33-Year-Old Meteorologist With Cancer Shares Message About Body Shaming After ‘Hateful’ Comment About Her Wig

Meteorologist Laura Mock has received comments about her appearance before, but one that was recently sent to her entire team at work struck a chord.

Mock, 33, who works at Fox 23 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, usually shrugs off such comments. But this one was aimed at the wig she recently started wearing because she’s undergoing chemotherapy.

The subject line of the message was “Laura Mock” and in the body of the message, the sender wrote: “Can she stop playing with her hair and do some weather? Looks like she added fake hair.”

Mock posted a screenshot of the message on Facebook, along with a response. “News flash! This is fake,” Mock wrote. “I started losing my hair (thanks chemo!) at the end of June and have been wearing a wig for a little over a week.”

“Think twice before sending hateful emails to your local reporters. This one was addressed to our entire newsroom. Do I mind? Not really. I have thick skin and other things to worry about, like the cancer I’m trying to rid myself of. That doesn’t mean I have to tolerate these kinds of comments.”

She included two photos, one of her wearing her new wig and the other of her holding it.

Mock has been in her field for a decade, so she’s used to feedback from viewers. Most of the reviews she receives are positive, some negative, and they rarely mention the quality of her work.

So, rather than letting this comment get him down, Mock decided it should be a learning opportunity.

“I’m battling cancer and everyone (at work) feels bad when I get that comment,” Mock told TODAY.com. “But there are women who get those comments every day who may not be battling cancer but other issues in their lives, and we don’t deserve that.”

Mock chose to share the details of her diagnosis on air two weeks before she began wearing a wig. She was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer in May 2024, after discovering a lump in her breast in February.

“I was told my hair grows quickly and that with this type of cancer, chemotherapy is the first and most effective step,” Mock says. Since then, she has been mentally preparing for the loss of her hair. When it started falling out in June, Mock had already researched wigs.

“As soon as the wire started to fall, I held on for as long as I could, and then I realized, ‘You know what? This isn’t worth it,’ and I got a buzz in my head,” Mock recalls. “It was so liberating.”

After shaving the first section, her husband helped her remove the rest. “The following Monday, I came to work with a wig. And it’s not perfect — it’s obviously a wig — but it makes me look normal to people,” she explains.

Most of the comments she’s received from viewers have been encouraging. They’ve written to tell her how beautiful she looks and wished her luck. “I’ve been overwhelmed with positive comments,” Mock says. “There haven’t been a lot of negative comments, but when they do come, they really stand out.”

A colleague who had read the email before Mock responded and told the commenter that Mock was undergoing cancer treatment. They never responded.

Today, Mock encourages viewers to carefully consider the people receiving their feedback before sending it. “The people you see on local television are exactly that: We’re human beings too. We go through our own struggles every day,” she says.

“If our makeup and hair aren’t perfectly in place, be forgiving. You don’t know what our morning looked like, or what our week looked like.”

“Let’s focus on the work we’re doing,” Mock said.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com