“I’m definitely really comfortable in my skin,” Kody says. But a few years ago, that wasn’t the case.
When Kody was in high school, he hadn’t yet come out as gay. He was young and still figuring out who he was.
“I wanted to fit in,” he says. “I wanted to be just like everyone else.”
He struggled with his identity, trying to reconcile who he knew he was and who he wanted to be. It wasn’t until he accepted himself that he was able to begin moving forward.
“I came out when I was 19,” Kody says. “It was terrifying. I was so afraid of what people would think.” But once he took the leap, he realized that he was free. “You unlock the door, and now you can live your life and express the way you feel.”
Free to start expressing himself without shame, Kody began to explore. He found his passion somewhere unexpected: in makeup.
“Once I discovered makeup and once I discovered I was good at it, I started to feel more comfortable about who I am,” Kody explains. Makeup gave Kody an opportunity to show off his personality in a more visual way, as a form of art and expression.
