The truth is, there’s no formula for who we approach, what we ask, and where the conversation leads when we hit the streets. Storytellers will head to any neighborhood and approach people who seem available to have a conversation. We might choose a place or an event to attend. Early on, we decided a 30-mile radius around St. Louis would be the approximate area we would venture around. Most of our interviews take place in or close to the City because there is more foot traffic, but we’ve also shared stories from the County, Illinois, and throughout Missouri.

When we meet someone, after introducing ourselves and the concept of HOSTL, we get permission to interview and jump right into a conversation with open-ended questions, like, What are you most proud of? Who’s been your biggest cheerleader? When’s a time you had to take a fork in the road and how did you make the choice? What’s the hardest advice you’ve ever had to take? What’s a moment that changed you forever? Subjects choose where the story starts to go from the topics they bring up, a memory, or a lesson learned. We take their portrait, ask if it’s okay to share with our audience, and exchange contact info. During the editing process, pictures are paired with quotes, and we run everything by the subject again to correct for accuracy. Then, we let them know when their story will post on social media. Without this layer of consensus-building to ensure people are okay with their story being shared widely, HOSTL would not work. 

As soon as we publish the photostories on social media, the second part of our storytelling comes to life when the audience shares their impressions, encouragement, resources, or questions. We try to promote a respectful conversation on the site. As long as followers aren’t bullying or trolling, all comments are welcome. Inappropriate followers are given a warning in private, then in public, and, in extreme cases, blocked. So far, there have only been about six people blocked since the page began.

Before attempting to start HOSTL, we wrote Brandon Stanton, the founder of HONY, several times to inquire about his model, but he’s a busy guy. We get it! So we watched interviews he’s shared, read his posts, followed developments on his page, and became familiar with so many other “Humans of” pages that have taken off around the world. With all this inspiration, we launched Humans of St. Louis in May 2014.

Soon after, the administrator for a private Facebook group called “Humans for Humans” invited us to join. The group is made of storytellers from other active “Humans of” pages so everyone can stay in touch. It’s been incredibly helpful to be connected to a larger community of image-makers and interviewers doing something similar yet different than us. We ask each other for advice about interviewing, editing, exhibiting, collaborating with companies, building books, and highlighting amazing humans from Dublin and Amsterdam to Minneapolis and San Antonio.

A year after HOSTL launched, private messages came in from companies and organizations asking if we could do this same type of storytelling by generating paid content and sharing some of it with our growing audience. We received our first ask in May 2015 to do a collab with the Ferguson Commission, which was looking for a storytelling component as they built their report, Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity. We ended up interviewing all 16 commissioners as well as community members who spoke to Youth at the Center, Justice for All, Racial Equity, and Opportunity to Thrive. Other companies reached out over the years for interested and challenging storytelling asks, and after sharing on HOSTL, we uploaded many to our Collaborations page here.

Being a part of making these series gives us access to folks who we may not always be able to run into on the street. The more in-depth pieces we make take another level of planning, care, coordination, and more wear and tear on camera equipment. So it felt rewarding to know we could reinvest in HOSTL. 

With the inquiries that came in for collaborations, we debated which business model would be best for HOSTL and sought a lot of input from our teachers, mentors, and social network. Believing that a nonprofit would be the best way to grow as an organization and give back to our community, in May 2017, we incorporated with three board members and one lead storyteller. It was important for us to build a community project that wasn’t owned by any one person, but that could create room to function as a team, grow, become sustainable, and continue this St. Louis storytelling for years to come.

Since becoming a 501(c)3, we have fed the social media channels with everyday HOSTL stories as well as the stories we build together with our partners. The subjects, no matter how we meet them, give us the biggest gift of all: to be able to keep the storytelling alive. HOSTL will always provide free content for the public on our pages. And, for organizational sustainability, we have been able to flourish from a mix of paid content partnerships, photography sales, grants, speaking engagements, and donations.

Today, the HOSTL team has grown to include a board of directors made up of 5 people; the storytelling team made up of 1 lead storyteller, 3 storytellers, and a few volunteer editors; as well as the book team which fluctuates between 10-15 creatives depending on the phase of the project. We’re still a small team, and we realize that with so many engaged followers, our stories can make a large impact. We do not always agree with the featured subjects’ statements or points of view. Nevertheless, we do believe in valuing and promoting a culture that listens, and we are committed to sharing content that allows for conversation, growth, and reflection.

Because the co-founders and storytelling team have a background in social work, public health, and documentary street photography, our project offers a unique lens. We are open to interviewing anyone who is on the street in St. Louis when we are there too and having an honest conversation. Interviews may last anywhere from three minutes to an hour and a half. Of all the things we hear and that people confide in us, we’re always searching for and asking ourselves, “What’s the story?”

Through the stories we capture, the whole point of the page is to be a reminder for all of us to look at our neighbors and consider what they have to share and how we can learn from each other. And that starts with us welcoming when the audience weighs in with contributions, feedback, or things we miss the boat on, whether it’s as small as a punctuation error or as big as requesting more context and framing.

We are so appreciative of your interest in our storytelling over the years. And we thank you for holding us accountable while also being challenged to hear perspectives different than you might hold. If we run into you on the street or are introduced to you another way, we look forward to hearing your story too!

Team HOSTL