I'm an illustrator and designer who creates custom content on a personal and business level. I thrive particularly in brand identity using print and digital collateral. I am 100% fully self-taught. I have been working and honing these skills for 15 years. I always knew I would be in the creative sector in some form or another and this allowed me to grow skills that allow me to be a design chameleon. Creativity IS my life. I'm sure many people say that but I find it to be significantly true for myself. I spend 24/7 inspired and almost every waking moment of day creating in some way. My brain cranks out ideas faster than my hands can create. In one notebook alone, I have over 250 ideas that are waiting patiently to be fulfilled. My main creative outlet is drawing - specifically digital drawing. You can be hard pressed to find me without my iPad and my Apple pencil attached squarely to my hands. My husband jokes that I spend more time drawing than I do breathing so I do not kid when I say creativity is my life. This is exactly why I am pursing a degree in graphic design. I already have the creativity, I just need to immerse myself in the more technical side of the career. They say you'll never work a day in your life if you love what you do and I fully intend to put that phrase to use.

Being an autistic female with ADHD and growing up deep down in the bayous of Louisiana, I was deprived of adequate mental health services and thus I was diagnosed very late in life at 25. Once I was diagnosed, it was like a whole new world opened up. And with that world, I began to see the problems in secondary education. The rough statistics of autistic students enrolled in college is 1-2% but only 38% of them will graduate. Autistic students are significantly more likely to drop out because of so many challenges they face due to the lack of accessibility and understanding. Those challenges are also faced by students with ADHD but in a slightly different way. These issues often start in primary school where the structure of the school provides an ease for those struggling with ADHD. When they take the leap into being an undergraduate, that structure completely evaporates and the issues from both neurodivergencies rear its ugly head at full force. This is something that I've personally had to deal with on a very deep level. In high school, my biggest problem was turning in my homework instead of letting it sit in my locker. When the homework did make its way to the teacher, I excelled. I had no need to study because I was naturally "gifted" academically. I would attend class, wait for the bell, go to the next one, and repeat. It was easy for me to just breeze through. In college, reality stomped on me. I realized that I had no study skills; I had no coping skills; there was no organization of classes. It became my responsibility for everything in school and I was woefully unprepared. That plus the autistic feelings of looming expectations, social isolation and lack of accommodations equaled an absolute nightmare. I completely bombed my first try at college. I had a D in basically every class. That really fed into the creeping ideas that I was not cut out for finishing college so I left. I dropped out entirely and tried to use the creative skills I had already master to get me in the doors of the workforce...that did not work at all. With so many jobs that require degrees, I didn't even get a second look. So hear I am. My goal is to finally get a degree in graphic design so I may learn the more technical skills of that sector of work and allow myself the privilege of chasing a career in a field I am in love with. I would like to create designs and brand identities for companies or non-profits that revolve around advocacy, accessibility and awareness. I am heavily involved in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous movement as well as LGBTQ+ advocacy. Naturally, I am also heavily involved with mental health and neurodivergency awareness. This drives my desire to offer my skills up to create cohesive brands that are notable and memorable. The more they are notable and memorable, the more attention can be drawn to these causes. The more attention means more change.

1. Because I am an undefeated champion of the classic mystery board game, Clue. It was obviously Colonel Mustard in the Study with the Rope and people need to know this. 2. Academically, I would really like to put my immense understand of Math to use. I actually don't think it is commonplace knowledge that 2+2=Fish so I feel like it my job to become queen of the Math kingdom and gift that knowledge unto the world. 3. Imposter Syndrome though I didn't overcome it. I actually went under it. It was an extremely difficult task since the Imposter Syndrome kept bouncing around faster than my husband saying no when we see an animal in a store parking lot.

I run a small little Etsy shop based entirely around my wit and humor. One of my more popular t-shirts that I designed revolves around Dungeons and Dragons, a table top roleplaying game where you create and play as characters in a huge, in-depth fantasy world. It is you and your friends playing as these characters that go up against the BBEGs...the Big Bad Evil Guys/Girls. These characters' personalities and actions are influenced by their "alignments". There are nine moral alignments - Chaotic Good; Neutral Good; Lawful Good; Chaotic Neutral; True Neutral; Lawful Neutral; Chaotic Evil; Neutral Evil; Lawful Evil. It is a very good vs evil dynamic. Chaos vs Order. In the Dungeons and Dragons world, it is very easy to fall in line with one of those nine even though it is extremely likely to buckle and bend as the game continues. In the real word, that doesn't happen quite so much. This allows for quite a bit of humor involved when the clashing of game and reality happens. While playing this RPG (roleplaying game), it is a nice break from the reality of life but unfortunately, the game will eventually end and we have to return to the lives we lead. This is where my design comes in. Like I said, the real world doesn't neatly conform into those 9 alignments but you know what does? Stress. Sure...it may not be a neat thing but stress leaks into every facet of our lives: No matter how much we try to keep it to a minimum. It comes from everywhere. Your job, your school, your family, your friends, your children, your pets. You can journal or meditate or have a spa day all you want to remove the stress but sometimes that is just not enough to really release yourself from it. Life is relentless and sometimes you just have to fight fire with humor. My shirt is simple one with a simple design. In a Dungeons and Dragons style font, there is one single sentence. "My alignment is stressed". Maybe it really is something that only really makes any sense to Dungeons and Dragons players but I don't quite believe that. I think the phrase is something that does well to translate across all manners of people. Because even though not everyone plays Dungeons and Dragons, everyone knows what it feels like to want to rip out your hair and scream into the void. So when you feel like life will not stop throwing bricks at your head, you can look at this shirt and maybe it might bring a little smile to your face...until another brick hits you. But you can just keep looking, no one is stopping ya. Of course, like all things, results may vary but hey, it's worth a shot.

I'm an illustrator and designer who creates custom content on a personal and business level. I thrive particularly in brand identity using print and digital collateral. I specialize in copywriting/typography, photo manipulation, motion graphics, UX, and ideation. I am 100% fully self-taught. I have been working and honing these skills for 15 years. I always knew I would be in the creative sector in some form or another and this allowed me to grow skills that allow me to be a design chameleon. Creativity IS my life. I'm sure many people say that but I find it to be significantly true for myself. I spend 24/7 inspired and almost every waking moment of day creating in some way. My brain cranks out ideas faster than my hands can create. In one notebook alone, I have over 250 ideas that are waiting patiently to be fulfilled. My main creative outlet is drawing - specifically digital drawing. You can be hard pressed to find me without my iPad and my Apple pencil attached squarely to my hands. My husband jokes that I spend more time drawing than I do breathing so I do not kid when I say creativity is my life. This is exactly why I am pursing a degree in graphic design. I already have the creativity, I just need to immerse myself in the more technical side of the career. They say you'll never work a day in your life if you love what you do and I fully intend to put that phrase to use.

It's gonna sound a little cheesy and it's gonna sound a little goofy. But the first Harry Potter book. The Sorcerer's Stone was published the year after I was born. Because I was developmentally ahead on literacy, I learned to read much faster than your average kid. By the time I was three years old, I was well into the Junie B. Jones book series and it didn't take long for that to not be challenging enough. My mom bought the first Harry Potter book on a whim as the franchise was starting to build up traction. She thought it might've peaked my interest once again. Boy, did she completely underestimate my interest. Despite the fact that I actually struggled to read it at the time, it didn't stop me from becoming entirely fascinated with it. So much so that my mom bought the rest of the books that were released at the time in future preparation. Here's where the inspiration comes in. That first book permeated every aspect of my life. One of the pillars of my entire existence is that book. It started my journey of creation. I no longer just wanted to read the books. I wanted to write them. This book is literally the exact reason why I even bothered to learn how to write at the time. It sparked ideas that still haven't stopped to this day and I needed an outlet to get them out. Now, my outlets have expanded. I draw, I photograph, I direct. All because of that singular book. It is strange how a book can transcend time. I read the entire series every year and now I read them to my daughter in hopes that she finds the same inspiration I did.

I don't apply creativity in my life. Creativity IS my life. I'm sure many people say that but I find it to be significantly true for myself. I spend 24/7 inspired and almost every waking moment of day creating in some way. My brain cranks out ideas faster than my hands can create. In one notebook alone, I have over 250 ideas that are waiting patiently to be fulfilled. My main creative outlet is drawing - specifically digital drawing. You can be hard pressed to find me without my iPad and my Apple pencil attached squarely to my hands. My husband jokes that I spend more time drawing than I do breathing so I do not kid when I say creativity is my life. This is exactly why I am pursing a degree in graphic design. I already have the creativity, I just need to immerse myself in the more technical side of the career. They say you'll never work a day in your life if you love what you do and I fully intend to put that phrase to use.

It's gonna sound a little cheesy and it's gonna sound a little goofy. But the first Harry Potter book. The Sorcerer's Stone was published the year after I was born. Because I was developmentally ahead on literacy, I learned to read much faster than your average kid. By the time I was three years old, I was well into the Junie B. Jones book series and it didn't take long for that to not be challenging enough. My mom bought the first Harry Potter book on a whim as the franchise was starting to build up traction. She thought it might've peaked my interest once again. Boy, did she completely underestimate my interest. Despite the fact that I actually struggled to read it at the time, it didn't stop me from becoming entirely fascinated with it. So much so that my mom bought the rest of the books that were released at the time in future preparation. Here's where the inspiration comes in. That first book permeated every aspect of my life. One of the pillars of my entire existence is that book. It started my journey of creation. I no longer just wanted to read the books. I wanted to write them. This book is literally the exact reason why I even bothered to learn how to write at the time. It sparked ideas that still haven't stopped to this day and I needed an outlet to get them out. Now, my outlets have expanded. I draw, I photograph, I direct. All because of that singular book. It is strange how a book can transcend time. I read the entire series every year and now I read them to my daughter in hopes that she finds the same inspiration I did.

Many people don't expect this because many people don't expect much out of toddlers: Toddlers are easy to practice empathy. The only reason I know this is because of my own experience with my own toddler who is autistic. The classic way to empathize with people is to look at it from their point of view. Imagine yourself in their shoes, they say. That is a difficult enough task with a toddler, let alone an autistic toddler. This means that you have to get creative. When someone primarily communicates their anger, their joy, and their sadness nonverbally, you start to get very good at reading their body language. You become bilingual but your second language isn't Spanish or French. You get to speak the same language together. Sometimes you can beat a meltdown before it even begins and if you can't...well...if you can't, all you can do is your best. Sometimes they want you to give them a hug, sometimes they want you to just be there next to them. You may not be able to understand what the problem is or why it is the way it is but that will never stop you from having the ability to be there. I can't stop my daughter from feeling big emotions that she can't understand but I can hold her hand and stroke her hair while she does.

I am 100% fully self-taught. I have been working and honing these skills for 15 years. I always knew I would be in the creative sector in some form or another and this allowed me to grow skills that allow me to be a design chameleon. I would like to create designs and brand identities for companies or non-profits that revolve around volunteer/advocacy. I am heavily involved in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous movement as well as LGBTQ+ advocacy. On a personal level, I am Autistic and have ADHD so I am also heavily involved with Neurodivergency awareness. This drives my desire to offer my skills up to create cohesive brands that are notable and memorable. The more they are notable and memorable, the more attention can be drawn to these causes. The more attention means more change. At the moment, I use exclusively creative products to bring awareness to a multitude of issues.

In all honesty, my mental health did not shape my goals in a good way...at first. From 13 until 17 when I graduated high school, I had no future plans. I had already attempted suicide twice. The only plan I had was finally not making it past my 20s. Lo and behold, my now husband entered my life. I made it very obvious to him that this probably would not have been a long-lasting relationship; I was "just too crazy" to be involved with someone in the long run. Despite all the nights I spent crying in the bathroom, thinking I was just a waste of breath and didn't deserve to live the life I did or the nights where all I could do was stare at my own blood on a razor blade, he still stuck around. He showed me kindness and compassion. He listened when no one else did. He handled me with such a delicacy. I felt seen for the first time in my life. Slowly but surely, I got a little bit better but I still had extremely dark times. I never attempted again but the idea had always been there. It wasn't until 2020 when the pandemic started that I started to get dangerously close to the edge again. I got pregnant around that time as well where the hormones did not do me any favors. Once I had my daughter, I had to deal with Post-Partum Depression on top of my garden variety depression. I will willingly admit that I had catastrophic feelings; feelings of hurting myself - abandoning my husband and daughter and disappearing into the woods to die like a sick animal. That is when I knew I was in dire need of outside help. This was far too much for myself or my husband to weather. I finally saw a psychiatrist and got on medication. Turns out I also had severe untreated ADHD which in turn was making literally everything (and I mean everything) worse. Once I was getting the help I needed, a whole new world opened up. I finally felt the joy of living. I finally was able to look at my daughter and instead of feeling dread, I felt an overwhelming sense of triumph about how I made this little bitty creature and have the privilege to watch her grow up. Looking back on those times, I just wanted to let myself know that we did it. We're 25, in a loving decade long relationship, and we have a beautiful two year old baby girl. We got help. We survived. We have goals! Something we never had before! I spent the last 15 years of my life expressing myself through art and writing. I now want to use all of the skills I honed by pure experience by pursing a degree in graphic design. Unfortunately, even with my mental health being at the best it has ever been so far, I still struggle financially and college is regrettably expensive. I am applying to as many scholarships as I can, particularly the mental health ones as I feel they are the ones that hit most at heart.

I actually wrote a research paper involving this exact topic but I know exactly the direction I would like to go here. There are so many different solutions that are both practical and simple to implement. I feel like the easiest one to put into effect would be to prohibit insurance companies from excluding mental health providers. Of course, the utopian solution would be to make all mental health services free, making the insurance companies' decisions obsolete, but unfortunately, we don't live in a utopian world. According to the 2019 Census, 92% of Americans have health insurance. Since 1996, federal law requires all health insurance companies to offer mental services the same way they offer physical services. You would assume that that would be the end of it. Naturally, it is not. If it was, we wouldn't be here. These companies DO offer mental health services, however, they make it extremely difficult in many different ways including excluding many mental health providers. This is where many Americans get screwed over. Almost 80% of Americans suffer from depression and anxiety alone yet barely 20% of those are actually able to receive the care they need. I am most passionate about this because I, like many others, have dealt with this on a personal level. I live in rural AR. I am lucky enough to have 5 offices within an hour of me. Only 1 takes my insurance because Anthem excluded the other 4. That 1 office that is available wouldn't take me because of my medication. So if I were to still attend therapy, I would have to pay out of pocket which is always expensive. Simply put, insurers should not make getting help so difficult when mental health is difficult enough to deal with already.

In all honesty, my mental health did not shape my goals in a good way...at first. From 13 until 17 when I graduated high school, I had no future plans. I had already attempted suicide twice. The only plan I had was finally not making it past my 20s. Lo and behold, my now husband entered my life. I made it very obvious to him that this probably would not have been a long-lasting relationship; I was "just too crazy" to be involved with someone in the long run. Despite all the nights I spent crying in the bathroom, thinking I was just a waste of breath and didn't deserve to live the life I did or the nights where all I could do was stare at my own blood on a razor blade, he still stuck around. He showed me kindness and compassion. He listened when no one else did. He handled me with such a delicacy. I felt seen for the first time in my life. Slowly but surely, I got a little bit better but I still had extremely dark times. I never attempted again but the idea had always been there. It wasn't until 2020 when the pandemic started that I started to get dangerously close to the edge again. I got pregnant around that time as well where the hormones did not do me any favors. Once I had my daughter, I had to deal with Post-Partum Depression on top of my garden variety depression. I will willingly admit that I had catastrophic feelings; feelings of hurting myself - abandoning my husband and daughter and disappearing into the woods to die like a sick animal. That is when I knew I was in dire need of outside help. This was far too much for myself or my husband to weather. I finally saw a psychiatrist and got on medication. Turns out I also had severe untreated ADHD which in turn was making literally everything (and I mean everything) worse. Once I was getting the help I needed, a whole new world opened up. I finally felt the joy of living. I finally was able to look at my daughter and instead of feeling dread, I felt an overwhelming sense of triumph about how I made this little bitty creature and have the privilege to watch her grow up. Looking back on those times, I just wanted to let myself know that we did it. We're 25, in a loving decade long relationship, and we have a beautiful two year old baby girl. We got help. We survived. We have goals! Something we never had before! I spent the last 15 years of my life expressing myself through art and writing. I now want to use all of the skills I honed by pure experience by pursing a degree in graphic design. Unfortunately, even with my mental health being at the best it has ever been so far, I still struggle financially and college is regrettably expensive. I am applying to as many scholarships as I can, particularly the mental health ones as I feel they are the ones that hit most at heart.

Being an autistic female, I was diagnosed late in life and once I was, it was like a whole new world opened up. It explained so much. Ever since I was 10 years old, I had a fascination of two things: history and art. This allowed me to fixate and that fixation is what I used to grow my skills in writing and drawing. I am 100% self-taught in both of those areas. I have received high praise for those skills. Unfortunately, high praise only gets you so far. I have applied to many graphic design and creative arts positions - from internship all the way to mid-senior level - and all require a minimum Bachelor's degree of some sort of creative avenue. I still applied in hopes that someone in a hiring position may look at my work and the years I have spent immersed in art and say "let's take a chance". That has yet to happen. So here I am, trying to pursue a degree in graphic design specifically. However, as with many goals in life, there is always the hiccup. I come from a financially strenuous background and that hasn't changed well into my adulthood. I can only afford so much and most definitely cannot afford to take out a loan as coverage. I feel its only responsible to take a loan if you have the confidence to be able to pay it off and I simply do not have the means to do that. I am seeking out scholarships to ease the financial burden and allow myself the privilege of chasing a career in a field I am in love with.

I would like to create designs and brand identities for companies or non-profits that revolve around volunteer/advocacy. I am heavily involved in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous movement as well as LGBTQ+ advocacy. On a personal level, I am Autistic and have ADHD so I am also heavily involved with Neurodivergency awareness. This drives my desire to offer my skills up to create cohesive brands that are notable and memorable. The more they are notable and memorable, the more attention can be drawn to these causes. The more attention means more change. At the moment, I use exclusively creative products to bring awareness to a multitude of issues.