About Me — Bethany Stahl
Author, Illustrator, Overthinker, Want-to-be Overachiever
Who am I?
Oddly enough, I’ve been wondering this same thing and have been on a self-discovery journey for the past few years wondering who really is Bethany? Who is anyone? And why does it matter? Who actually cares?
When thinking of this question I considered three aspects:
- I could list facts. I have my Bachelor’s in Biology. I’m a self-taught artist whose work has been featured in galleries. I began self-publishing in 2018 and haven’t stopped since. Now, I am a full-time author and illustrator of namely children’s picture books.
- I could list my feelings. I love my cats and that they try to smack my fingers as I try to type with their little toe beans. I love that my dog seems to only experience optimism, even on the worst days. I’m nervous about writing this so much that I had to Google “what are feelings” to verify that I was staying on track and not going back to listing facts. However, I’m still not sure if love is a feeling or a fact. Possibly both.
- I could list diagnoses: I have endometriosis and I’m neurodivergent (a collection of diagnoses that I am still exploring and will discuss in time).
But none of these things really felt like who I truly am in the essence of my soul. Facts, feelings, and diagnoses don’t make a person who they are. If they did, I fear that life would be quite boring.
So here is my best shot at describing who I am.
- I am phthalocyanine green blended with a bit of ultramarine blue and a touch of cadmium red.
- I am the dandelion seed dancing through a warm spring breeze through the whispering of willow leaves brushing against the tall grass.
- I am the chipped shell crashing between the salty rush of ocean and waterlogged sand.
Too much? Yeah, I thought so too and I think I may hear my editor yelling at me from far in the distance about using too much purple prose.
I guess I’ll try answering some of the suggested questions.
Where are you from? I’m from what was once a small city in Florida. Growing up, people who lived a few major cities away hadn’t even heard of the place. After being featured in listicles claiming it was one of the best places to live, I was gentrified in the mid-2010s after being unable to secure housing that was rising faster than any local jobs could compete with leaving behind everything I had ever known. I know many of these have lived this story and know it all too well.
What do you do for a living? I’m an author. I’m proud to write and share stories about things I love, but I also have a slew of side projects and hobbies including a YouTube channel and a self-care line of all-natural products that I’ve been building formulated from my passion in phytochemistry, herbalism, and aromatherapy.
What are your Medium goals? My goal is to find a sense of community in this increasingly lonely world and interact with others and find a thread of connection, no matter how small.
I suppose I’ll never know how to write a proper About Me because the journey of becoming yourself is constantly happening at every second of every day. The person I was at the beginning of the article is slightly different now that I am at the end.
Nice to “meet” you.
To learn more about me visit: bethanystahl.com
