Often, those who tread off the beaten path are misunderstood or mischaracterized and so we asked folks from the community to reflect and tell us about the times they’ve been misunderstood or mischaracterized.

Rob Equiza

I do not believe that not giving the people what they want is being a snob. I see art as pure expression based on one’s experiences executed through learned abilities and their capabilities. Read more>>

Jeremy Halalayah

In my creative journey and in life, one of the recurring challenges I’ve faced is the feeling of being misunderstood. This often stems from the fact that I experience emotions on a heightened level. While this emotional depth fuels my creativity and provides me with a unique perspective, it can also lead to a sense of isolation and mischaracterization. Read more>>

Diasha Linvel

Being misunderstood as a business owner comes with many challenges, especially when you are a Christian and a influencer. Read more>>

Amuche The Poet

A few years ago, I wrote a poem called “Self-Discipline” about my struggle and addiction with self-harm that spawned from childhood trauma and sexual assault. From 2017-2018, I had shared this poem a handful of times both by myself and with a live band. However, I stopped performing this poem in 2018 for a couple of reasons. Read more>>

Paula Bogg

Still too many in the music industry automatically label a music act with an African American lead as “R&B,” “hip hop,” “soul,” “blues” or “jazz.” Though there has been good progress over the past few years, we still sometimes get met with blank stares when we call our music “Americana,” “roots music,” “bluegrass jazz” or “Soulgrass.” Read more>>

Sarah Hindi

Being Lebanese, I always felt I was at the crossing of civilizations and with it came a patchwork identity. I was raised in an Arab country but went to a French school, one of the many legacies the French left the country as Lebanon was a French protectorate in the 1900’s, and studied at an American university. To the Lebanese people, I was a foreigner. Read more>>

BXMMY

For most of my life, I’ve felt misunderstood and that hasn’t changed-even with music. Being in the hip hop genre, you don’t see many people like me actually make it or we try so hard to be taken seriously. I’ve always had to prove myself more, especially being a female artist. Read more>>

The Debate Group

It never really started as a business idea, so much as a drive to rectify the wrongs in a realm of passion. Our top priority was improving an activity that had brought us immense benefits, such that it would continue to do so for future students, and the idea of The Debate Group as a business came as the logical next step. Read more>>

Ventus Russell

When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I was diagnosed with Autism. While it didn’t bother me much at the time, I slowly started to understand this meant I was different from other people. I saw how the media portrayed people on the spectrum: Either as idiotic comedic punching bags for a cheap laugh, a side character (usually a sibling) typically portrayed as a burden or dead weight for an otherwise normal main character, or geniuses who have some hidden special talent that makes them smarter than “normal people.” Read more>>

Darius King

I’ve always been misunderstood, in fact for the longest time I didn’t even know who Darius really was until I got a lot older. Even now one of the biggest misconceptions is that because of the way I choose to express my creativity and/or fashion sense, means I want to be a woman and that’s far from the truth! Read more>>

Freddie Muneaux

I feel like this issue has plagued me my entire life, from school, to sports and to music and film in general. Read more>>

Bradley Thompson

Yo, it’s your boy Bezzy here, and I gotta keep it real with y’all. I’ve been through some stuff, and yeah, I’ve done some not-so-okay things in my time. But I promise you, deep down, I’m a good person, and I just want y’all to understand that. Read more>>