About Me

Hi there! Welcome to my little corner of the world wide web.

A picture of Kaelyn, a white person with fair skin, dark, shoulder length hair, moss-green eyes, and freckles currently covered by sunscreen. They are wearing a black linen button-up shirt and their signature bold black and blue glasses (which mostly look black from straight on). They are at Lake Quilatoa in Ecuador. They are standing on a ridge with the lake many meters below in the background, its calm turquoise water surrounded by the walls of the crater it is located in.
All smiles at Lake Quilatoa in Ecuador, June 2022.

My name is Kaelyn. My pronouns are they/she.

I’m a scholar, writer, educator, self-advocate, and activist. My current work focuses on political discourse surrounding healthcare issues and the ways they are represented in popular media. I’m pursuing an M.A. in American Studies at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA, where I also earned my Bachelor’s.

Now that you know what I do, here’s who I am:

I’m a queer, nonbinary, neurodivergent, and disabled woman. I’m white, and I grew up with a degree of economic privilege. I’m Autistic and have ADHD, which is terrifying to write openly on my website due to stigma about both of those things… but without them, I wouldn’t be me, and I definitely wouldn’t have this interesting and joyous life of mine.

I write to help make the world a kinder and more equitable place for everyone. That means engaging in self-advocacy as a marginalized person, as well as standing with others whose identities are stigmatized to an even greater degree than mine. I’m vehemently anti-racist and pro-queer, pro-trans, pro-disability, pro-neurodivergence, pro-immigrant, and otherwise, generally pro-diversity because it makes us stronger as a global society.

When I’m not working on research and writing, you can find me traveling, hiking, and exploring other creative pursuits.

On this website, I blog about day to day musings, experiences with grad school and teaching, stories about my adventures in academia and around the world, my varied interests and fixations, and other “shiny things” that I don’t have time to turn into a formal academic paper because hey, we gotta prioritize. I also write for the popular press, and my articles have appeared in Ms. Magazine.

Thank you for reading! Now that you’ve gotten to know me a bit, I would love to get to know you, too. Visit the contact page and drop me a line or comment on any of my blog posts to start a conversation.