Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Bell.
Hi Alyssa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have always been drawn to creativity as both an outlet and a medium. The summer after graduating high school, I completed a two-year film internship at a youth ministry in east Texas where I was given the incredible opportunity to produce video content shown to thousands of young people at a nationwide conference.
A couple of years after graduating and getting married, my husband and I were gifted a 1976 Airstream where we spent an entire summer touring the Deep South. Our entire goal was simply to use art as a means to create and find community. My husband and brother are both very talented musicians, so I would record them performing in restaurants and on street corners. It was such a fun experiment and further reaffirmed my desire to tell stories that make an impact with my art.
In 2018, I started a blog titled “The Space We Share,” co-authored by my best friend and my mom (both neighbors at the time, which is where the blog got its name.) It has been in some seasons little more than a creative outlet for me as a now stay-at-home mom and in others a growing platform and ministry for empowering others to find joy and purpose in everyday moments.
This pursuit has grown and evolved over the years to span a wide variety of real-life topics like motherhood, faith, and anxiety. It’s a culmination of photography, graphic design, and the written word—all mediums of choice to be a voice of truth and light in a sometimes dark and confusing place.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing that matters is ever a smooth road, in my experience. But we are almost always all the better for the those obstacles when they come. I have found in my own personal journey as a writer and an artist that vulnerability and brokenness make for the most powerful stories.
I have weathered seasons of new motherhood, sleepless nights, identity crises, and severe anxiety all the while continuing to write. I have made a vow to myself to show up as authentically as I know how because I believe to my core in the power of telling the truth. I believe no experience or hardship is ever wasted when we fight to make sense of our own chaos and offer up those findings to others navigating dark spaces alongside us.
Life is filled with both beautiful and hard things, and so much of our response to it is shaped by the words we read and the prayers we pray. I hope my words will always serve as a lighthouse to others battling their own dark night.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am both a writer and a photographer, and I am always looking for ways to marry the two. For the past five years, my blog has served as sort of an online safe space for others to feel seen, encouraged, and challenged in their own lives.
I would say I am known for being a stay-at-home mom who finds fulfillment in sharing her daily struggles and joys with the world around her. I wouldn’t call the things I’m writing about profusely profound, rather a fresh perspective on what so many others feel every day.
I try not to get too caught up in metrics and marketing, not wanting to lose sight of the whole reason I began this blog. But I am proud to have kept it alive and on a steady growth year after year amidst all the little life transitions that come with navigating adulthood.
My motto has always been to speak truth and love well. As long as I’m doing those things, I feel like I can’t lose despite what the metrics say. After all, it was never about those things to begin with.
What are your plans for the future?
Both a dream and a project I have had in the works over the last couple of years is to publish my first book, highlighting similar themes I write about online.
It’s scary to say it out loud because it still feels so shaky and uncertain. But nevertheless, it’s a dream I am grateful to be surrounded by support in.
The goal is to release it sometime in 2023 as the first of several book ideas I currently have up my sleeve.
As for the blog itself, I’ll continue showing up and sharing my stories as long as there is anyone left to benefit from them.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thespaceweshare.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/thespaceweshare
- Facebook: Facebook.com/thespaceweshare
- Other: Pinterest.com/thespaceweshare
Image Credits
Alyssa Bell
Kate Watson
