Kloie & Hanna – Finding Acceptance Within Yourself
You know what they say, it goes down in the DM’s, and you’re damn right it did. Hanna and I stumbled upon each other two years ago. We had the same groups of friends and lived in the same city, yet both wondered why we had never crossed paths before.
H: When I met Kloie I was an absolute mess and struggling to find acceptance within myself. For almost 23 years, I repressed the feelings of being gay to fit the mold of a life I didn’t even want. Some close friends knew of my struggles, and others pushed it off as a phase.
It wasn’t until I met her that I began to feel a sense of belonging. The way this girl made my heart sing was not something to be ignored. She helped me through the darkest parts of my mind to reteach myself to love myself fully again. She taught me how to speak up for the voices in my heart that were so desperate to be heard. She was home.
K: From the moment I set my eyes on her, I immediately felt that I had to know this girl. We were supposed to be intertwined in some way, somehow. Like we had lived lives together before, our connection was so evident to us instantly and spiritually.
Soon after spending nights at her apartment and eating endless amounts of pizza, we began to bond over the same thirst for life, creativity, passion, and adventure. It was strange because we had met when life didn’t seem to let up on either of us. We started connecting on this mutual feeling of just wanting more. Talking and sharing and loving every minute of it became the epitome of our relationship.
We have always provided a safe place for her and I to come back to. We were helping each other through any obstacle thrown at either of us. And let me tell you, there have been plenty of them.
I always thought in the back of my mind that the timing between her and I couldn’t possibly be right because I was such a mess in my life. I was in the middle of healing myself from an abusive relationship I escaped from. How could I possibly drag someone into this? So I naturally believed I didn’t deserve Hanna or really anything at that time in my life.
I was in for a surprise. A surprise that changed my perspective and made no room for any more doubts. She was patient and loved me for who I was and the face I put on every day. She was proud of me for my little wins, which pushed me for the bigger ones. So it hit me harder than life itself when I met my best friend. My person, someone I can share dreams with and go to bed with at night. It was invaluable and still is to this day.
Finding a love, I used to dream of as a little girl. I never imagined two years ago, even five years ago, that I would be walking in the light with someone so beautiful. Her heart made me come out of the dark, and it helped me stand up and fight back for the future I always wanted. It just included her now. She so quickly became a part of me. At the end of every day, her arms were the safest place on earth. That to me was when our story began, two girls that were ready to breathe in life again. Hand in hand, we became fearless together during our little love story. We brought out the qualities we loved most about life. We struck every opportunity to create and design together anywhere from clothes to photoshoots with no limit. There is truly nothing we love more than seeing our vision come together. The first conversation between us that I like to look back on the most because it was like us manifesting our future together as if we knew it belonged to us. We never gave up on them, and I believe we found each other to keep them alive.
Welcome to Chapter One of our story that isn’t finished yet.
Photography by Paloma Havlik