Alex Hernandez
Hannah Youmans, a budtender who has been in the marijuana industry for about two and a half years, poses for a portrait inside TJ’s on Willamette, the dispensary she works at, on Feb. 12, 2024. Originally from New York, Youmans came to Oregon with her younger sister, whom she had custody of, in search of a better situation. “I did not have the best childhood, and I wanted her to have a better childhood,” she said. “She was 14 when we moved here, and that was the end of 2020. Right in the middle of Covid.”
One might be donning heart-shaped glitter glasses, red locks, and a confident, knowing smile; one might smile at you with the utmost warmth; another could look at you with a distant gaze, the middle man between you and the journey you’re about to embark on. No matter their appearance, they all have the same goal: to get you high.
These marijuana sages known as budtenders know that for some, consuming marijuana is a fun why-not activity; for others, finding the right strain is dealt with in the same seriousness that some sift through a vinyl records store, looking for just the right album. However serious one seeks out THC, budtenders are here to help.
Here’s a photo series of budtenders who are as different as the strains they carry in their dispensaries.