Jessica Queller, a young, funny, attractive TV writer aged 35, had an exciting life and a successful career, but these were shadowed by a challenge that she faced one day.

The writer of successful teen dramas such as “Gossip Girl” and “Gilmore Girls” found out she had inherited a gene called BRCA1, which dramatically increased her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. More exactly, she had up to 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer by the age of 70, and up to a 44 per cent chance of also getting ovarian cancer.

Queller wouldn’t have thought of testing herself for the BRCA "breast cancer gene" mutations if her mother hadn’t died from ovarian cancer at 60, after also discovering she had breast cancer at the age of 51.

After the test’s results were revealed and Queller was found positive for the BRCA1 mutation, she decided to take an important preventive step, by undergoing a double mastectomy.

Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. The operation is usually done to treat breast cancer, but some women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer prefer to have the operation prophylactically, as they want to prevent cancer rather than have to treat it.

Jessica’s younger sister decided to undergo the same operation, after her test results were the same as for Jessica. Jessica was also recommended to have her ovaries removed, but she declared she wanted to postpone the operation until she gives birth to a child.

In her book “Pretty is What Changes,” Jessica tells the story of a young woman who is forced to take the painful decision of reshaping her body, after having been taught all her youth, that being pretty is the most important thing in life. She resents the education that her mother gave to her and her sister, saying it was difficult for her to understand what beauty really meant. But she eventually realized beauty was not about the looks.

"I learned that prettiness - being pretty - is an ephemeral thing. True beauty is something much more profound. It's internal. It's external. It's the soul. It's integrity. It's who you are as a human being in the world. True beauty is being comfortable with yourself, the sum of your parts."