We had the good fortune of connecting with Dee Hannah and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Dee, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
What was your thought process behind starting your own business?
When I initially relocated to North Carolina, I had no intention of starting a beauty business. My plan was to pursue graduate studies in Clinical Psychology. I planned to earn my Masters and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology. However, life threw another curve ball. My daughter has multiple diagnoses. In the end, her highly specialized needs outweighed my own personal desires. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t mourn the loss of the opportunity to return to school. I have always loved education and I initially believed I would’ve done well in the field.
However, when I sat back and noted the number of times I was humbled over the course of a decade by her strength and courage, I realized without autism entering our lives, I would have been a very arrogant and selfish doctor. I’m aware I am intelligent. I am also an over thinker. At times, when we experience too much success, we tend to forget about the plight of others.
Had Isis not been diagnosed with autism, I never would’ve become an advocate for people with intellectual disabilities or mental health as a whole. I’m honest enough to admit had my daughter had the opportunity to live life on her own terms, I wouldn’t have cared one bit about mental health. Who would unless they were faced with dire circumstances with no way out?
We don’t select mental health disorders as we do members of a team at a family barbeque. No one asks for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. No one signs up to be the poster child for anxiety or depression. If given the opportunity, most people steer clear of anything that implies they aren’t healthy or “perfect.” (Perfection doesn’t exist…to be honest…)
Therefore, who would willingly choose to enter a lifelong battle for the well-being of strangers unjustly depicted as “crazy” or “slow?” There’s not a single person on earth who is so altruistic, they’d give up everything they ever dreamed of having to embrace a world of sadness, loss and ostracism.
And that…was the motivator behind starting my own business: Mental health has a long-standing history of people who did not care about those they considered different. That was the entire concept behind the eugenics movement. In our country and abroad, people with intellectual disabilities were cast as unclean, impure, disposable links in society. And guess what? This concept still exists in 2023. There is still global discrimination and stigma against people with intellectual disabilities and those who struggle with mental health. Mental health is the last thing that comes to mind when you think “beautiful.”
Well, I want to change this perspective. I’ve always been a bookworm and a nerd. I’m a huge fan of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. King Theoden (King of Rohan) had a hater (Gríma Wormtongue) whispering toxicity in his ear. Words have the power to skew one’s identity. If enough people say you’re worthless, ugly or not good enough—even if they are lies—you may begin to believe it.
This is what happened with King Theoden. Lies and the evilness within his environment robbed him of the power to make change. As a result, Theoden wasn’t living up to his potential. He wasn’t using his God given gifts to influence and change the lives of others. He needed restoration and he received it…from the wizard Gandalf. Gandalf told Theoden, “too long have you sat in the shadows.” In freeing him, Theoden’s demeanor literally changed from ashen to suppleness and light. When I was senior in high school, my English teacher, Mrs. Lehtonen, placed Tolkien’s work in my hands. So many years ago, she planted seeds of justice, truth and creativity in my mind I never realized would sprout into what I’m doing right now.
When my daughter was younger, she had a little friend named Paige. Paige was autistic as well. I remember trying to communicate with her one day when I picked up my daughter from school. Paige wouldn’t look at me. However, when she saw Isis, her face literally lit up like a light bulb. The love and admiration on her little face astonished me. It was as if she stepped out of a world I had no access to and joined me in mine merely by the sight of my daughter.
There I was, standing in front of two little girls diagnosed with autism. A little White girl and a little Black girl. Paige didn’t care about Isis’s color. To Paige, Isis was her friend. And she loved her. That was all that mattered to her and it showed clearly on her face. I’ll never forget Paige. It was the first time a child taught me what it was to express unconditional love.
It is these experiences that shaped 21 BlueLash. Too long have people who struggle with mental health or have highly specialized needs sat in the shadows. It is time for the world to recognize its idea of perfection is biased and skewed. This community of people that I was thrust into have gifts. They are beautiful. They are worthy. They are not to be pitied or shunned or ridiculed. It is time for them to be showcased as viable. Relevant. Permanent.
Mental health has no color. No religion. No clique. It simply exists and it affects everyone–either directly or indirectly. My passion for makeup is a gift. I am using it to recreate a world of color and relevance for people who cannot speak for themselves. My vision is for people to recognize 21 BlueLash as a brand that doesn’t stand on vanity or popularity. What I’m doing isn’t popular nor is it easy to manifest the thoughts and ideas I’ve never seen before in the beauty industry into reality. I do know this…what I am creating with 21 BlueLash gives me hope.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
21 BlueLash is a brand that is built on loss and redemption. Regressive autism is where a child between the ages of 1-3 experiences typical development before losing previously developed skills (social and verbal). At times, it is a gradual decline. However, it can also happen completely out of the blue. The latter is what happened to my daughter. She had a single seizure which developed into multiple seizures and permanently altered social and communication capabilities. She was later diagnosed with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.
She is the muse behind all of our eyeshadow palettes but especially the Anxiety palette. For this interview, we featured the Anxiety palette in solidarity with depression awareness and also breast cancer awareness due to both depression and cancer affecting my family.
I’d like to make one thing clear…the puzzle piece featured on our anxiety palette does NOT represent the symbol created by Gerald Gasson in 1963. (I don’t want anyone to get the method behind my vision twisted.) It does NOT represent autism. It represents the mysteries of mental health. I understand why the puzzle piece is offensive to members within the autism community and I agree, there is nothing wrong with people with autism or mental health disorders. We do not seek to criminalize mental health. That is precisely what we are fighting against.
The puzzle inside of the head represents the science behind mental health. There are so many unanswered questions that have set the tone for hundreds of years of research. Hypotheses, theories…had these not been investigated head on, where would science be? Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and Erik Erikson, all had theories they conceptualized through documentation and research. To say there are no questions behind science is irresponsible and disrespectful of the remarkable work done in the field of Psychology. The very foundation of Science was built on theory.
Who was the first person with schizophrenia? What is its origin? History documents James Tilly Matthews and Philippe Pinel as publishing literature about schizophrenia in the early 1800s. Dr. Emil Kraepelin chronicled schizophrenia in the 1800s as well. What about the 1500s? 1600s? 1700s? What is the origin of anxiety? Without questions, there would be no research. Without research, Science, (as we know it) wouldn’t exist. I had a very clear and direct vision when I created the Anxiety palette. Yes, the shadow names are relevant to autism for autism is relevant to HER story.
By no means have I ever agreed with Gasson or Autism Speaks in believing there is something wrong with my daughter. Someone having a different way of cognitively processing what transpires within their environment by no means makes them an outcast. To think or believe otherwise is preposterous when stigma is the very enemy we stand against. That’s our truth. Who would know better than I as the owner and creator of 21 BlueLash?
What sets us apart from others is our brand utilizes a combination of the clinical practices I acquired in college, faith and a passion for visual arts. We use makeup products to advocate for and show the beauty of people who may not be able to speak for themselves or be able to hold down a job, and/or sustain personal connections, etc.
It was not easy to get to where I am today. After graduating from college, I left Ohio and relocated to North Carolina so that my daughter could become a patient at Duke Hospital. They have world renown physicians and an excellent program for autism. I left all of my family and friends behind to move to a state where I knew no one. All of the love and support I had all of my life was suddenly miles away. I was alone and very afraid. Yet, I couldn’t show it. My daughter depended on me. She still does.
The most difficult part of this business is finding ways to manifest the ideas I have in my head into reality. I have so many ideas for new products. However, I have no artistic skills. None. Furthermore, the ideas I conceptualize cannot be found in books or the internet. Therefore, I have no foundation to build on. No samples of eyeshadow palette covers I can slap my brand name on and move forward. My latest idea involves creating a symbol of love and perseverance for neurodiversity. However, the vendors I contacted all stated they needed more detailed drawings before the symbol is able to be fashioned. It is so frustrating to know what I want to see come to fruition, yet not have the ability to do it myself.
I contacted a couple of freelance artists (on a popular internet site) and found them to be scammers. They knew they couldn’t deliver what I wanted yet they tried to play games. In the end, they were the ones who were outsmarted and I kept my money. I feel as if I cannot move forward without artists who understand precisely what I need and have the skill to execute the work. However, my faith is strong. I have hope I will find the right people to assist me in building 21 BlueLash into what I need it to be.
A couple of lessons I’ve learned in creating this business from scratch is 1. Everyone has something of value to teach you. 2. Never think you are above anyone. Always be humble for the opportunities you have today could be gone in a flash.
I want the world to know there is no one in the beauty game who is doing what I’m doing and as the years pass, no one will ever do it quite the way I did it. 21 BlueLash was founded on love for my daughter and advocacy of her inherent worth. Mental health has an immeasurable history. Twenty years from now, that’s how people will describe 21 BlueLash. We STAND for something and there is so much more to build. So much more room to grow. We’re here for the long haul.