Boy Meets Girl® Live to Inspire Feature: Maddy Hill
What (or who) inspires you?
"I'm continually inspired by all of the creative women I know! I am lucky enough to have so many talented friends involved in some sort of creative industry and quite a few of them are photographers, videographers, writers, social media gurus, artisans, and performers. It's exceptional how they follow their heart and their inspirations with abandon and let their passion fuel their work. In a world where social media allows people to produce a large amount of content rapidly, I find that the most remarkable content on my feeds is produced by people who are creating content because they love to share their perspective of the world, not to fulfill the expectations of their followers."
Causes you advocate for?
"I've struggled with depression and anxiety all of my life, and I have been an advocate for mental health for years. I first opened up about my depression on my blog and social media in 2015 and had an overwhelming number of people respond saying they had struggled with similar feelings at some point in their life, and I became deeply committed to eliminating the stigma of mental illness on my social media channels and my blog. Since then, I've worked to shed a light on my mental health struggles through raw Instagram stories, Self Care Sunday posts, and mentioning how I'm feeling and what I'm going through on a regular basis with Instagram posts. I make regular contributions to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I am also an advocate for a condition called Copper Toxicity, which I was diagnosed with in 2016, that is under diagnosed but affects so many women and causes a wide array of mental and physical health issues."
Where is your favorite place to be creative?
"My favorite place to be creative is at one of the local coffee shops near my apartment. I work better when I'm in an environment where I can be alone and focused on my work but also have a little buzz in the background from people catching up, having conversations, and sharing ideas. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but a few sips of an iced coffee with coconut milk and hemp oil jumpstarts my brain and puts me in the perfect mindset to really get cracking on projects! I also find my brain flooded with ideas around 11pm and have completed some of my favorite blog posts, photoshoot edits, and videos in the wee hours of the morning."
