Sydney Morgan: Expressing Through Boundless Imagination

Children have an unlimited imagination that naturally flows through them. They are curious—they explore and play, creating worlds that often are considered fairytales. As we grow into adulthood, we often become too serious about life, repressing our innate capabilities of envisioning beyond the power of our physical senses. But we can’t eliminate what we are born with. Imagination is one of the most brilliant faculties for us to express ourselves in infinite, creative ways; it is therefore in the essence of how we experience existence. 

Sydney Morgan, artist, talented model, and actress, taps into this essence, saying, “I am creative, hard-working, generous, and I have a lot of empathy. And I think that I have very young energy that goes along with creativity. I have the imagination of a child, and I feel especially with all the artwork that I do, it comes in handy.”

Empathy, the ability to sense the feelings of others, is a principal means of seeing other people with compassion, seeing them for who they really are—the divine light shining and expressing through their physical faculties. When we are steady and centered enough, only then can we see the stream of infinite well-being flowing through everything and everyone. 

In 2018 Sydney was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Although the process of healing—mentally and physically—was very challenging for her, Sydney held on to the image of herself as healthy with the support of her loved ones. The experience was thus one of value for herself and others. Sydney became an inspiring example, raising awareness about this rare chronic illness to help others who are going through a similar situation.

“When I was diagnosed, it was quite scary and very overwhelming, because I had never even heard of the disease before. And seeing the numbers of how many people actually have this disease and somehow not hearing about it was so crazy to me. I think it’s because there’s a stigma around some of the uncomfortable symptoms, and no one talks about it. So it’s super important to me to be that voice that I didn’t have when I was going through it. And I think that if I could go back and know something: [just] because there is no cure, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be affecting you 24/7 for the rest of your life. You can get it under control, you can get it into remission, and you can go for years at a time and not have a single issue. I would tell all the people who are just getting diagnosed that it’s not going to be this hard forever. And you’re going to get through,” Sydney says encouragingly. 

It is empowering when we can recognize that things are happening for us and not to us. With this altered perception, we can see an infinite number of doors with infinite possibilities opening in front of us. It’s not an easy task, but like Sydney, with a little bit of practice and letting our imagination freely invigorate us—everything is possible. 

Sydney recalls her experience of maintaining hope in the throes of her illness: “When I was very sick, I was stuck in my bed most of the time. I couldn’t leave my house because I couldn’t be gone for long periods. And I was in and out of the hospital for months at a time looking for some activities or some hobbies to keep myself distracted from going crazy. One of those things that I could do from almost anywhere was drawing, painting, as well as creating imaginary worlds through makeup. So I did that a lot at the hospital, and there were some great people with the Child Life department, who would bring the art supplies all the time. I ordered makeup palettes and had them sent to the hospital. I would sit there and play with that too. And I think that’s why I’m so passionate about makeup—because it’s been there for me through those hard times and it’s just like a staple in my life. And it’s nice to know that creativity is never going anywhere.”

At just 19-years old, Sydney established herself as a make-up artist, a digital creator, a model, and an actress, making a strong impression within the entertainment industry. During her time in the hospital, Sydney decided to share her creative expression through diverse social media platforms. As a result, she attracted millions of followers who are inspired by her and her art, and most importantly, she is shining the light on Crohn’s & Colitis and her experience of overcoming it.

“This experience brought so much value, it truly changed my perspective on life— because before I was diagnosed, I kind of would be going through the motions, doing what everybody else was doing and what society made me feel l had to do. The plan was to graduate high school and go straight to college. I was going to do track and field in college, I was going to get my degree and I was going to go work a job. But I always deep down had this huge passion for creativity, art, and makeup, and being social and sharing myself with others. And going through this experience really gave me that extra push and that extra fire that I needed to go for it and stop worrying about being different and what other people would think of me. It just gave me the confidence to take risks that I wouldn’t have taken before. Because at the end of the day the most important thing is to be happy and do what you want to do. So you never know where life’s gonna take you. So, if you want to do something, you should do it right now. Because why wait; there’s no better time than the present.

“And again, a big one for me is to do what makes you happy and to not let other people’s opinions stop you from doing that. Because I post a lot of silly things on my platform. I do crazy makeup looks that don’t exactly make a lot of sense. Some people are probably like, ‘Why is she doing this?’ And I just think it’s funny, and I enjoy doing it. And it makes me very happy. So I’m a big advocate to my followers ‘to just do what you want to do’ instead of just doing what everybody else is doing or doing what’s cool. So that’s a big one for me, just being yourself, because why fit in when you were born to stand out? A quote, but it’s true,” passionately shares Sydney. 

We can’t decide for anyone else, and we can’t make others do anything even when we think is best for them. We can only remain unshakeable, shining the light through our own example, and others will decide for themselves if they want to join the happy party of conviviality. And this is at all times the case. We can only influence people who allow themselves to be influenced. Ultimately, it’s an individual choice of what we want to be and what our unique state of being will inspire us to do. 

Sydney takes her role as an inspirational figure very seriously, saying, “I think of my followers as friends, and my demographic is the majority of young girls. So I think I’m kind of like an older sister figure to them as well. And I really like that relationship, because I feel like we’re very open and honest with each other. I’m never gonna promote a product to them that I don’t like. And that trust is very important to me because I know that they trust me, and so I’m never going to break that trust with them. I’m very honest about what I am presenting and what brands I’m liking.”

Each new generation is born with new fuller layers of awareness that previous generations bring to them. Honoring that, as well as honoring the divine contribution of the new generation and generations to come, is honoring our immensely valuable contribution to the expansion of Everything That Exists. Nowadays, more and more people are opening themselves up, leaving behind the notion of just one identity;  they are increasingly expressing themselves through and embracing their different professional intensities. 

“I think in any industry, especially, it’s very important these days to kind of be a jack of all trades, and be able to have that adaptability to get thrown into anything that comes your way. And I’ve always been like this in high school, I was in lots of different clubs in sports. And like I said before, I did track and field and I actually did the heptathlon, which is seven events. So I’ve always been interested and hungry to learn, and I want to do everything that I possibly can, trying everything and seeing what I like the most. And that’s kind of what I’m doing with social media now, too, because I like my art, my makeup, my acting, my music, and it’s hard but I want to do it all,” shares Sydney. 

Creating art provides Sydney the opportunity to experience a full range of emotions, instead of repressing them. By numbing our emotions, we only amplify them. By releasing our emotions through any tool we have, we can quickly move to a better and fuller place of feeling. 

Sydney ruminates on the value of art to her: “I have always made artwork to have some sort of underlying message or to be open to interpretation for others. It’s very rarely I’m drawing this because it looks pretty—there’s usually something going on behind the scenes. And I don’t always like to be like, ‘This is why I did it.’ Because I think that’s the fun thing about artists, it can mean whatever you want it to mean to a bunch of different people. And that’s why I like looking at art and creating art. And I also like reading through comments to see how people interpret it. And they say things that I didn’t even think of and I’m like, ‘Well, that’s great.’ I would say it’s very, very zen for me. And I’m a very visual learner and visual thinker. I always say to people that I think in pictures, not words. And that’s hard for some people to understand. But really, it’s just a constant movie in my head. When someone is speaking to me, it’s getting put into pictures. So I am always seeing things. And it’s the same with emotions. I like to process my emotions with colors and images. And then I kind of grab onto one that I think has potential, and then kind of build around that.

“So, I think if I came out with a makeup line of my own, it would not be called my name. Because I don’t want it to be limited to people that know who I am. I just want it to be some sort of word that encompasses me and what I’m trying to give off with this brand. And I want the products to be things that are interesting and new and have never been done before. I have a lot of creative ideas for little makeup gadgets and tools and things that I think could be helpful that don’t exist yet. And so I think it would be like stepping out of the box and trying new things and having fun with it.”

Amazing things are unfolding for Sydney in 2022. As when we observe the variety of our world, we develop preferences, which in turn become our new desires. To allow ourselves to experience what we want in the physical realm, we have to transmute the desire into the discovery of the steps to receive them: because wanting is still in the vibration of not possessing. Discovery means that we are on the way to living it. 

“I have a lot of feature films coming out in 2022. And I think that being in the special effects, makeup space made that transition pretty easy for me because it just makes sense. I turned myself into these creatures online and gave them a persona of my own in my videos. And so, it just makes sense that I can transfer that into horror films as well. And then I’m kind of branching out from that in acting too. But it was a great way to get my foot in the door. And as far as my beliefs go relating to characters and acting, I just read the scripts and immerse myself in that. And when I’m reading this, I am the character I’m the person and I have felt the emotions that they feel. So I just kind of mesh those things together. It’s so important to find personal experiences behind these characters. I think it’s super important to try to tie your acting roles into real-life experiences in real-life emotions.”

This infinite loop of expression led Sydney to sign and write songs. About her songwriting, she says, “I’m just creative. I like to be creative. That’s what is natural to me. Everything in my life sparks creativity and inspiration. I’ve always been very interested in music, and always listened to music and analyzed lyrics and melodies. And I’m just constantly walking around my house humming melodies all the time. And some of them stick. And when I’m writing lyrics, it’s always when I’m going through a tough time, it acts as almost therapy. It’s very therapeutic to sit down and write what I’m feeling, so I can see it all laid out, because it’s just a jumbled mess of photos and emotions and colors in my head, and it gets overwhelming and confusing. So similar to my artwork, when I can set it all out in front of me, it calms me down. And then it feels that this situation isn’t that bad. Because once I get it out of my mind onto paper, whether that’s lyrics or artwork, I can relax and I can start healing and move on.”

With a big, beautiful smile Sydney adds, “I’m very genuine. And I have a lot of empathy. And I think that helps me make genuine relationships with other people in my life and be very social because of everything that they’re feeling, I almost feel more. I just love it; I think it’s a great thing. I love learning from other people and gaining knowledge from them. Because it’s so interesting to see people that were brought up in completely different ways than me and how they live their lives and their experiences, how they’ve shaped them. And people do different things differently than I would or things that I would have never even thought of. And there’s just so much to learn from other people. And I just love that.”

Like Sydney, are you ready to allow your heart to sing in the ways it truly desires? 

Photography // Lindsey Ruth

Connect with Sydney on social media // Instagram | TikTok | Youtube