Late in her battle with a rare form of cancer, Mia Sidaros flew to New York for a photo shoot with Vogue magazine. The publication had connected with the fashion-forward teenager through her blog, and they wanted to meet her for a feature about women dealing with hair loss.
“Beauty to me was about fitting in,” she was quoted as saying in Vogue. “Now I want to stand out.”
Sidaros, who passed away about a week later at the age of 17, didn’t get much of a chance to stand out on her own following that East Coast trip. It’s partly why her parents are launching a business in Santa Monica in her honor, hoping it will keep her memory alive and perhaps prevent other children and families from having to endure similar tragedies.
Mia La Maven Med Spa, which is named after Sidaros’ blog, is hosting a grand-opening ceremony from 5 to 9 p.m. June 17 on Ocean Park Boulevard.
“It’s devastating to lose a kid,” said her mother, Danielle, an independent bookkeeper who will run the business with her daughter’s father, Emed. “The idea of keeping her name alive and her passion alive was a big deal to us. We want to help people be whoever they think they want to be.”
The med spa will offer facials, cosmetic injections, laser hair removal, acne treatments and vitamin therapy, among other services.
A portion of proceeds from the business will be donated to UCLA to support pediatric sarcoma research, Sidaros said. Noah Federman, director of the Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program at UCLA, is expected to attend the grand opening.
Just approximately 1-percent of all childhood tumors are Ewing tumors, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 225 children and teens are diagnosed with Ewing tumors in North America each year. The 5-year survival rate can be as low as 15 percent in patients whose cancer had already spread at the time of diagnosis.
“Mia had a disease that so few people get,” her mother said. “They don’t really know what to do about it. We’re trying to make it so families don’t have to go through this one day.”
The opening of the business, which comes more than a year after the teenager’s death, adds what her parents hope will be a positive chapter in an ordeal that began about five years ago.
It started when Sidaros, then 13, began feeling pain in her right leg. That prompted an MRI, which revealed a large tumor in her femur. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments preceded surgery during which her hip, femur and knee were replaced with titanium inserts.
About a year later, Sidaros started feeling pain in her back. The cancer had returned on her spine, skull and ribcage, leading to more chemo and radiation. Attending school in Culver City became too difficult.
“She seemed to be beating it, but it kept coming back,” her mother said. “She was one of those people who didn’t believe in giving up, and we want what Mia went through to make a difference. This is what we’re trying to do to honor her. I don’t want her to have gone for no reason.
“She just did not want to stop living. She touched everybody she came in contact with. I still believe she’s here with us.”
Mia La Maven Med Spa is located at 2901 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 117, in Santa Monica. For more information, visit www.mialamavenmedspa.com.
