Where Sunshine Began

Before there was Iridium, there was Sunshine.

Before the strategist, the artist, the advocate, and the woman she would become, there was a little girl learning to understand the world around her.

Some of her memories remain clear. Others exist only in fragments. She no longer believes she must recover every missing piece in order to understand who she is.

What remains is enough to honor the little girl who lived it.

She was here.

Before the words.
Before the understanding.
Before Iridium had a name.

Sunshine was more than a childhood nickname. It belonged to a little girl who carried light even when she did not yet understand the darkness around her.

Today, Nevetta can look back at her with something she could not have given her then: understanding.

She sees her.

She acknowledges her.

And most importantly, she remembers that the little girl never left.

Hello Sunshine!

What a photograph cannot tell you:
Moments before this photograph was taken, Nevetta moved her mother's hand away because she did not want to be touched. She was struck hard across the face and fell to the floor.

She was then forced to smile for the photograph—to look happy, as though nothing had happened.

Years later, that image would carry an important lesson into her work:

A smile does not always mean the same thing for everyone.