Maria's Memoir...

I was born on March 11th, 2004 in Wilmington, North Carolina! The beginning of my childhood was spent living in a beautiful shore-side neighborhood in Topsail Island with my mom, and my time as a little one was consumed by swimming and making sculptures in the sand. In 2010 we left Topsail, and moved throughout a myriad of cities in North Carolina before settling in northern Raleigh in 2016. All of this travelling exposed me to lots of different kinds of people and culture, although I’ve generally spent my whole life with the same group of hobbies and interests that I currently carry. Since I was able to read, it’s been the love of my life. All of elementary and middle school I was constantly found with my face buried in a fantasy novel, and once I got into high school I flew through every King, Lovecraft, and Poe classic I could get my hands on. I’ve always carried the love for technical theatre, and was a part of the International Thespian Society as well as stage managing every production my school had to offer from 2016 until I graduated in June 2022. During the COVID-19 pandemic I finally felt comfortable experimenting with my makeup and clothes, learning from beauty standards in the past and around the world. One of the things that brings me the most joy is being able to express myself with my clothes or makeup in a way that makes me feel unapologetically authentic, a feeling of true freedom I had never experienced until the latter half of 2020. I’m currently working at Nantucket Grill, perfecting my customer service skills, looking forward to a beautiful future of working hard as a team to make a difference! 

For more information on my life, contact me at maria.hoppough@gmail.com