We Love Our Readers: Hannah Rose Brasseur

A Note From The Editor: We are very aware that the words we publish in this space and in our print issues have power. Even more so, we’re in awe of how your words, our dear Darling readers, keep us encouraged and motivated in the mission to redefine what true beauty looks like — in the media and in culture — so that all women everywhere can feel known, loved, whole and worthy. We want to start sharing these words with you as well, because YOU are the real voice and agent of change.

From Darling reader Hannah Rose Brasseur:

A couple months back my dear friend, Dixie (she’s as cute as her name), showed me this magazine that she said she knew I would love the message, the pictures and the spirit behind it all. Darling Magazine. I began reading, and immediately fell in love with them.

They want to inspire women, and they do an amazing job! I’m pretty against most women magazines because they make women think they’re not hot, sexy, skinny, curvy, pretty enough for the world. And it just sickens me. This magazine inspires women to live real and true lives, and I love it. I started reading all their magazines, following them on social media and I can’t get enough of the message they send out. It’s funny, I started #thatsdarling on my Instagram and have had quite a few friends make fun of me for it. I just fully support them and want their message to spread! I sent them this piece of my story to let them know just how much I appreciate them:

Darling leads women to practice the arts of virtue, wit, modesty, and wisdom- all the while creating beauty and embodying love.

As I read the words from your magazine my mind and heart are reminded of the life I’ve lived and the lessons I’ve learned.

I’m a 24 year old housewife with a passion for life. The thing is I can’t do everything I have dreamed about. For 12 years I have suffered with a blood disease that has caused me to grow and mature a lot quicker than girls my age. In high school while my friends were concerned about boys and homework, I was in the hospital praying I would be able to go to school the next day, praying that that would be the last treatment. You see, since having it since the age of 12, while most girls are going through stages of wanting to be liked and wanting to be pretty, I was going through a stage of wanting to live! I would have my friends come to me complaining about tests and “fights” at school, and I would leave the conversation crying, just desiring them to see the life I was living. Desiring them to see there’s more to life!

I learned from a young age that it wasn’t about the way I looked or the clothes I wore, but how I can be a light in this world. My desires in high school (and since being out, even more) was truly to have virtue, wit, modesty and wisdom. I learned virtue by observing the amazing older women around me. I learned wit, some would say to a fault, by making light of my hard situation so I could make myself, my drs and my nurses laugh. Modesty, I learned from seeing my dear friends give themselves away, and come to me crying, feeling a loss within them. Wisdom, I learned from all the days spent at the hospital looking out the window wondering what life really is about. My heart’s desire became to be an example, a witness and most of all a light.

For the past 3 years now, they’ve been the hardest and best years of my life. I married my best friend from my woodshop class. We started dating 5 years after high school, and married shortly after. My first boyfriend, kiss and love. The best friend I’ve ever had, the most loving, selfless and light in my life. A year and half after marriage I became really ill, and it had nothing to do with my blood disease. I got diagnosed with a heart disease that has debilitated me in so many ways. I’ve had to learn, despite all these hard times, what life really is about.

And all the while I’ve grown a passion for finding real and true beauty in this world.

It’s about knowing there is a purpose for your life, despite your circumstances. I never thought I would have two diseases that hurt so bad, but during these times I’ve been able to share my story with so many others who suffer, and the hope I see in their eyes while I talk to them is so worth the pain I’ve suffered. To encourage others that they too have a purpose, gives me joy.

And all the while I’ve grown a passion for finding real and true beauty in this world. I’ve learned to truly know what it means to embody love. With my husband, strangers from across the world who have read my story, girls from high school who have written to me, and most of all by the One who’s never left my side through it all.

All this to say, thank you, Darling. For reaching out to women all over and sharing the true meaning of beauty!

We’re so excited to have women like you embracing joy and seeking the art of being a woman with us, Hannah! Thanks for sharing in the #DarlingMovement!

Haven’t become a Darling subscriber yet? You can do so, here!

Image via Jadyn Noelle