The Story of Brianna Karp

I have been surprised that the story of Brianna Karp has not turned up on Gather. When I read about it, I found it a very inspirational story about someone who achieved a measure of success when she had hit a low point in life. I am giving the highlights of the story below for those Gatherites who did not read it elsewhere.

Brianna Karp is a homeless woman who was living in her camper in a Wal-mart parking lot in Orange County, California who, through blogging, ultimately secured an internship with Elle magazine. Hers was also a love story, a relationship with a homeless man in Scotland with whom she communicated through Twitter, then later e-mail, then later text messaging. The stereotype that the homeless cannot own a cell phone, a laptop or an iPod was exploded in their story. The story takes on fairytale dimensions in the way that she began down on her luck and ended up working for Elle.

The man whom she attracted, Matthew Barnes, noticed her promoting her writing on Twitter. One of her tweets said, “Tips for surviving homelessness. You may be homeless, but you do not need to be a bum!” He admired her courage and levelheadedness, and the two of them ultimately developed a relationship that resulted in his coming to California to be with her.

She decided to write to E. Jean Carroll of Elle after a failed audition for a reality show. In her e-mail, she told of her life and asked about how one handles such a failure. Carroll included her e-mail in her column, askejean.com, and gave her the response: “You don’t ‘get’ another shot. You take it.” So impressed Carroll was with her spirit that she offered her a four-month telecommuting internship with Elle. Karp is putting up a blog on Elle with a first entry entitled “The New Face of Homelessness”.

As Brianne Karp has shown, a positive spirit goes a long way and can be a saving grace in the end. As she signed her e-mail to Carroll, “Homeless, But Not Hopeless,” she conveyed that losing one’s home does not signify the loss of hope. People like E. Jean Carroll who picked up on that positive spirit and saw beyond any stereotype make a huge difference and empower homeless people in their efforts to re-enter mainstream life.