Delusional but determined: Central Texas woman builds business while battling breast cancer
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Felicia Reed was in the middle of building her dream photography studio when she received a call that changed everything.
It was December 2021, and she had just found the perfect space for her new business. The building was hers and although it was empty, it was the perfect page to start the next chapter in her career.
The diagnosis
Then came the diagnosis. Reed received the call following a routine mammogram screening, delivering the news that she had been diagnosed with triple-positive invasive ductal carcinoma, breast cancer.
“My mom had died of breast cancer at the age of 40. When I was 18, my sister died at 38. So from the age of 30 I was still having mammograms. And then so at that time in 21, I was 45 and I was just having my annual mammograms, and they found the tiniest thing,” Reed said.
Reed previously worked as a breast imaging technician; she knew what the call meant. But instead of letting fear take over, she leaned into what she calls “a little delusion.”
“Literally, you have to have some level of delusion to really get through this,” she said.
How delusion helped her heal
Reed decided to look at surgeries, chemotherapy, and all the things that come with a breast cancer diagnosis as something positive. “I thought about when I would go to restore cryotherapy, where they give you the IVs with the vitamin C and vitamin D, and I decided, oh, they're just giving me vitamin D and vitamin C.”
Chemotherapy was her vitamin session, surgeries were her rest days, she worked three days a week and rested for four. Reed looked at it as a mini vacation. She said she never felt sick from her treatments, not once.
“I was delusional, I think, because I never saw any part of me change,” Reed said. “I simply decided that I was healthy.”
That mindset she gave herself helped her not only survive the cancer but thrive through the battle. She built her dream studio, launched her new life-coaching business, and continued to pursue her dream of photography, empowering women, especially those over 40, through empowering portrait sessions.
Shifting her energy towards women's empowerment
“I wanted to empower women over the age of 40,” she said. “I want to help them to discover their purpose. And that new confidence and that new beauty, because society says beauty looks like one way, one color, straight hair, blue eyes.”
Reed's photography studio is equipped with gowns, robes, crowns, and even angel wings. All part of her mission to help women feel seen and celebrated, as she made herself feel through her journey battling breast cancer.
Her signature black and white portraits capture emotion and deep personal stories, often preceded by coaching sessions between her and her clients to help reconnect with themselves.
“When you look back at these photos, when you're 60, 70, 80, you can go, oh, I remember her,” Reed said. “I remember this was the day that I decided to love myself again.”
It’s a message she shares with every client, but it’s also one she’s embraced personally throughout her battle with breast cancer. She uses photography not just as a profession, but as a powerful tool to document her own body changes for healing and self-acceptance.
Using her story to inspire
She also gives back. Reed is on the board of the Breast Cancer Resource Center and donates proceeds from her annual “40 Over 40” campaign to the nonprofit. She’s photographed dozens of women, many of whom are cancer survivors, and created legacy albums for them to pass down.
“I want them to feel amazing,” she said. “I want them to feel celebrated. I want them to feel seen,” Reed said.
Now cancer-free, Reed continues to coach women through life’s transitions and uses her own story to inspire others.
“If you're going through breast cancer or you're feeling down right now... I would like you to have some level of delusion,” she said. “Decide what you want your life to look like. Visualize it. Speak it. Live it.”