About

Welcome! My name is Sydney Bennett (AKA: The Anne Girl on Instagram!). I’m a writer and disability advocate. I help people struggling with disability and chronic pain find confidence and hope again and point them to Jesus! I started sharing my story on Instagram two years ago and it has grown to over 240,000 followers. This community I have found there has blessed and encouraged me as much as I hope I have encouraged them. I’m so glad you’re here!

I met my husband, Colton Bennett, through a high school Speech and Debate Nationals tournament in Oklahoma. Colton and I were long distance from the day we met until the week we got married, were together for four months (during which time I became disabled), and then he was deployed overseas for almost a year. After his service contract ended, we came to Idaho where we currently live with our sweet daughter, Hadassah, born January 2024.

Two weeks after our honeymoon, I became disabled and was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder. This is a disorder of the amygdala, which controls pain/fear signals and fine motor function. Basically, it means my brain sends the wrong signals to my central nervous system. Learning to live with this disability, as well as the loss and pain that comes with it, has been one of my most recent struggles, and a way in which God is building strength. I document here some of my difficulties and triumphs through this illness. Hopefully, something in my pain might resonate with you, as we look to the Cross through the present brokenness of this world and our bodies. You can read more of my disability story here.

The picture of my life wouldn’t be complete unless I mention God’s absolute faithfulness to me and my family, even in the midst of unspeakably hard circumstances. On November 22, 2017, the day before Thanksgiving, my ten-year-old brother, Isaiah, went to be with our Lord after a violent horseback riding accident. You can read more about Isaiah’s story here.  

When tragedy strikes – whether loss of a person, loss of health, loss of anything that shakes you to your core – faith does not make it hurt less. Grief is never easy. It makes us weak. But when you have nothing left in this world, the sovereignty and goodness and all the promises of God must become the rock you fall on by His grace because everything else has been stripped from under your feet. God used the tragedy in my life to draw me closer to Himself, as the burden of my pain and sorrow pressed me deeper in the Rock that is higher than I. Writing on Isaiah’s story and my walk through grief and physical pain has been an immense gift to me, as I dwell on the promises of God, and by His grace, share some of the hope I have in Him with others who may be made to walk a similar road.

I am a sinner, formerly at enmity with God and incapable, by works or desire, to bring myself into His Holy presence or save myself from His just condemnation. But God, solely out of His pure grace and not out of anything I have done, has chosen me and redeemed me through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. By Christ’s blood and righteousness, I have been justified, am being sanctified, and will be glorified in the presence of God forever.

I believe that my purpose in life is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever, and toward that end, I pray that the articles shared here would be a blessing to you, and would encourage your faith and joy in exalting God above all else.

Feel free to message me here or on Instagram if you are interested in working with me as a writer, public speaker, or collaborator.