"Nashville" star Clare Bowen cut her very long blonde locks into a stunning new pixie cut, and she has a very good reason for why she made such a drastic change.

"I was really inspired when I heard a story about a little girl who said she couldn't be a princess because she didn't have long hair, and I wanted her, and others like her to know that's not what makes a princess, or a warrior, or a superhero," the 31-year-old actress wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. "It's not what makes you beautiful either."

She explained how at the age of 4 she was diagnosed with end-stage nephroblastoma, a kidney cancer, and spent some time in the hospital with several other children going through the same thing. "We were mostly bald, all tubed, taped, bandaged up and stitched back together. We were all missing parts, some obvious like eyes or legs, others more hidden, like lungs or kidneys," she continued. "But we were all together, so no one's appearance came into question. No one got laughed at or teased. We were all we knew."

Luckily, Bowen beat the odds and survived, and her hair grew back and she was strong again. While she looks normal on the outside, she is still "the same stitched back together little creature" on the inside, she explained.

"Every scar tells a story, every baldhead, every dark circle, every prosthetic limb, and every reflection in a mirror that you might not recognize anymore. Look deeper than skin, hair, nails, and lips," she said of her new haircut. "You are who you are in your bones. This is where you have the potential to shine the brightest from. It is where your true beautiful self lives."

She went on to thank ABC for allowing her to change her "Nashville" character Scarlett's hair. "If it makes even one person think twice about judging another, then in some small way, the world is better," she wrote. "Self-esteem takes a lot longer to grow back than hair."

"Wanna know why I cut it all off?" she tweeted, linking to this inspirational post. Read the full story below.