Hey, I'm Vanessa.

I am a self-taught creative, a mom of four, and a person with a body that has a lot of opinions about everything I try to do. I live in Nixa, Missouri with my partner Mike and two cats named June and Echo.

I have been a graphic designer, photographer, tattoo artist, and web developer. I have worn a lot of hats. The one that did not come with a job description was professional patient.

I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, MCAS, and a few other conditions that make daily life a little more complicated than it needs to be. My connective tissue does not hold things together the way it should. My nervous system overreacts. My mast cells have opinions about everything from food to weather to stress.

I spent a long time waiting to get better. Then I figured out that was not how this worked.

It does not get better. You just get better at managing it. That is the thing nobody tells you at diagnosis. It took me years to stop feeling like I was failing every time I had a bad week.

I built this site because I got tired of affiliate sites that felt fake. The ones with perfect photos and zero personality and products clearly chosen because of commission rates, not because anyone actually used them.

Everything on vanessa.ink I would genuinely recommend to a friend. If it helps with chronic illness symptoms, if it makes a hard day easier, if it is just a genuinely good deal on something useful, it is on here. If I would not buy it myself, it is not.

I also write about the real stuff. What it actually feels like to live with a chronic illness. What works and what does not. What I wish someone had told me earlier. No toxic positivity. No inspiration porn. Just honest.

If you are here because you have EDS or POTS or MCAS or any of the other conditions that make life harder than it should be, you are not alone and you are not making it up.

Welcome.