Growing up in a small East Texas town as a “bigger” girl with nothing short of an “ugly” face, bullying is destined for you. I was loud, outgoing, and friendly, but because of my looks - all of that was too much for everyone, except my family. My family knew how to handle me, and they even appreciated my unique personality. They truly didn’t see me as ugly, I was perfect in their eyes. We didn’t always have much money. My mother is a local business owner, and my father was a banker. I’d say we were well-off in the first fourteen years of my life. My home life was easy because of them. My parents and my sister would somehow erase the life I had going on at school. I first got my phone in the sixth grade. I became addicted to my phone quickly, as I would depend on other things to distract me from the in-person torment I would deal with at school. Boys would call me fat at lunch and jokingly offer their food to me in front of people, my so-called friends would purposefully leave me out of activities, and a kid even walked up to me in the hallway and chest-pumped me to the ground for no reason. That’s the smallest part of it, because it all got worse once I was pulled into group-chat culture. I would get spammed by random numbers and people in my school reminding me that I’m ugly and how my friends didn’t want to invite me, I had zero confidence. All of this led up to my first ever experience with depression, a huge matte in my hair due to me being too depressed to deal with. Everybody at school could see it and words started going around, but nobody understood the gravity of it. It got so bad that we had to cut it out, and as soon as I went to school, everyone noticed. It was an even bigger thing I had to deal with online, as people would send a post pictures taken of me. I thought it couldn’t get much worse. But in 2021, Covid took my dad away from me. I felt so alone. I gained 50 pounds of grief weight on my body, to which my peers online would poke at. My dad died young and unexpectedly, so he didn’t leave behind any life insurance. Leading up to now, my family is struggling more than ever, and my mom’s business is only slightly maintaining itself. We can’t afford college. It’s hard to even afford groceries and bills. To help out, I started my own photography business, which has done way better for all of us than any of my part-time jobs. One of my favorite photography gigs I’ve done is a young girl who got bullied in school for being Chinese. Her mother booked a photo shoot from me to boost her confidence and show the beauty in her heritage and talents. The photos turned out beautiful and the girl is doing well now. As someone who got bullied at her age, I sympathized. I cater to as much youth like me as possible. I warn others about safety, and I preach to teach children kindness. Kindness will take anybody further than hatred will, and that’s what I strive to showcase in my lifetime.

I have always had a very narrow taste in music. I listened to Lana Del Rey all growing up, the blues, overall just slower meaningful songs. I believed that more fast paced pop songs couldn’t really have much meaning to them, and if they did, it wouldn’t even be a good song. I remember the first few surfacings of Chappell Roan. Her short viral videos of her early “Pink Pony Club”, her cameo on the local news, and her first EP were only a short showcasing of what she’s made of. I truly believe that it was her opening act for Olivia Rodrigo that took her higher, eventually leading to her first ever headlining tour. While I was watching all of that from the sidelines, I didn’t really understand it. I was intrigued because of the lyrics to “Pink Pony Club”. Because like her, I come from a small western town, I like girls, and I dream of getting out and making it big. That song would sort of carry me through the hard days of living where I do, and it often gave me hope. In 2022 when her debut album came out, things changed, and not only for me but the whole pop game. I remember it clear as day even though it wasn’t too long ago. I sat down and listened to “Red Wine Supernova”, a high-paced pop song. Let me add on to that - an INCREDIBLE high-paced pop song. It was captivating, catchy, and hooked me in. Chappell Roan was something fresh and new, something I’ve never seen or heard before. Her vocals are amazing, she can write meaningful lyrics for pop songs, and she has an iconic and unique style. This was something that not only the music industry, but people needed. I grew to fall in love with the whole album, I bought it on vinyl because everything sounds even better on vinyl. I didn’t feel so alone in my thoughts anymore. It usually took a slow song to do that, but now I get to have fun and celebrate who I am. The Austin City Limits festival lineup for 2024 was announced, and lo and behold, Chappell Roan was there. It was my time to get a taste of this amazing feeling in person. I don’t think I need to fully explain it, as videos were everywhere, but it was hands-down the best show I’ve ever seen, even though it was only an hour long. Usually for concerts, my feet start to hurt and I want to leave, but I couldn’t get enough of this one. It’s been amazing to watch Chappell Roan grow as an artist, and more importantly, a human individual. Her activism for humanity and artists is inspiring. She is truly something the world has never seen before. She will go down as a legend. And if for some weird reason she doesn’t, she always will in my books. Chappell Roan is my hero.

I always start off with this one idea - “Everything that can make someone happy is art.” My life was art before I discovered my calling to art. The way I connect with my friends and family, the kind words I know how to share with others, the family I’ve found in other people due to hard times - all of that is art. Given all of that, I didn’t consider myself an artist at the time, but once I began using different cameras and visionary skills to capture life, I finally considered myself one. I got my first camera when I was in eighth grade. My dad gave it to me for Christmas. It was a tiny but mighty little thing. That was eighth grade. My dad would lose his life to Covid-19 shortly after, therefore, I started high school on a rough note. I had lost all sense of motivation, hopes and dreams, pretty much anything I had before losing my best friend so unexpectedly. In my journalism class, which was the only class I truly tolerated, I would aim to learn the basics of camera functions, just to figure out how to work mine. I unfortunately had a teacher that didn’t care much about her job, so I taught myself. While there’s supposed to be a lot of students on the sidelines at games and roaming the hallways getting content for the school, it only was a tiny group of kids including me that seemed to care enough to actually do it. It was the end of my sophomore year when we got a new teacher who was fantastic at her job and truly cared about all of the aspects of her class. She was the first teacher I had that actually reached out to get opportunities in this field for me and my peers. Aside from school, my skills in photography impacted my personal life. I started my own business at 16, and being 18 now, I’d say it’s quite a successful business, especially for being in a town as small as mine. I always do portrait and creative photoshoots, but recently, I’ve been able to travel and take photos at concerts and different events, which is my dream. I also have a senior rep team, which is a group of representatives that will represent my business throughout their senior years of high school. While my business has gave me numerous opportunities and overall a new perspective on life, my clients and other people that have used my services give me incredible and heart-felt feedback on how my work impacts their life. This can range from memories of deceased loved ones to just a simple photo of their child having fun at a school sanctioned event. To realize that me and my love for photography has not only helped myself immensely, but also impacted others, is beyond my greatest accomplishments. However, the most important accomplishment was already obtained before I even started the business - making my dad proud. I know my dad watched me in every step of this journey, and he cheered louder than anyone.