Name: Mimi H.

City: New York City, New York

Brain Injury: Cavernous Angioma – Cerebral Hemorrhage. In 2014 at the young age of 22, I had a hemorrhage in my cerebellum. I lost the ability to walk, was seeing double, and had lost 20 pounds of muscle mass. I had brain surgery to remove the bleed and went to rehab to relearn how to walk and see again.

Explanation of mask:  “Humor & Mistakes”

I started out with a color I love (PURPLE!). I thought the mask needed more color so I added red, which came out like a smudge and looked like I messed up. I leaned into that mistake and ended up liking it (a happy accident!). I love comedy and am a comedian, so it was natural for me to incorporate my comedy routine about my injury that plays with audience reactions to the fact that I had a brain hemorrhage DURING A BLIND DATE!!! Pretty comical if you ask me.

My brain hemorrhage impaired the left side of my brain, so I added colored jewels to represent this, to remind me to always see the beauty in my injury. I added the moustache because it was funny to me. HUMOR is everything and helped me in my recovery, because you have to find the humor in trauma like a brain injury. You also have to allow yourself to make mistakes and to make those mistake as beautiful as you are.