Turning Pain Into Purpose | Heather Hutchison

In this compelling interview, Jillian Comstock sits down with Heather Hutchison, a talented content creator, author, and musician from British Columbia, Canada. Heather shares her inspiring journey of living with a visual impairment and advocating for disability and mental health awareness through her impactful social media presence and creative work.

Key Highlights:

• Discover how Heather Hutchison uses her platform to raise awareness about disability and mental health.
• Hear the powerful story of Heather’s transformation from a reluctant advocate to a prominent voice in the visually impaired community.
• Learn about the challenges Heather faced growing up and how she turned those experiences into opportunities to help others.
• Be inspired by Heather’s message that self-acceptance and embracing one’s identity are crucial steps toward true empowerment.

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Transcript:

Jillian Comstock:

Hi everyone. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Jill, and welcome to My Hero 360. Here at My Hero 360, we honor, celebrate, and connect heroes worldwide. Their voices can serve as a catalyst for change, encouraging others to find their own strength and pursue their passions. Today we are showcasing Heather Hutchison’s story. Heather, thank you so much for being here today and allowing our team at My Hero 360 to share your unique story. I’ve done a lot of research into your story and learned a lot about you over the last couple of weeks. Let me just say, your story is so inspiring and so compelling, and I’m so excited to be able to share it today. Before we begin, I want to just give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and provide a little background so our audience can get to know you a little bit better.

Heather Hutchison:

For sure. Thank you so much, and I’m so excited to be here. I’m Heather. I am a content creator, author, and musician. I am from British Columbia, Canada, and I was born blind. A lot of what I do these days is produce content that raises awareness about disability and mental health and share that content in short-form video on social media.

Jillian Comstock:

Wonderful. Speaking of that content, you have a very impactful presence on social media, particularly Instagram, and you advocate, like you said, for the visually impaired. You share personal experiences, and you offer valuable insights on assistive technology, and it’s truly commendable what you’re doing. My question is, what inspired you to embark on this journey in the realm of social media and become a voice for the visually impaired community?

Heather Hutchison:

It was actually a complete accident. I spent most of my life as a very reluctant advocate. I sort of tried to hide my blindness from the world. I actually used to even curate my social media feed with images so people wouldn’t be able to tell that I couldn’t see. And during COVID, I ended up in hospital as an involuntary psychiatric patient. One of the things I realized in hospital was that a lot of what I was doing wasn’t working. One of the big things that wasn’t working was being ashamed of myself and feeling undeserving of the space that I was taking up in the world.

When I got out of the hospital and decided to share my story, I ended up writing my memoir and then writing music to also share that story. One of my best friends suggested in doing promotion for the book and the music that I should share my story in videos on social media. First, I was vehemently opposed to this because if I wasn’t even completely comfortable with myself as someone who’s blind, how could I open myself up to the inevitable criticism and trolls that would come from putting myself out there? But my best friend is nothing if not persistent. She kept saying that she thought people would be interested in my perspective as someone who’s blind who also deals with mental health issues.

Eventually I started posting videos, and at first they were very curated about the book and the music, but gradually I started incorporating little bits of my daily life as someone who’s blind and truly to my surprise, because I genuinely did not believe anyone would care, people responded, and those responses were overwhelmingly positive. I found a community of people who share in similar ups and downs and other people who want to learn and want to do better and understand that in order for us to make true positive, lasting change, the voices of disabled people themselves need to be heard. It has just kind of grown from there. I kept posting, and it’s been a really incredible experience for the most part.

Jillian Comstock:

Wow. I mean, your friend is absolutely right. You have now over 100,000 followers on Instagram, so it’s just so crazy how the universe can work in mysterious ways, right? I’ve spent quite some time watching the content you post on Instagram, and your authenticity and vulnerability is truly inspiring. I think we all can agree, like you said, that social media can be a daunting place. Your ability to share your life and be yourself in front of the whole world to see and respond to takes strength. I just want to applaud you for that, genuinely.

Heather Hutchison:

Thank you.

Jillian Comstock:

You’re welcome. In light of that, how do you cultivate a positive online experience amidst the potential negativity on social media? What strategies do you employ to safeguard your well-being in the digital space?

Heather Hutchison:

Yeah, it is a struggle for sure because like I said, the responses are overwhelmingly positive, but when you have a video that does well and millions of people are viewing it, of course you’re going to get that negativity. That can be hard as somebody who has struggled with being open in the past and has struggled with self-acceptance. For me, a big part of it is I have to remember … I have to look at it mathematically, like, “Okay, this post has this many comments, such a small percentage of them are negative, and it’s human nature to focus on the negative.”

I really have to work on reframing that and not allowing myself to focus on that small percentage of negativity as well as just really leaning into my support network. If I have a post where things are kind of blowing up in a negative way, then really leaning on my friends and my family and even sharing some of the comments with them so that they can just tell me, “That’s ridiculous. That’s obviously not true, and that’s not you.” Sometimes you can try and tell yourself that, but it does help to hear it externally. Then if things are really bad or I’m really struggling for whatever reason, then I’ve gotten a lot better at just putting down my phone or having somebody else that I trust go through the comments and deal with some of the really, really negative ones so that I don’t end up having to read them if I’m not in a place to do that.

Jillian Comstock:

Right. Navigating the seed of negative comments and refraining from taking them personally, I can only imagine how challenging that is. After all, we are only human experiencing, learning from life in real time is easy for people to forget that we are all on this journey of life together and we’re each facing its challenges for the very first time. Shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about your music. You’re a songwriter, and music is a big part of your identity and your brand. You have multiple singles out there on Spotify and Apple Music. Can you share with us how music has been a catalyst to helping yourself and others?

Heather Hutchison:

Music has been huge for me from a really young age. It was a way to process a lot of really complicated feelings, especially I think in the teenage years is when I really started taking it more seriously. My first album came out when I was 16, and I was in a really dark place when that was going on, and I was really supported by the musicians that I was working with, the producers, the engineers. They didn’t treat me like I was different or less than them; to them, I was just a girl who loved music.

That human connection through music has always been really important to me, both in the people that I work with as well as the responses that I get from listeners. It was huge, especially at that age, but throughout my life, to play at a concert and have somebody come up after and say, “This song really helped me when I was going through such and such a period in my life.” Just to have that human connection, that knowledge that all our paths are different, but in the end, emotion is so universal, and I think music is such a great way to share that.

Jillian Comstock:

Absolutely. I think everyone loves music. I think you’re not going to find someone that can’t connect with music in some way. Absolutely. Just out of my curiosity, what musician inspires you the most?

Heather Hutchison:

That’s so hard. Yeah, that’s a really tough question. I think it depends on where I am at in my life. I love, obviously I’m a singer, so powerful vocalist. I love Faouzia. She’s a singer here in Canada, and I think she’s one of the greatest voices in pop music today. Of course, Adele. When I was first getting into music, Amy Lee from Evanescence was huge for me at that stage. It definitely varies depending on where I am in my life and what I’m into and what I want to do with my own music as well at the time is a lot of what I listen to and the music that I surround myself with.

Jillian Comstock:

That makes sense. In addition to songwriting, you’re also an author, like you said before, and I’m intrigued by the title of your memoir. It’s called Holding On by Letting Go, and it sounds extremely profound and reflective. Can you share some insights into the themes and experiences you explore in your memoir? What inspired you to choose this title, and how does it encapsulate the essence of your journey that you wanted to convey to your readers?

Heather Hutchison:

Holding On by Letting Go is my story of my life as a blind person growing up in Canada and Latin America and my hospitalization for psychiatric care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first part of the book, it kind of has these 2 intersecting themes, and the first part of this book is talking about my life and sort of what brought me to the point of being hospitalized, the good and the bad throughout growing up. Then the second part of the book is kind of my journal almost each day that I spent in the hospital as a chapter.

It really goes through that kind of theme as well and delves into stripping away the mystery of what happens behind those locked doors because it can be a very difficult experience for anyone to go through. I think particularly when you have a disability, you don’t know what that experience is going to be like. My family, when I was going through it, could not find any information on what that would be like for me. If there would be any things that I would be offered to help deal with the fact that I was in a mental health crisis, but also had a physical disability, if there would be any accommodations, there were really no resources out there, so I decided to create one.

The title, actually going back to my best friend again, she was the first one who read the first draft of my book, and I said to her, “What word comes to mind when you read the whole book?” She said, “Surrender,” as in surrendering for a second chance at life. For me, I really felt like surrendering was different than giving up, and I really wanted to capture that in the title of the book, Holding On by Letting Go. Letting go of the shame, the guilt, the trauma, letting go of feeling like I needed to be able to manage this on my own, letting it go so that other people could help me. In letting go, I was going to be able to hold on. It was the only way that I could hold on, so holding on by letting go.

Jillian Comstock:

Wow. I mean that is just so powerful and it’s so tough to let go for any human, to let go of guilt, shame and all those internal battles we have going on. It sounds super reflective and inspiring. At My Hero, we’re all about recognizing those that have embraced life’s challenges and turned it into something powerful and hopeful for others, and that sounds like what your book just did. But can you share ways in which you have not let your own obstacles define you?

Heather Hutchison:

I think for me it’s been really important to turn that pain into purpose. What helps me and what keeps me on my own healing path is getting to speak to people, is getting to make videos to connect with people who are standing right now where I stood, and to be the voice for those people that I wish I could have heard when I was going through it. That is really motivating for me to continue to journey on my own towards even more acceptance and even more mental well-being.

Jillian Comstock:

Of course. For my sixth and final question, what would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now?

Heather Hutchison:

There are so many things, but I think I would tell her that life is going to be so much easier when she learns to accept and embrace herself, her whole self. When she arrives at that place, it’s going to be so much easier to deal with the people in the world who don’t accept us as we are, because that can be a real struggle. But when we’re in a place to accept ourselves, then that outward, that background noise gets quieter and life becomes easier and it becomes more joyous.

Jillian Comstock:

That was beautifully said.

Heather Hutchison:

Thank you.

Jillian Comstock:

Thank you so much, Heather, for being here today. Thank you for your authenticity and vulnerability. It has been such a pleasure getting to share your story and just learn more about you. You are a hero, and here at My Hero 360, we value the impact you have made on the world. Thank you so much.

Heather Hutchison:

Thank you so much for having me.

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Connect with Heather Hutchison:

• Instagram: @heatherhutchisonmusic
• TikTok: @heatherhutchisonmusic
• YouTube: @HHutchisonMusic
• Website: heather-hutchison.com

About My Hero 360:

At My Hero 360, we honor, celebrate, and connect heroes worldwide. By sharing their stories, we aim to inspire and provide hope for humanity. Follow us to hear more incredible stories of unsung heroes who make a difference in the world.

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