Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #582

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
A Vampire With A Day Job? Inside The Life of An Ohio Woman Who Identifies As A Vampire
Linda Hall, USA TODAY NETWORK
Halloween means something more to Hellen Schweizer than it does to others who merely carve pumpkins, go trick-or- treating or bob for apples.
This Halloween marks the two-year anniversary of an epiphany for Schweizer. On that date in 2021, the Ohio woman was struck by her connec- tion to vampirism.
There has been no turning back for the 28-year-old woman who identifies as a vampire, who wears fangs and a makeup palette of dark red lip- stick with a "Phoenix eye," punctuated by red, orange and yel- low and a beak and a
tail. She also wears a white shirt with "flowy sleeves" and a black cape.
"It's my go-to look."
From the time she was young, "I've always been all about vampires," Schweizer said, citing her preoc- cupation with Anne Rice books and with Dracula.
There are different kinds of vampires, she said. They can be lawyers or janitors, as well as psychics and witches.
Vampires and witches get along famously," she said, and "run in similar circles."
"Not every vampire is bad," attacking peo- ple or offering human sacrifices, she said. "I follow a higher path."
A 2015 survey by the Atlanta Vampire
Alliance said 5,000 people in the United States identify as real vampires, and some of them do drink blood from willing donors, TODAY.com reported. Others con- sider themselves psy- chic or energy vam- pires.
For the record, said Schweizer, "I'm not interested in sucking anyone's blood."
Schweizer also does- n't subscribe to the notion she will live forever, another con- cept people associate with vampires.
She does "suck in" energy, she said, which she feels all around her.
As others do some time during their life, she reached a point where she found "a key that unlocks everything."
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine