer.
Crunch Care is contributing $25 for every social media share tied to The Power Edit and has initiated a GoFundMe campaign, with the final donation reflecting the overall reach and impact of the campaign.
This work was created in memory of Shenell Malloy, whose vision for more compassionate care continues to guide this effort.
If there is a single intention behind The Power Edit, it is to shift how women think about their own health before something forces that shift upon them.
To create space to pause, listen more closely, and to recognize that prioritizing your health is not something that can wait.
Because too often, by the time we are forced to stop, the cost of not doing so earlier is far greater than we ever imagined.
Every share increases funding.
Every post expands awareness.
Every moment of engagement helps support patients navigating treatment and recovery.
And every donation matters.
This is dedicated to living.
For my beautiful sons, Jack, Max, and Joey, and my loving partner Dan, and family.
Xxx,
Stacie
