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.

Kerry Gross

My work has been seen as negative when I’m just a story teller providing visual of my daily life or lifestyles around me ..I want to be seen for the positive work which is providing counseling for the youth and trouble the incarcerated felons who lost hope of change I provide the necessary steps to climb out of them situations . Read more>>

Heroek

Being young in the music and entertainment industry, I find that a lot of potential collaborators have hesitancy to work with me. They take my young age as inexperience and naivety, and may not think I have what it takes to be a worthwhile collaboration. I’ve had music artists turn me down on features, as well as podcast guests decline invitations to come on Hero’s Journey for this reason. Read more>>

Tamara Mack

When you have the courage to live authentically as yourself, you’ll inevitably be misunderstood. My authentic self deviates “so far” from the social script laid out for me as a woman, that being misunderstood is just a part of life. Humans have this innate desire to categorize everything around them, including other humans. I’m not excluded from others’ curiosity to classify. Read more>>

Katie Grinstead

The tattoo world is massively different than when I started out. To put a timeframe on that, March 2023 marks 20 years since my apprenticeship, so I have definitely been misunderstood and mischaracterized dozens of times. Some instances I let bother me, other times, it was something I expected. One particular story of being mischaracterized took place late on a Saturday night in front of my home shop in San Francisco. Read more>>

Ace the Rapper

Growing up I struggled with opening up to other people so I internalized everything I was going through. I never really felt understood and that made it hard for me to express myself. Music gave me a sense of peace and allowed me to filter through the emotions I held in throughout my life. It allowed me to feel understood and pushed me to try to do the same for others. Read more>>

Dan Truong

Being misunderstood as an artist almost feels like a given. It’s certainly understandable; the career path that’s implied by the word ‘artist’ may be one of the most perilous and unstable out there. Read more>>