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.

Tabitha Thomas

As a female engineer and creative, I have had a pretty interesting journey. Throughout college, as well as in my professional career, my creative fashion sense and interest in blogging has been mischaracterized as an inability to perform in a technical career, which couldn’t be farther from the truth! Read more>>

HB Gibson

It’s frustrating when you do many things but you’re most skilled at the thing you’re most passionate about, but people still relate to you something else. Read more>>

Erin Morris

Jazz dance is a confused art form at this time. Much of what is taught in studios and in academies, and what is performed commercially, is a form of dance that has been hybridized and white washed since the 1950s. Read more>>

Kelsey Graywill

Usually followed by “master of none,” the term “jack of all trades” used to be my least favorite thing to be called, but I have grown to embrace it. Read more>>

Sherrod Foster

An artist of any kind, and especially a performing artist, has to accept a level of visibility and the vulnerability that comes with it. To be perceived and have your art consumed is to allow the observer to interpret you as well as your work, and that perception and interpretation is inherently out of your control. Read more>>

Paul Addison

For the last few years, my main vocation has been acting. Most people associate actors with rich, famous, or simply aspiring — I feel like I’ve reached an intermediate level that people have more difficulty grasping. Read more>>

Miggie Jean

I’ve lived most of my life as an outsider. I moved to the United States from the Caribbean when I was 10 years old and was never able to fit in. Read more>>

Cindy Yantis

For the longest time, I felt like an imposter if I told people I was a writer. “What do you do?” I’m a writer was not the first thing that easily fell off my tongue. It wasn’t what I did for a “living.” Which in and of itself is a misnomer. Read more>>

Derrick Cobb

To keep it all the way real….My feelings and ideas are never considered because people don’t think I matter. I am not stupid nor am i oblivious. Read more>>