FORT HOOD, Texas – Spc. Skylin Simpson has always been drawn to the things most people overlook.

Long before she ever pointed a camera at a formation or a field exercise, she was crouched over a horsefly no bigger than a penny, capturing the tiny hairs on its legs and the reflected light in its compound eyes. That moment, a macro shot taken during training at the Defense Information School, taught her that if you look closely enough, even the smallest subjects reveal entire worlds.

It is the same instinct she carries into every assignment since, today with the 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, where her job isn’t just to take pictures, but to notice the details others miss and tell the stories hidden beneath the surface.

That lesson began with a ring flash, a spiderweb and a horsefly fighting to free its legs. Most people would have walked past it without a second thought. She leaned in. Through her lens, the ordinary became intricate. The fur on the insect’s body, the mandibles, the antennae, the way the light refracted through the secondary lenses of its eyes.

“Nobody can just look at a bug and notice the detail that goes into its existence,” Simpson said. “But if you zoom in, you can see everything.”

That way of seeing has become the foundation of her work as a public affairs specialist. When she first joined the 109th MPAD in March 2023, she thought storytelling meant taking a photo, writing a caption and posting it. Now she understands it as a deeper responsibility to look past the uniform and find the person underneath it.

“Our job is to tell the Army story,” Simpson said. “One of the ways we do that is by looking closer than people normally would.”

Her path to that mission wasn’t straightforward. Simpson enlisted in March 2022, two days before her 18th birthday, still in high school, wearing sweatpants and a Pac-Man hoodie. She hadn’t planned on joining the Army. She went to a Military Entrance Processing Station just to see if she could pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a standardized test assessing a person’s aptitude for certain jobs.

When her recruiter told her it was time to swear in, she was overwhelmed and too nervous to say no.

“I wasn’t ready for it at all,” Simpson said. “But ultimately, I’m glad I’m here.”

Her family supported her enlistment, even celebrating it with a cheesecake that doubled as an early birthday cake. She comes from a line of service on her mother’s side. Her great‑grandfather served in the Navy in World War II and her uncles served in the Navy and Air Force. But she is the first Soldier in her immediate family in generations.

“I’d rather be here than on the farm back home,” Simpson said, with a small smile.

As she grew into her role as a public affairs specialist, Simpson discovered that her creative hobbies, like knitting, whittling, collecting misprint Pokémon cards and military patches, weren’t just pastimes. They were training.

“When you’re creating anything, you have to pay attention to how you’re doing it or you can ruin the whole project,” Simpson said. “It’s the same when you’re telling a story. You don’t want to misinterpret what someone says or tell the wrong story.”

That attention to detail is what guided her through one of her favorite assignments, a homecoming for Soldiers returning from Africa. Families crowded into a waiting area at Harrisburg International Airport holding signs, balloons and babies who had grown up in their parents’ absence.

In the middle of the chaos, Simpson noticed what looked to be a young father meeting his infant child, possibly for the first time. She captured the moment he kissed the baby’s head. A quiet, tender image amid the noise.

“It was really sweet,” Simpson said. “Those are the moments people don’t always get to see.”

It’s the same instinct that drives her to take not just military photos, but family portraits, nature shots and background images. The story behind the story. She wants people to remember that she didn’t just document the Army, she documented the people in it, the world around it and the small details that make it human.

Now, as she begins her deployment with the 109th MPAD in support of U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, Simpson is still learning to zoom in, not just on her subjects, but on her own journey. At first, the Army chose her, but she chose what she made of it. She chose to look closer, to see deeper and to tell stories with the same care she brings to every stitch of a knitted project or every rare card in her collection.

“I’m glad I joined. I’m glad I didn’t say ‘no’ at MEPS,” Simpson said. “I’m glad I get to tell people’s stories while adding my own flair and creativity to it. This is the kind of job I wanted when I was a kid. I think it’s worked out.”

Somewhere in that truth, in the details most people would miss, is the story she’s still learning to tell.