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.

Delanté Mclean-sanchez

I am a very complex person, as is everyone. The person on the exterior is not who the person is on the inside, especially when we bring in the conversation of intersectionality- black, queer, being biologically male by society’s standard, etc. Read More>>

Erin Brooke Hila

As a disabled person and ambulatory wheelchair user, I am misunderstood daily. The general public has not been exposed to young people using mobility aids or those with dynamic disabilities much. So, when they see me, a young woman, in a wheelchair, or standing up from said wheelchair, they stare at me, judge me, or simply think I am taking advantage. This could not be more backwards. Read More>>

Ashley Witt

I believe girls in the car scene get very judged. I’ve been it in since I was very little. I always ended up with friends at the street races and that was peeked my interest into cars. When I got older and actually got into it myself it was different. I was always the only girl hanging out with the guys. The tomboy but from when I was a kid, I actually dressed more girly now and stuff , so you get judged pretty fast. I was the tomboy girly girl that loved cars . Once I had my first car. Read More>>

Reed Hearne

Artist statements accompanying award-winning photographs often include words like “No Photoshop or post-production editing was used.” The disclaimer reinforces the idea that manipulating photography is akin to cheating, that only purist photography honors the years of experience required to hone a technical skill, not to mention the accumulation of expensive equipment. Read More>>

Isabella Mebarak

Yes, there have definitely been times when both my work and I have been misunderstood or mischaracterized, particularly as a Latina woman who grew up in Miami and is openly sensual in my artistic expression. One notable example is how my art and personal social media presence are sometimes viewed as conflicting or inconsistent, especially when I share pictures of myself in a bikini on my art page. Read More>>

Jake Trust

Yes. A lot of my work falls under the genre of surrealist writing. I’ve always been a surrealist writer, and have always love it. It’s always been a very odd genre, and in college I had a playwriting professor who despised my work as a surrealist playwright. She’d often criticize my work for being “too difficult to understand” or “too weird,” and even told me I’d never get anything produced because of how avant-garde it is. She would say that it’s intentionally confusing, or torturous to the audience. Read More>>

Sophie-anne Vachon

For a long time, I felt like the people around me had no idea what I did for a living. They would always mention what I used to be (a teacher) or talk about me in relation to other people (like my husband who’s a magician I sometimes work with), but I never felt seen. Read More>>