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Meet Hannah Foote

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Foote.

Hannah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I do a lot with my time and I’ve never liked being bored. I started taking up multiple jobs, academic clubs, and sports in high school which would normally stress a lot of people out, but I’ve always been more comfortable in high energy, stressful situations. I ended up wanting a career in print journalism because I think it reflects that part of my personality. In a journalistic career, I would never be bored. I’m always looking out for a new story, talking to potential sources, writing articles, etc. I have a lot of passions that journalism similarly fills, such as animation and graphic design, cultural studies, the arts in general, and writing. I’m currently a student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU and I became an ethnic studies minor this past semester. Cronkite is simply amazing. I don’t want to sound like I’m giving a Yelp review, but honestly, Cronkite has opened so many doors for me and allows me to try every aspect of journalism and communications. Without Cronkite, I would not be able to say that I am a marketing manager of an art troupe in Gilbert or that I have written community and culture-based stories for the State Press. The school allows me to apply my passions, such as graphic design, writing, etc., in an effective way and teaches me a lot about the world around me and what my role as a journalist is in relation to that.

Other than writing and marketing, I spend a lot of my time dancing Lindy hop, a style of swing dance. I started about two years ago and it has kept me busy and social beyond any other hobby I’ve had. The community is very welcoming to beginners and I always recommend going to places like Kat’s Korner or the Duce to my friends and family because it has been instrumental in reducing my stress and finding an outlet for that stress. Beyond that, I also work at The Pink Teapot where I entertain for parties (typically birthday parties for children) as different princess characters. Although this job is new for me, I’ve been in this industry since I was 16 and have always loved working with children and having the opportunity to perform in a less formal setting. My boss, Angela, is the most flexible and understanding person I have ever had the pleasure of working with and I feel very comfortable working with her, especially after dealing with an uncomfortable and toxic work environment at a different business in the industry. I also am a freelance model working in Phoenix with local photographers doing catalog work and helping build their portfolios.

Modeling is something I wanted to try for a while and it wasn’t until I had an overwhelming amount of support from my close friends until I felt comfortable in the field. I get a lot of questions about what it is like to be a female model in Phoenix and every time someone asks about it I say the same thing. Phoenix is not a big hub for modeling compared to other larger cities like Los Angeles, but the same rules and fears are the same I think. The biggest advice I could give anyone interested in starting would be to check up on the photographers they are working with to make sure it is safe to be around them because safety is honestly the biggest issue I have as a model. I always ask if I can bring a friend along to the photoshoot for support and if they say no, that is a red flag for me. Everyone has different opinions about it, but I would rather be safe than sorry in this case.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I definitely struggled with finding the major and career path that would work best for me. I started with journalism and physics as my game plan but made a decision to focus more on journalism because I wanted to put more focus on the career I wanted in the future. I still enjoy physics and may minor in it down the road, but I’ve ruled it out as a major. That was a really tough decision for me to make because it was like having to decide between two great options. I think I made the right call in choosing journalism because I can still incorporate physics into my career in the future if I wanted to. Along the lines of hating to be bored, sometimes I overwork myself to the point that I forget to sleep and take on more than I might be able to handle, especially during finals week. Working multiple jobs and pursuing time-consuming hobbies as a full-time college student is challenging and I forgot to learn how to relax because I never gave myself the time to all throughout high school. I’ve been working on that a lot and try to make sure I don’t take on a ton of new and exciting projects or jobs without fully understanding how it will impact everything else I already am committed to.

I also found a lot of stress and issues around the fall of 2018 after I officially came out as bisexual. I lost a few friends and had to deal with all sorts of homophobic or passive aggressive comments claiming that bisexuality is not real or that people my age say they are bisexual as a phase or way to get attention. That was really difficult to overcome because I trusted a lot of the people who later shamed me for something I had no choice in. I was idealistic in thinking that it wouldn’t change things and I was offered certain job positions solely because I was apart of the LGBTQ+ community. The people who offered me the positions had not read my work thoroughly and if they had they would know that I would not fit well as apart of their writing staff stylistically. A lot more changed after coming out than I expected and it is something that I still struggle with now, but I think it is important to note that sexuality is only a part of who a person is. That helped me a lot in accepting myself because not a lot changed for me when I came out, it just changed the perspectives of others, if that makes sense.

What should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I think I kind of am my work, honestly. I focus on what I do so much, whether it be the writing, marketing, modeling, entertaining, etc. I put a lot of my time and effort into what I do because it is what I love and I think that ultimately a person is made up of what they love. For me, that’s always been working.

I specialize in cultural reporting and writing for my print career path and I worked with the State Press to report on some cultural and community stories and news in Tempe and Downtown Phoenix.

As a writer, I am most proud of my persistence and the persistence of the other reporters I have worked with at the State Press specifically. It is a skill that requires a lot of patience and I think that learning that early on in my journalistic career can only help me in the future.

Do you feel like there are certain traits that increase the likelihood of success?
I think that empathy and compassion is the most important quality of success. Most of my success as a writer has come from the ability to understand people and put myself in their shoes to report accurately and ask the most effective questions. Any job, hobby, sport, etc. I’ve ever been successful it has been in part because of my understanding of the people around me. I greatly appreciate the people who have helped me become successful in what I do or have done and in return, I hope to be as helpful to them when they need it.

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Image Credit:
Kal Images for the three photos not wearing yellow, Natalie Allen for the horizontal photo (with hat), Ashlee O’Neil for the photo wearing the yellow top

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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