biography
Isadora Lee Vaughn was born in Seattle, Washington on November 12th, 1982. It had been believed that her parents, two middle-aged self-proclaimed "free love advocates", could not have children. This fact - combined with their shared outlook on society and its varying dysfunctions - was the determining factor in their decision to retreat to a hippie commune in upstate Washington. To their shared surprise, they conceived several months into the transition and welcomed their first and only child with the aid of a midwife and opted to raise her within the shelter of their community.
Isadora (or "Izzy" as she prefers) is named for Isadora Duncan, a famous American dancer and arguably the first lady of contemporary movement. Izzy's mother was a gifted dancer with roots in the New York Metropolitan Ballet and she shared Duncan's philosophical views on everything from dance and the arts to politics and sexuality.
Izzy participated in a home schooling program and showed great promise as a pupil early on. Her favorite subjects were geography, horticulture and holistic medicines. Her father was a skilled farmer and taught his daughter to appreciate the earth and all of her many gifts. Marijuana was a particularly common crop on the commune and her parents did not discourage her from smoking when she came of what they deemed an appropriate age. Her parents believed in a free flowing partnership parenting program. That is, they encouraged their daughter to explore any and all nuances of her fancy in a responsible manner.
Izzy left the commune when she was 17 to join a traveling caravan of musicians, performance artists and other vagabonds of various anti-occupations. Her travels took her all over the midwest and it was on this journey that she met Jason Woodroe. He was several years older than Izzy, devilishly handsome and addicted to pain medication. He had left his job as an insurance salesman to "find himself" on what he called the "Supertramp Highway of Life". Izzy was immediately enamored and the two began a romance that would inevitably prove toxic. Jason abandoned Izzy in Kansas City after convincing their traveling companions that she had grown tired of life on the road and returned home to Seattle. Penniless and alone in an unknown city, her heart hardened to love, Izzy resolved to leave her life as a flower child behind.
Izzy returned home to Seattle and opted out of completing her home school education. Instead, she pursued her G.E.D. and went on to attend a community college for two years. Undecided on her major, she drifted through her classes with increasing indifference. Her wanderlust was strong and she longed to be on the road again. Dropping out of school, she moved from state to state, working the odd end jobs here and there, before she settled in Boston. It was there that she experienced a rejuvenated interest in education and she enrolled in Boston University at 22. She decided to major in journalism with an emphasis in environmental outreach.