We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hannah Cole. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hannah below.

Hi Hannah, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

I think as someone who’s obsessed with all things fashion & beauty, travel, and fitness … it may come as a shock to some people that I struggle anxiety and sometimes find myself in periods of depression. I think that with social media there’s this stigma that because someone may look like they have a lot of confidence and/or have fun and do adventures things that there isn’t another side to them that can be relative to others. For the majority of my schooling, I was bullied. And so, a lot of people are seeing the final product of someone that’s worked on themselves, their boundaries, and creating a vibrant life of events, traveling the world, concerts, etc. but what prompted all of this was when I first started my YouTube channel, brownsugarglamour, back in 2010. I was struggling with my friend group at the time and experiencing some tough stuff at home, so vlogging and creating content became my escape and a way to express myself, essentially, my best friend. So now, the final product of doing things by myself shaped me into the person I am today, where I’ll book a flight to Bali and travel with people I’ve never met or I’ll go to London on a whim for a podcast event and make great friends. Traveling has been very healing and therapeutic for me!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Hannah, oops I spelled that backwards! I am very much a free spirit person who has a passion for all things beauty, fashion, fitness and travel. Unbeknownst to most, I am a full time accountant. I’ve been working in the industry for the past seven years and have recently just started a new senior role on a more corporate level. While, I enjoy my 9-5, I have always had a passion for being creative. I remember during my junior year of high school, one of my mom’s friends had told me “not to go to school for art”. Not because she didn’t believe I could succeed but because she stated & I quote “you will not make any money”. In ways, I am grateful to her because while I had always dreamed of being an art teacher, I do fear that I wouldn’t have been able to experience so many things without my salary as an accountant. So in a way, I have used my income to expense all of my creative endeavors. I do still have a passion for the finance world. My dad owns businesses and while I thought I maybe wanted to take on entrepreneurship, I pivoted after enrolling in a stock market class and accounting class junior year – with two of my favorite teachers, Ms. Quercia and Mrs. Mushenko. They inspired me to pursue accounting, and I went on to receive my bachelors degree from the university of Massachusetts Amherst at the isenberg school of management. Over the course of my career, I have worked in both public and private as an experience audit, tax, and investment professional. I have the opportunity to work with a few high profile celebrity clients as well as small businesses. I am the first in my immediate family to attend college, and I am very proud of that!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Many people don’t know this but I’ve been in a fire. A grease fire to be exact! I use to love cooking, still do, but don’t frequent it as much since the incident. It was a really dark period for me, as I suffered 2nd degree burns on my arms and legs, my right wrist to be exact. I am also right handed and in the space of both accounting and being a creator using the computer is very key to doing everyday things. So a lot of recovery and resilience went into coming up with new ways to manage and still film content. I was also grateful for not giving up because of my circumstances and it’s something that has made me reflect about how truly grateful I am. I have minor scars but the flames did not hit my face or “ruin” big portions of my appearance that would’ve affected my job or continuing to make beauty videos, etc.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love being able to fully be myself. Coming up with different visions, where it’s for a concept or event a simple outfit … bringing that to life and it coming out exactly how I want it to. Obviously through trial and error, but I love having videos or pictures or even memories to look back on based on things I’ve filmed or captured. I also love inspiring others, whether it’s obvious or not people are always watching and through out the past 15 years there have been moments where expressed gratitude has been shown in ways unexpected that make me want to keep being creative and pursing my goals when it comes to beauty in fashion in the content creator realm.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: hannahxcole
• Facebook: brownsugarglamour
• Twitter: hannahxcole
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/brownsugarglamour
• Other: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/hannahxcole
  https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahxcole_

Image Credits

The second photo, light pink dress off the shoulder was taken by Cross Photography LLC, Samantha Cross.

All other photos were taken by me.