The Power of the Word: Katie Cleland
By Diane McMahon
Katie Cleland, a high school senior, started a personal project that captured the Pink staff’s collective imagination. The project was as multi-faceted as its creator. It showcased Katie’s talents as a stylist, fashion photographer, wordsmith and communicator. It made use of technology and social media. And it was full of heart and soul.
Katie used her friends as the subjects for the project. She chose one word she felt best described each individual. She then set up individual photo shoots for each girl. Katie masterminded every detail from hair and make-up to clothes and accessories, to setting, background and body posture. Each element was selected to personify her friend’s essence as indicated by her word. After editing the photo shoot, Katie selected a pertinent bible verse and wrote an accompanying tribute for each friend—beautifully written, sensitive and insightful; it is a gift for life. The photo shoots were spirited, evocative and fun. We all need a friend as creative, aware and expressive as Katie to reveal to us who we are.
Katie developed her concept for the project after visiting a friend in Ireland last summer. Katie was born and raised in the small seaside town of Portstewart in Northern Ireland before she moved to Hilton Head with her parents and older sister when she was 13. The friend told her she had a word she thought characterized Katie—fierce.
I am looking across at this beautiful young woman whose hazel eyes and dark eyebrows are as expressive as a John Singer Sargent portrait. Her demeanor is poised and enthusiastic. I consider the word “fierce” and wonder what this person carries inside her. I ask if she thinks this word applies. She says, “In the sense that when I do something I go all out. I guess I’m really passionate about things. I don’t hold back.”
Having a friend designate one particular word to describe her made an impact on Katie. Determining a specific word for another person requires considerable reflection on who that person really is. Being given a word requires self-reflection on whether that word feels right and why or why not. It is an intimate and deeply personal exchange. Katie decided she could amplify the capacity to capture a person’s essence through a word by adding photography, scripture and a personal tribute and then showing the world. Intimacy? Personal reflection? A profound exchange? Can that really happen on social media? If you’re Katie Cleland you make it happen.
Katie comes from a family that makes things happen. After visiting the United States on vacations since the time Katie was 4 or 5 and having a home swap for two weeks with a family who lived in Spanish Wells, four years ago, Katie’s parents decided to make Hilton Head the family’s permanent home. Katie says her parents wanted their two daughters to have more opportunities than were available in their fairytale-picturesque town of Portstewart, with a population of less than 8,000, according to a 2001 census.
Katie’s excellent academic record meant she skipped a grade and entered Hilton Head High School as a freshman. It was not an easy time for big changes. She laughs and admits, “There was definitely culture shock. The humor is so different and there were sayings I couldn’t use here and others I didn’t get. The clothes and style are different, much more casual and I just don’t click with Southern prep. I’m more minimalist. People were super friendly and welcoming. They’d just come up to me and ask where I was from. That wouldn’t happen in Ireland.”
Katie’s sister, who is three years older, helped her make the adjustment to living in a new country. Katie has two words for her sister: loyal and dependable. When I mention that Katie’s accent is so completely Americanized, I would never have suspected she was from Ireland, she says, “It automatically comes back when I’m with my Irish friends, but here it just disappears.”
Plans for her future are ambitious and open-ended. She loves fashion photography and would love to live in New York someday. She wants to be involved in the whole process: hair, make-up, outfits, lighting. She loves being a stylist in all things; her room is white and still has a European/British flair. She is interested in editorial photography, which creates a mood and projects a theme or storyline.
Katie’s talents are a match for any ambition she chooses. Since meeting her, I have tried to determine her word. I haven’t had enough practice I’m afraid. I can’t decide between two: Captivating or expressive. She is both, and so much more.