My names Immy … or Imogen … I was born in Glasgow Scotland … and I stayed there until I was two years old … and then my family moved to the northeast of England … a town called Whitley Bay outside of Newcastle Upon Tyne … I moved to the U.S. when I was about nine years old … My mom met an American man … and we ended up moving … my sister and I moved to just outside of San Jose … a town called Sunnyvale … I went to elementary and part of middle school there … before moving to the east coast … a small town called Harvard Massachusetts … I can remember my time in England … when I was young … pretty vividly … It was different … for sure … culturally … I’ve been back … it’s funny … I feel England … obviously it’s still very westernized … it’s not super different … I can remember going to school out there … I remember getting bullied a lot when I was in school … when I was in England … I remember my family out there … What was I bullied about? … Mainly normal kid stuff … even just stuff like my name … Up until really recently … I didn’t like my name a lot … because I associated it with being younger and people making fun of me for it … I’ve always been a very artistic person … very interested in art … When I was growing up over there … when I was little … I would draw … I would paint … I always liked animals a lot … nature … playing outside … I had pet guinea pigs when I was really young … and I was obsessed with them (laughter) … I still love guinea pigs … and I have a cat now … When I moved to California … I was in the 4th grade … and it was culturally very different … it was a lot for a nine year old to process … My sister was a bit younger … and I feel like she definitely had an easier time with it then I did … Moving is trauma … It wasn’t anything my mom was trying to do to me … but it definitely effected me a lot … just because … it was so different … it was a big shift in identity … that’s such an awkward age already without … moving across the world … Again … I got bullied … at first … people thought it was cool where I was from … I always had a harder time making friends in school … I was kinda really dorky … Two years later … moved again … it was an adjustment … In Massachusetts I went to a really small high school … they didn’t want to admit that it was cliquey … but it was … I was pretty outcast … but I was very involved with art … and my art teachers … They encouraged me to keep going with school … and everything … I would dress super weird when I was in high school (laughter) … I think that set me aside … I was pretty much on my own … I had a couple of friends … honestly … I was just focused on studying … I was very good at school … with art … and english … and history … I was really interested in fashion … I went to the Alexander McQueen exhibit in New York … I loved that … I was really inspired by that … that was something that made me want to study fashion … I eventually went to college … I tried everything … even in high school … I was experimenting with printmaking … and textiles … and drawing … so … yeah … I liked a bit of everything … I … was so outcast in high school … I wanted to go somewhere where I felt my kind of weirdness would be appreciated (laughter) … besides the fact I might find a group of friends that liked art … I felt art school would be the place where I might find a group of friends … So … I had decided I definitely wanted to do art school … I feel a lot of people … even my family … had their hesitations about it … just cause there’s this stigma about it … if you go for art … you’re not going to make money … whatever it is … there’s a lot of stigma that goes along with wanting to do art … I fought to do it … I really wanted to … I applied to a lot of schools … I got into pretty much everywhere I applied … I got a scholarship … and I chose Chicago after I visited school out here … I felt … even though it was freezing when I visited … I felt that people were really friendly here … I knew somebody that was going to SAIC … who seemed to really like it … I was encouraged to go out here … When I came to Chicago … and I was starting school … honestly the biggest thing for me … I realized … just because coming to the country when I was that young … my mom … my dad still lives in the UK … I was different then a lot of the kids I was going to school with … a lot of them came from a lot of money … people who’s parents paid their tuition … It was ridiculous … or had trust funds … which is fine … but I didn’t … That was definitely a challenge for me … probably one of the biggest challenges when I was in college was … a lot of these kids … I didn’t … relate to a lot of them … so I felt like an outcast for that reason … I always had a job through college … it was hard to plan my time … and on top of that … at that time … I got really interested in modeling … I was trying to split my time between all of these things that I wanted to do … or needed to do … It was a lot for someone that was eighteen … nineteen … I was studying fashion at the SAIC … and it was a super intense program … I have a bachelor in fine arts … It’s not specific for fashion … I actually left the fashion program after two years … I realized it wasn’t for me … It’s hard work … and I’m not opposed to hard work … I just didn’t feel … it’s very mathematical … I didn’t feel that it was something that I was super passionate about … and there were other areas I wanted to devote my time to … So … I took a lot of different classes … I did sculpture classes … and from there I got really interested in special effects makeup … I took classes hat were in the fashion department … but not part of the program per say … There was a mask making class that I really loved … I took stuff like hat making … because that was interesting to me too … from there … I developed that interest … and makeup … After graduating … I moved around a lot … even when I was here … I had a hard time living with people … So now … I live by myself … I felt like when I was in school … living on campus … or in the dorms … you have this level of protection … there’s security … It was hard for me being that young … I had my first experience with being followed home … having creepy guys on the train … I lived all the way up north … because it was cheaper … and I would spend at least 45 minutes each way … just taking the train … to get to school … and I dealt with everything from … people preaching about Jesus to me … to outright harassment … guys trying to touch me on the train … which is scary … for somebody that young … This was when I was commuting to school … Oh … but after graduating I moved straight to L.A. … I’d been wanting to for a while … I’d been going out there … I had made trips … and I started seeing a guy out there … then I decided I wanted to move there to be with him … and to pursue makeup … I did a couple of internships out there … just to be able to go … It was great for a while … Towards the end … when I was living in Chicago … I was really eager to get out … After I moved to L.A. … I was … Chicago is actually great … I think I just associated Chicago with school and stuff … I just wanted to feel like I was doing something new … In L.A. … I was doing special effects makeup … I got a job out there doing that … working on masks … super high quality silicone … That was my job … for a while … it was good … The main thing that I wasn’t happy about … with it … was making a lot of money doing it … and neither were even people at the top of the field in that industry … so … it was difficult … because I was spending so much time … it just wasn’t like … because L.A. is so crazy expensive … I was … I’ve spent so much money on school … and on trying to work my way up … It was minimum wage … literally … It was an independent company … but they would do stuff … sometimes for movies … or Universal … There were  lot of different applications of it … After L.A. … I had year stint in Kansas City (laughter) … which sounds crazy … Kansas City … honestly … it wasn’t for me … I moved out there … again … because of a relationship … and that ended up going sour … I was … “Why am I living here … in Kansas” … I’m not trying too say that Kansas is the worst place in the world … it definitely didn’t feel like it was the place for me … it wasn’t a good fit … it was very rural … I like cities a lot more … big cities … What did I do when I was there? … basically just living … I was pretty depressed that year … I didn’t really want to do art … I hardly even modeled that year … And then … I moved back to L.A. after being in Kansas City for almost exactly a year … I started modeling in L.A. as soon as I got back … I had a few people get in contact with me … asking to do shoots … and I missed it … and I ended up modeling again … and it was nice … And now … I’m back in Chicago … What are my artistic goals now? … I would really like to go back to school for art therapy … I’ve developed a pretty big interest in psychology recently … My main thing … because I was thinking about it … I want to be able to help people … I have this natural inclination to help … you know friends … or even strangers … or animals … I always just want to help people … To me … it seems like something that would be useful … and something I would really enjoy doing … I feel it would be a good application of art … I don’t want to get down on myself … but there’s not really a form of art that I feel I’m super … super good at … where I’d be the best … I see things like that … I want to be the best at what I do … I feel with art therapy … I could be really … really good … because I’m pretty empathetic … I understand … yeah … As far as social and cultural changes … To be honest … I feel the whole MeToo movement … all that it meant … is that people have learned to cover their tracks better … I do think that its nice that people are being held accountable for their actions … however … I saw a lot being in the entertainment industry in LA … a lot of these guys are still working … that are … predators … I witnessed it first hand … people being named … and they’d still be ahead of the game … a lot of time women aren’t believed … and it’s almost become like a joke … I hope there will be changes … Social media? … I think social media is making it easier then ever to harass people … I still get guys sending me really vulgar messages … or just straight up pictures of genitalia … from strangers that I’ve never talked to … I think … especially with some of types of modeling I do … people think I’m always down for stuff like that … I don’t understand the thought process … but I do think some guys genuinely are just like … Oh yeah … here … I’m going to send you a picture of my dick … and a paragraph about things I want to do to her … and she’ll love it … Usually … it depends on my mood … I can just laugh at it … Sometimes it does really get to me … it’s annoying … I’ve had guys on Instagram … or Facebook messenger … find my profile … and try to video-chat me … eight times in a row … I’m like … “Are you crazy … do you think I’m going to pick up to some random guy” … I don’t get it … As far as using social media … I really like Instagram … it’s actually the only social media I’m on now … I just moved … and I chose to delete my Facebook page for a couple of reasons … one major one was that I was spending a lot of time on it … I feel Instagram is good for sharing art … I like the stories feature … you can share little snapshots of your day … it’s nice to see what my friends are doing … people that I haven’t talked to in a while … or who live elsewhere … “Oh … what’s she up to today” … even if its just something like a cup of coffee … I still like it … For networking … it’s good too … I feel most people have Instagram now … I do like that … but then I also find … with Facebook … or even Instagram too … people don’t share … a lot of the bad stuff that goes on … and if they do … it almost seems a little melodramatic … I’ve seen a lot of posts … where you’re sharing this for a reason … nobody shows reality … it’s a curated version of your real life … For me … on my social media … I probably look like I’m great … or whatever … like I’m having a great time … but … I’m not going to share pictures of my messy apartment … or the day that I was really depressed … I’m not going to share that … obviously … people have a false sense of … almost like comparing yourself … it’s so easy to get really toxic … and go on there … to see what girls pictures my boyfriend liked … or whatever … is she better then me in some way … you can so quickly go down that rabbit hole with social media … because … people don’t show the ugly reality of things all the time … because it’s not as pretty … My future plans? … honestly I just want to stay in Chicago … I just moved back … and I feel I’ve bounced around so much … that I really just want to stay somewhere … I want to go back to school soon … that’s my main goal … I want to focus on developing a lot of solid friendships right now … I feel with me … I’ve definitely lost myself a little bit … in terms of things like … moving … I’ve had a lot of bad relationships … I just need to feel at home somewhere … and have a lot of people around me … that’s my main project … just working on myself …