Hey There!
My name's Hannah, and I'd love to get to know you! First things first, I'm sure you're curious about who I am and what I do, so let's start there...
GET TO KNOW ME (The basics)
I'm Hannah, and I'm currently a 23 year old artist residing in Savannah, GA. You may have noticed that I specialize in a lot of different things, the main ones being photography, makeup, graphic design, and social media strategy. If it involves creativity, then I'm likely your gal! Some people may think that all of my talents and interests are too much, but my mindset is that I never want to be known for just one thing. And with my specialties, there is a lot of skill-set overlap and room for creative innovation!
As for my background, I am originally from Lancaster, PA, and the rest of my family still resides there. I moved to Savannah right after high school to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design, where I majored in Photography and minored in Business, Fashion Marketing, and Printmaking. Currently, I work as a freelancer in the greater Savannah area and am open to commission.
A few things that are especially important to me outside of my artistic specialties are social activism and community outreach. Helping people makes me happy, and I feel as if that is my true purpose. The things that I am most passionate about would probably be feminism and the Autism/Neurodivergent community, as these both affect my daily life.
Let's Get Personal...
I'm all about breaking barriers. You might never have guessed it, but I actually do have Autism (ASD), but it is not my identity, and I'd probably drop dead before I ever let something like my disability define me. I want to break the stigma and educate others as much as possible, because my community's voice deserves to be heard. People often describe those who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (formerly known as "Asperger's Syndrome) as people who are on the “higher functioning” side of the spectrum. In relative comparison, that is true. Autism is a spectrum that includes different types, or “levels,” to categorize and appropriately identify a person. So, in a sense, I am “higher functioning” than others on the spectrum that deal with different cognitive development issues. However, at the same time, the term “high functioning” can also be a harmful description to those labeled as such. You see, often times I’m labeled as “higher functioning” because I can assimilate myself to look like a “normal” person. I’m able to go about most days without showing any signs of my cognitive struggles or internal challenges that I may be having, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, and it certainly doesn’t make my struggles any easier to cope with. Growing up, I’ve been subconsciously learning how to “mask” most of my symptoms, and this is why I wasn’t officially diagnosed until I was sixteen-years-old.
When people first meet me, they never immediately assume that I have a disability. It’s probably because people often associate the word “autism” with someone that shows more signs of a physical disability. And while the Autism Spectrum community includes many of those individuals, you’d be surprised by how many of us go “under the radar,” per se. One thing not a lot of people know about is that ASD is a lot less detectible in females than in males, which is why we often go undiagnosed for a majority of our lives. Females are known to use “masking” when it comes to their symptoms, so it becomes harder to identify. In my case, I wasn’t diagnosed until my teenage years because my symptoms were brushed off as signs of me just being an “emotional woman” or a “drama queen.” When I was younger, I had no clue what was going on in my own head, much less was I able to find the words to describe what I was feeling. If I’m being honest, it’s a terrible feeling: being stuck in your own head, knowing something is wrong, but not knowing what. I was unable to describe what was wrong to others, so I was unable to seek the correct help. I didn’t know it at the time, but the reason I would cry or overreact to everything was because I was trying to subconsciously draw attention to the fact that something was wrong. I wanted my parents or other adults to pay more attention to me in hopes they would understand me and identify my stressors. But, when you’re a smart kid, placed in all the advanced programs at school, people would never assume you had a problem, and it didn’t seem to show in my performance. I was a star student, excelling in almost everything, but I was also very shy. I had begun to keep to myself. I never wanted to draw any attention to myself because I didn’t want to stick out or be bullied. Being in a large classroom filled with other kids overwhelmed me, and it drained my social battery, so I didn’t have the energy to participate in any form of social environment.
Autistic people are often told that we overreact or feel things too strongly in comparison to everyone else. As a result, we might start masking and restricting our emotions and ways of expressing them, unintentionally affecting our ability to process them. We might even start to think that we can’t trust our emotions at all, so we start to mimic those around us instead, further disconnecting ourselves from who we actually are. This had been the case for most of my life. But now, after being correctly diagnosed, I try my hardest to always be my authentic self. I shouldn’t have to hold back how I’m feeling in order to feel accepted in a society that has always deemed me “socially awkward.” It’s okay for me to have my special interests; it’s okay for me to be a picky eater, and it’s okay for me to not always understand social cues. Also, I shouldn’t have to apologize for expressing myself whenever I do face a new stressor or need a certain accommodation in order to help me function. That’s why it is so important for me to advocate for others in the community who might not be able to advocate for themselves.
Every person on the Autism Spectrum is different, however, and it’s hard to put us in one specific box when we fit into many. I don’t think I ever want to be boxed in to just one thing. That’s why I have so many hobbies and interests and I’m constantly teaching myself new things. I always need a new project or something new to focus on so I don’t have to remain still and repetitive, or else I can fall into old and familiar habits. Familiar isn’t necessarily a bad thing though; it can bring me a lot of comfort. That’s why I always resort to watching the same tv shows a million times or rereading my favorite book at least once a year. It’s familiar and predictable and allows me to stay inside of my comfort zone. I’ve really been trying to push myself recently though so I can expand my abilities and embrace the unpredictable because I’ve realized that I can’t control everything, and that’s okay. For now, I take it day by day.
Daily Life and interests
So, you made it this far into my auto-biography...congrats! Thanks for reading this far. While I could continue to go on and on about what makes me who I am, I guess I'll just end this by telling you about some of my favorite things, so hopefully we'll have something to talk about together!
You can usually always find me curled up with a good book. I'm an avid reader, and I'm always looking for new suggestions. My favorite series of all time is definitely the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi. The way she writes about the female protagonist's journey of self-discovery and path to self-confidence really resonates with me. If I'm not somewhere with my nose in a book, I'm probably watching Youtube commentary videos or listening to my favorite true crime podcasts. Staying intellectually active is something that I'm always doing, and I always love having conversations over shared interests!
If you want to know more about me or projects that I'm up to, feel free to follow me on social media and send me a message! I look forward to meeting you!