Christine Handy has never been one to follow the rules. After surviving breast cancer and an explant due to breast implant illness, she is choosing to live flat—eschewing further attempts at breast mound reconstruction. Christine didn’t just reclaim her body. She redefined beauty on her terms. As the first flat woman to model for Victoria’s Secret and a regular on the Miami and New York Fashion Week runways veteran, Christine has already inspired thousands of breast cancer survivors to embrace their bodies unapologetically. Now, with her deeply personal film Hello Beautiful, she’s taking her message of resilience, identity, and self-worth to a whole new level.
Based on Christine’s bestselling semi-autobiographical novel Walk Beside Me, Hello Beautiful follows the journey of Willow—a successful model whose seemingly perfect life is shattered by a breast cancer diagnosis. It’s a story that doesn’t just tug at your heart; it cracks it open and fills it with something raw, real, and radiant.
A Story of Shattered Illusions and Emerging Truths
At the start of the film, Willow is everything society tells us to admire: beautiful, successful, poised. But when cancer enters the picture, so too does the unravelling of her identity. Suddenly, the things she thought defined her—her looks, her career, her status—are gone. What remains is something far more enduring: the strength to face herself and her life without illusion.
Director Ziad H. Hamzeh brings a masterful lens to the screen, crafting a narrative that is as emotionally rich as it is visually stunning. The film’s setting—a polished, suburban backdrop—juxtaposes the chaos unfolding within Willow’s life and psyche. It’s a powerful reminder that behind every Instagram-perfect image lies a human story far more complex.
A Cast That Brings Depth and Authenticity
Tricia Helfer, known for her iconic roles and modelling experience, brings authenticity and vulnerability to Willow’s character. Her portrayal offers a profound look at what it means to lose the external symbols of identity and emerge with something deeper. As Willow’s daughter Isabel, Sara Boustany adds another emotional layer, revealing how trauma reverberates through families and tests the strength of our closest bonds.
The supporting cast contributes to a nuanced, emotionally intricate story. Each character is forced to confront their own beliefs about beauty, worth, illness, and healing. It’s not just Willow who transforms—everyone around her must evolve, too.
More Than a Movie—A Movement
What sets Hello Beautiful apart from other cancer narratives is its unflinching portrayal of life after mastectomy—and what it means to choose to go flat. Christine Handy has lived that decision. She didn’t just survive cancer; she used it as a catalyst to reject outdated notions of femininity and beauty. In doing so, she became a beacon for other “flatties”—women who opt against breast mound reconstruction after mastectomy.
With Hello Beautiful, Christine translates that advocacy to the screen. The film doesn’t just represent the flat movement—it helps define it. It invites audiences to see beauty beyond the conventional, to value the wholeness that comes from choosing authenticity over conformity.
For women who’ve faced breast cancer, this film feels like both a mirror and a megaphone. It validates their lived experience while amplifying a message the world needs to hear: that femininity is not tied to curves or cleavage, but to courage, truth, and how we choose to live in our skin.
A Cultural Reckoning with Identity and Femininity
At its core, Hello Beautiful is about the search for identity when the scaffolding is stripped away. It challenges viewers to re-examine cultural expectations—about women, about beauty, about illness—and to make room for a broader, more inclusive understanding of what it means to be whole.
Willow’s journey is painful, yes—but it’s also liberating. She doesn’t just grieve her old life; she builds a new one rooted in truth.
A Cultural Shift in Storytelling
Hello Beautiful is part of a larger cultural shift—a movement toward more inclusive, authentic portrayals of illness, survivorship, and identity. By awarding the Golden Palm to a story about a flat woman reclaiming her life, the Beverly Hills Film Festival is helping push this transformation forward.
And the momentum is growing.
Following its Beverly Hills debut, Hello Beautiful headed to the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival (PIFF), where it won for Best Drama Feature. Critics and viewers alike are calling the film a “revelation” in survivor storytelling.
“There Is Purpose in Pain”
Christine Handy has never shied away from hard truths. Her motto, “there is purpose in pain,” is the beating heart of Hello Beautiful. As both executive producer and the woman whose real-life journey inspired the script, Handy’s fingerprints are all over the film—ensuring that it remains raw, real, and ultimately hopeful.
“When I first shared my journey in Walk Beside Me, my goal was to spread hope and show that a breast cancer diagnosis is not the end of a woman’s story—it can be the beginning of discovering her inner strength,” Handy says. “Hello Beautiful redefines the illness narrative by focusing on empowerment and resilience, and this Golden Palm win shows that message is hitting home.”
Indeed, the film is far from a conventional “cancer story.” Rather than centering around trauma alone, it offers a window into transformation. Willow doesn’t just survive—she evolves. She learns to rely on faith, on friendship, and most importantly, on herself.
A Model of Empowerment—On Screen and Off
Christine Handy’s presence looms large throughout the film—but it doesn’t end there. Her career as a model who proudly walks the runway without breasts is a living extension of the movie’s message: flat is beautiful. Flat is feminine. Flat is fierce.
By becoming the first flat model for Victoria’s Secret, Christine shattered outdated beauty standards. And with Hello Beautiful, she’s extending that impact to theaters and living rooms around the world. Her decision to remain unreconstructed wasn’t just personal—it was political. It was purposeful. And it was powerful.
Why Christine Handy’s Hello Beautiful Matters
This film matters because it tells the truth. Not just about cancer, but about identity, resilience, and what it means to truly see yourself—sometimes for the first time—after unimaginable loss. With stunning performances, a meticulously crafted narrative, and a clear devotion to authenticity, Hello Beautiful is a love letter to every woman who’s ever felt invisible, broken, or afraid to be seen.
It’s also a rallying cry—to survivors, families, advocates, and allies—to rewrite the breast cancer narrative. To make space for stories that aren’t just about pain, but about power.
Walk Beside This Film
As Hello Beautiful continues its journey on the festival circuit, its creators invite viewers everywhere to “walk beside” it—to share, to support, and to help spread its message. Through every screening, every social post, every word-of-mouth recommendation, we help reshape the conversation around survivorship.
Let’s turn this movie into a movement.
Follow Hello Beautiful on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to stay up to date on upcoming screenings, press appearances, and ways to support the cause.
Because every woman deserves to see herself as whole. As beautiful. As strong.
And thanks to Hello Beautiful, more will.
