On her birthday, the founder of NARD Magazine sits down to talk about the girl who wanted to be an altar server, the years she spent without grounding, and the moment in 2023 when everything changed.

Shot in LAIR The Studio by @stark_prismatix

As told to NARD Magazine

NARD — Let's start at the beginning. How did faith show up in your early life?

I grew up going to private school, and I loved church. Like genuinely loved it — not because my parents made me. They actually did not always want to go. I was the one asking to be there. I wanted to serve. I remember wanting to be an altar girl. There was something in me from very early that was drawn to it, that felt at home in that space.

That was the original design showing itself. Even then. I just did not have the language for it yet.

NARD — What happened to that girl?

We moved to Virginia when I was in seventh grade. Public school. And honestly — reality check. I think that is when things started to shift for me, for my identity. When you go from a protected environment where you know who you are and where you belong, and then suddenly the whole world is different, you start adjusting. Fitting in. And fitting in for a long time means slowly becoming someone you were not supposed to be.

I tried going back to church in college. But it was not the same. Nothing like what I found later. It did not hold.

I went from knowing exactly where I belonged to adjusting, fitting in. And fitting in for long enough means slowly becoming someone you were not supposed to be.

NARD — So there was a long stretch between that girl and who you are today. What did those years look like?

I was living on my own terms. And I was suffering for it — quietly. Not dramatically. Just that particular kind of suffering that comes when you have no grounding. Everything looks fine from the outside. You have a life. You have children. You have a version of yourself you have constructed. But something is missing, and you are the only one who feels it.

I do not think I ever lost myself. That is important to say. I just had no grounding. And an unrooted woman bends in every wind that comes. I was bending.

I do not think I ever lost myself. I just had no grounding. And an unrooted woman bends in every wind that comes.

NARD — When did that change?

2023. I went all in, and I am never going back.

The first day I walked back into church — really walked back in, with my whole heart — I felt it immediately. Seen. Heard. Home. Not the building. God. Just that undeniable presence of being completely known and completely loved at the same time. That was the turning point. Everything shifted from there. My marriage. My family. My children. My understanding of who I was made to be.

Building my faith was the easiest thing I have ever done. Not because it costs nothing. But because Jesus is alive and living. You cannot build on something real and have it fall apart. It holds you. That is the difference.

The first day I walked back in I felt seen, heard, and home. Not the building — God. That was the turning point. Everything shifted.

NARD — Today is your birthday. Who is Hiwote right now?

Confident. Complete. Secure. I trust God with all of my heart. I fear nothing because I surrender everything to Him. I am nothing without Him — and I mean that as the most empowering thing I have ever said, not a diminishing one. I need Him to run my household. To love well in my marriage. To have the strength for my business and everything I am building.

I am filled with joy. I am filled with creativity. I look at my life, and I see what it looks like when a woman returns to her original design — and it is better than anything I could have constructed on my own.

I am nothing without Him — and I mean that as the most empowering thing I have ever said, not a diminishing one.

NARD — And NARD — why a magazine? Why now?

Because I kept looking for it, and it did not exist. A publication that could hold faith and fashion and beauty and femininity all at once without apologizing for any of it. A magazine for the woman who loves God and loves how she shows up in the world, and does not see those two things as a conflict.

I am a journalist. I know how to tell the truth. I know how to find the story underneath the story. I wanted to do that for this woman — for her worth, her identity, her strength, her purpose, her restoration. She deserves a magazine. So I built one.

And today — on my birthday — that magazine is real.

Hiwote Swann is the Founder and Editor in Chief of NARD Magazine. She is based in the DMV area.

hiwote@nardmag.com · @nard.mag · nardmag.com

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