Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelly J. Mendenhall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

It was early 2018; I’d been immobile and living on the couch for nearly a year. At the time, I remained a medical mystery mostly, but we had figured out one piece of the puzzle: Piriformis syndrome. It’s a rare chronic pain condition that impacts one’s sciatic nerve. It would be a few more years before we figured out the complicated failures in my spine (and uterus,) but at the point that I wrote my first paid article, I was experiencing a massive milestone in my health journey; I was turning from patient to advocate. I wrote an article for Blasting News US. The title was horrible for SEO! It was, “Women do experience severe and chronic pain.” In that article, I wrote and defined the term “Medical Gaslighting” for the first time. I got paid per click, per “60-second view.” I didn’t get rich off of it, I assure you, but those few dollars sure did feel like a fantastic victory. It was the first time being paid for my writing *and* the first time I spoke out publicly and on a national forum about what was happening to me; I was becoming permanently disabled because doctors didn’t believe me and wouldn’t treat me. That first article made me feel empowered as Hell!

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?

In addition to being a disabled podcaster and digital creator, writer, author, and public speaker, I’m also an embroidery artist. Embroidery is what got me through all of the years of immobility, the legal fights with insurance companies and the social security system, and all the physical trauma that comes with six major surgeries in 22 months.

People are far more aware of medical gaslighting now than they were when I began writing about it in that article way back in 2018, And I had gotten damn good at fighting against it and being vocal about the fight! What I feel we lack now is information on what to do when you experience and survive medical gaslighting. What do you do? How do you move on with your life and put the fight down when it’s time?

On Christmas of 2022, I decided to share the power of hand-stitching and art as therapeutic tools for coping with chronic pain and mental health diagnoses. I launched the Affordable Art Revolution to spread love and joy to people with disabilities everywhere through art and the written word and make art more accessible to those of us living with disabilities. I opened a shop on my website to sell my original designs and works and heirloom Christmas stockings and ornaments I create using Plaid Crafts kits. Everything that isn’t custom or personalized is Name Your Price or Pay What You Can.

I periodically stock the shop with new one-of-a-kind embroidery hoops, ornaments, other creations, guest artist works, and collaboration projects. But I also have kits for ornaments, stockings, and things in my inventory that people can order for me to stitch and mail to them, tipping whatever feels good to them.

Ultimately, my work is about creating community and comradery among those with invisible disabilities. I have turned years of physical and emotional brutality into millions of beautiful, tiny stitches of peace and beauty.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Some folks have a tough time wrapping their minds around me, allowing folks to name their price for my works. I am a once bio-typical and non-disabled person who is now physically and psychologically disabled permanently as a result of a little bit of crappy genetics and several years of medical gaslighting, and a lack of access to care. I have deep empathy for how alienated and unincluded the world can make a Spoonie or other disabled person feel. (Spoonie is a term for people with invisible disabilities. See also: The Spoon Theory.)

It may also help to understand that my professional background before becoming disabled was in nonprofit management and administration. I’m a bleeding heart liberal, in other words. I’ve also fallen in love with works of art at public shows and held them in my hand, contemplating whether the two-to-three-digit price tag would impede my ability to feed myself for the rest of the week or month. I wouldn’t say I like that feeling, and I don’t want others to feel it. That’s why I decided to structure my store the way I have.

Since starting the Affordable Art Revolution, I have had incredible energy exchanges with people of all kinds through my work. For instance, I had a teen girl who accidentally found my table at a community event. She beamed when she heard I shared some of her diagnoses because she said I gave her hope and made her feel like “embroidery wasn’t just for old ladies.”

I had a customer reach out to me after buying a set of heirloom ornaments to thank me for doing what I do. She told me that she is also disabled and relies on Social Security disability income. She thought she couldn’t afford any Christmas gifts for her loved ones that year; thanks to my shop, she would have one very special and beautiful gift for each person.

These types of exchanges are why I do what I do, the way I do it.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building an audience on social media began as an accident. I had no idea what I was doing. About six months before I stopped working in 2017, I started working as an independent consultant with a multi-level marketing company. I started blogging about my experiences with that, as well as my medical journey and personal life experiences, in my first blog, Nerdzilla Lives! Even though I had no idea what I was doing, learning everything on the fly, and maybe even being horrible at it sometimes, my audience kept growing.

I kept making more friends and building more community around invisible disabilities and medical gaslighting advocacy, and one day, I realized I had thousands of followers on every platform. 90%+ subscribers opened my email newsletters, and my shop drops were selling out in 24 hours. My best advice is to be your most authentic self above everything else, and the rest will fall into place. It doesn’t hurt to watch some YouTube videos, online courses on SEO and personality marketing, or have a business coach or mentor.

Make friends and network as much as possible; you never know what types of work you may trade with someone else! I traded Christmas stockings for the family for years of coaching from my business and marketing coach, Brittany Lynn Budd. Above all else, keep showing up.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kellyjmendenhall.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kellyjmendenhall
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/affordableartrevolution
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyjmendenhall/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCasJSttapoZ2CGd7H6Khp2A
• Other: TikTok:
  https://www.tiktok.com/@kellyjmendenhall

Image Credits

The only image to credit is the one in my purple dino dress — Eliza Daniels Photography