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Former child star Amy Gibson found a new passion in life, helping millions of women deal with thinning hair and hair loss.

Emmy-nominated actress and entrepreneur Amy Gibson began her acting career in a rather unusual way: At nine years old, a neighbor approached her mother about a job opening at her company, Hanes.

Early Career

"They were looking for a kid to try on panty hose as many times as they could before the hose ripped," Amy recalls. "It paid sixty-five dollars a day, which was very good money in those days."

Soon, Amy was working a couple of afternoons a week for Hanes, and this led her to think about other opportunities. Her first acting role was in a summer stock production in New York, but she knew she would be considered too young for the role.

"I went in with hot pants and all this makeup, and they had no idea that I was twelve and a half," Amy says.

By the time the deception was discovered, Amy had already wowed everyone with her talent, and that daring decision led to one of Amy's breaks – she was discovered by a talent scout on the play's opening night.

Amy spent the next year hoping for another break, but despite her attempts to get attention – from dying her hair and whitening her teeth to dieting – she went for a year without any jobs. Just when Amy was on the verge of giving up, she landed the groundbreaking role of Lynn Henderson, a runaway teenage alcoholic, on the daytime drama "Love of Life."

A Surprising Discovery

It was also then that Amy first discovered she was losing her hair. After the makeup artist noticed a bald spot on her head, Amy went to the dermatologist and was diagnosed with alopecia areata, an auto-immune disease that causes hair loss.

"They didn't know enough about [alopecia areata] at the time," Amy says. "They basically said that it was an emotional disease."

Over the next few years, Amy received cortisone shots to help her hair grow back, but nothing could stop the actual hair loss. Eventually, even the cortisone shots became too much. Amy was on the verge of beginning a stint on "General Hospital" when she had enough with the treatments.

"I got shots about eight weeks before starting on the show ... When I stepped out [of the office] I had to ask someone how many hot dog trucks were on the street. He said 'one' but I could see three," Amy recalls. "That's when I realized that my body just couldn't handle the cortisone shots."

Amy pitched the idea that her character, an agent named Colette, could be in constant disguise on the show. The ruse worked, but as soon as Amy finished her stint on "General Hospital," she had to deal with an unpleasant reality.

Without the budget and resources of a television studio, she realized the sometimes desperate plight of the 35 million women in this country faced with thinning hair and hair loss.

New Calling

When Amy was on television, it was relatively easy for her to disguise her hair loss. "Wigs were $5,000, and they were made for me. It was great," she says.

"I was wondering how do I deal with real hair loss? How do I date?" Amy says. "So, I started investigating wigs, and I started going to support groups. All of a sudden, I was so busy trying to help women, I thought this might be what I was supposed to do."

After many years and what Amy calls "a journey of great pain," her businesses opened to the public: Your Crown and Glory hair products and Amy's Presence wigs. In addition to beautiful hairpieces that don't look like wigs, Amy's Presence offers lines for mature women, children and women of color. She's also produced the first swim and intimacy wigs.

Amy's mission isn't all about vanity. Helping women feel confident and good about themselves works wonders on the physical and emotional self.

"Society has placed great importance on women's appearance. Women are forced to believe that we are our bodies, but we are so much more than that," she says. "Remember girls, we're more than our hair."