Esther Bell's mother is a technical artist who has worked in architectural interior design and urban planning in Columbia, Charleston, and Beaufort, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.
Her friends in Lay Quiet Awhile (Danielle Howle), Glam Dogs (Ray Jicha), and Hootie and the Blowfish helped raise funds to print the magazine.
While she was putting out the zine, Bell shot a documentary with equipment from The South Carolina Arts Commission about living in small southern town, with raunchy details describing the thriving music scene.
In Charleston, Esther and her punk, gay, and multi-race friends were the target of police brutality and social injustice, awaking her to the abuse of power and strength of hatred and bigotry.
She was an assistant to the artist Bryan Hunt where she encountered a range of influences including Bernadette Peters, Tama Janowitz, John McEnroe, and Tatum O’Neal.
[8] Bell's first feature film, Godass (2000), starred artist-actor Nika Feldman, Julianne Nicholson, with George Tynan Crowley as the punk protagonist's gay father, Fred Schneider of the B-52's as his lover, and Tina Holmes.
[9] The film received favorable reviews and won numerous festival awards and tells the story of a young punk girl with a gay father.
Her experiences led her behind the lens where she would create two public service announcements: Ashley, about heroin addiction, and Sexually Explicit Material, addressing HIV prevention.
Articles in local and national media have portrayed Bell and her café, The West, as representative of Williamsburg's unique and edgy character, in sharp contrast to the standardized business models now appearing in the community.