Angelina Jolie Talks About Her Double Mastectomy

She's one of the best known actresses in the world, known for her humanitarian work globally, and now she's speaking out about her decision earlier this year to have a double mastectomy to substantially reduce her odds of developing breast cancer.

37-year old Angelina Jolie, wife of Brad Pitt and one of the most famous faces anywhere in the world, has written an op-ed piece in the New York Times about her decision.

Jolie carries a 'faulty' gene that put her risk of breast cancer at 87-percent and ovarian cancer at 50-percent. Jolie also lost her mother to cancer at 56.

Jolie says she decided to go public with her decision in hopes that it would inspire other women to get tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.