When someone says St. Louis, there are many different things that pop into people’s heads. Number one in crime rates, lover of the Cardinals and haters of the Cubs, the list can go on and on.  However, most people do not look and think of the individual people who live in the center of America; they only look at “what they hear”.  Lisa Drew and her team did, and what they decided to create is showing the real colors of our city.

Lindy Drew is one of the co founders to Humans of St. Louis, or HOSTL. HOSTL is a small, social media based organization based off of Humans of St. Louis. Lindy Drew, a photography major graduate, goes around St. Louis and simply looks. She looks for people who seem interesting to her, like they have a story that should be shared. Then, she goes up to them, asks if they would like to be interviewed, and if they say yes, she listens.

She asks simple questions, things like “How are you?” and “What are you doing?” Then she listens, learns, and listens for that spark. That spark that tells her that this story needs to get out. If she finds that spark then she will tell their story to the world.

While it might seem crazy and dangerous at times, HOSTL has helped many people, and is something that is doing good for St. Louis. Even though small, every person touched learns something, not about the area, but the people, something that sadly gets overlooked at times. Lindy Drew and her team are trying to show people, that everyone has a purpose, a story, something that makes them special.