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.

Jacob Covell

I think I often get misunderstood/mischaracterized on the internet because of my brash, bold, “loud” persona that I put on for the internet that makes me look like this a**hole who talks too much s***. But I just love making people feel emotions, make them talk and it’s a great way to sell yourself. It’s interesting to see though, when people meet me in real life and they’re like wow you’re much more quieter or different in person than you are on the internet. Which sometimes is a great thing to me because it shows you can’t just judge everything you see on the internet. Read more>>

Skaivi

Definitely. There’s this general attitude from others towards me that I’ve noticed since I was a young girl. All my life, people have often just naturally been drawn to me. There has always been this “cute” kind of aura people saw in me…something soft and warm that made strangers trust me, and even made wannabe-bullies want to secretly be my friend and hang out with me. And I guess I am not surprised that people saw that aura in me; I was always trying my best to be kind to others, and I was innately a gentle person—that didn’t always work in my favor, though, as I ended up being quite a people pleaser for many years. Over time, it started to come to my attention that there was a pattern going on. Read more>>

Adoniyah Green

I’ve worked hard with my music career despite many challenges I’ve faced, I am more of a lyricist than other artist and in the business of portraying a different way in hip hop genres and any other avenue I can. It’s always been a struggle to really feel understood by my crowd. The performances were fun but no one heard what I had to say honestly. Read more>>

Victoria Speers

Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to have my own shop one day. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else in life other than running my own business that I could create from scratch. People always told me that I would not make it, I was not talented enough, I was dreaming too big for living in a small town, etc. I took that negativity and used it as fire for my fuel. I graduated from Texas State University with my bachelor’s in Fashion Merchandising and a minor in Business. It was a huge milestone as I was the first in my family to go to college and graduate. Read more>>

April Grace Lowe

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think every artist feels misunderstood at some point, but for me, it started with Confessions of a Romance Narrator — when I first made it, I didn’t even think of it as a “film.” I was too scared. I told myself, “Just make a little web series. Ten episodes. No pressure.” That was the only way I could trick my brain into starting. Read more>>

HEESU

As a Korean artist living in the U.S., people often assume I make K-pop simply because of my nationality. With the global rise of K-pop, it’s usually one of the first things people ask me—before even hearing my music: “Oh, do you make K-pop?” Some of my songs have even ended up on K-pop girl group playlists on Spotify, even though they don’t reflect who I am as an artist. I want to be clear—I’m a Korean artist, but I’m not a K-pop artist. While “K-pop” technically means Korean pop music, in the global context it usually refers to idol-based music: highly choreographed, company-produced, and rooted in a very specific industry system. I grew up listening to it and have a deep respect for the genre, but it doesn’t define my work. Read More>>