For our May Ladies issue, we’re spotlighting powerful women in Fayetteville who inspire and influence others through work they are truly passionate about. Each of these women serves as a model of resilience, boldness and optimism as they pave their own paths.
Ashtyn Barbaree
Ashtyn Barbaree’s life has always had a soundtrack, but since she was just 13, she’s been writing that music herself. Barbaree is an independent, award-winning Americana singer and songwriter from Fayetteville. She masterfully blends folk, indie and alternative genres to create something entirely unique to her.
Barbaree grew up in a home that encouraged creativity. She also grew up around live music venues. She was never classically trained in singing, but she learned to play piano, flute and ukulele at a very young age. Her mother would pick up the guitar and write songs just for her.
From a young age, her music tastes included the likes of indie alternative female artists like Fiona Apple, Bjork and Joanna Newsom. She was also inspired by country music like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.
Around 2011, Barbaree picked up a role with a local band called Farmer & The Markets after they came across a video of her singing on YouTube. She branched out, performing as a backup singer for jazz singer Candy Lee and eventually crafting songs of her own as a solo artist.
From there, the accolades began. Barbaree was the Arkansas Country Music Awards’ Americana Artist of the Year in 2025, following in the footsteps of her mentor, Bonnie Montgomery. She was named the Best Americana Artist and Best Country/Folk Artist (North Arkansas) at the Arkansas Music Awards back in December.
Though her music and tours have taken her across the nation and the world, Barbaree always comes home to Fayetteville and the mountains of the Ozarks.
“As a songwriter, when you come from a mountainous region where you spend a lot of time outdoors, it comes across in the songwriting,” Barbaree said. “It feels a little more real. It’s more vulnerable.”
Some of her favorite work includes an unreleased song, titled “Where I Belong.” Barbaree said the song is about being in the right place and feeling happy about how life is working out.
Even after facing challenges to pursuing her career during the pandemic, Barbaree found support from members of the creative community, including The House of Songs, a nonprofit that sent her supplies to help her host virtual concerts and keep recording in quarantine.
Whether she performs through a screen or on a stage, Barbaree said she hopes to be authentic and honest.
“In my favorite songs, I believe the lyrics the singers are saying,” Barbaree said. “When people hear my lyrics, I hope they believe me.”
Emma Katherine Treat
Emma Katherine Treat has been drawn to creative pursuits her entire life, but she never thought art would be her full-time job.
Treat attended the University of Oklahoma and chose to pursue a degree in audiology. She said she loved her patients, but wasn’t as content with the process as an audiologist.
When canvases and paintbrushes called her back, she picked up art as a part-time job, crafting florals and abstracts. She had spent years immersed in western culture and aesthetics growing up in Oklahoma and Texas. A trip to south Texas finally inspired her to create unique western art.
She began with more traditional styles, paintings of cowboys and horseback riders. Soon, she became inspired to combine Western aesthetics with bold, feminine portraits that made the women around her feel both beautiful and empowered. Now, women are the central muses for her work.
For Treat, getting the opportunity to paint full-time is a dream. Treat is also a mother and works to balance the responsibilities and joys of raising a son with her work as an artist and small business owner.
Leaving her job as an audiologist required a calculated leap of faith.
“If I don’t do it, I know I’ll never do it and I’ll regret not doing it,” Treat said. “If something happens tomorrow and I don’t do it now, what was the point of life?”
She said the support she has received from the community around her – friends, family and other small, woman-owned businesses – has been immense.
“It’s what gets me through it, because it can be really hard, being a mom and having your own business,” Treat said. “Having that support pushes you to keep going.”
She plans to display her art at boutiques in Fayetteville and currently has work in a gallery at the Kaleidoscope Collective in Rogers.
This new collection has inspired her to bring color and texture into her work to help brighten people’s homes. Horseshoes and the luck they signify are also a new motif in Treat’s work, but her career came out of more than sheer luck.
Instead, her success came from manifesting exciting new opportunities for herself and creating relationships with other businesses in Fayetteville.
“I think that’s what makes communities come alive,” Treat said. “It’s just other small businesses supporting each other, and it’s really beautiful to see.
Britton Rose Wilson
When Britton Wilson broke the American indoor record for the 400 meter dash, finishing in just 49.48 seconds, she had a village behind her.
Wilson spent her childhood surrounded by athletes. Her father played basketball in college and went to a semi-professional league afterward. Her mother was a cheerleader and track runner. Wilson grew up doing cheerleading, gymnastics and dance, ultimately choosing to try her hand at track to follow in her older sister’s footsteps.
Before Wilson was a two-time world champion in the 4x400 meter relay, she was an eighth grader, speeding past high schoolers at a local track meet. She sacrificed her other sports to dedicate time to track, which gave her the opportunity to participate in Division I sports.
She said her sport has taught her valuable lessons about who she is and who she wants to be. It has helped her approach challenges, push herself to the limit and know when it’s time to step back and care for herself.
“You have to learn so much about yourself to be able to push your body that hard every single day and find passion in doing that,” Wilson said. “It’s taught me to be strong. It’s taught me to know what real hard work is.”
Wilson missed out on the Summer Olympics in 2024 due to injury. She had stress fractures in both shins, but the mental weight was the most challenging part as her injury pulled her away from the sport she loved.
She now hopes to make the 2028 Olympics, which will be held in Los Angeles, California. She said she plans to go for the gold.
The Olympics gives her the opportunity to shine, to change people’s expectations around women in sports and show herself what she is capable of. Wherever she chooses to take her talent, she always has people cheering her on.
When she returned to track as a professional runner at the Tyson Invitational this past February, Wilson said Razorback fans were excited to see her healthy and ready to take on the game. Plus, she always had her family watching from home as she crossed the finish line. For her, that support — and her own resilience — carries her across the finish line.
“I just want to be the best of the best and make history one day in the sport,” Wilson said. “Just change the game as a whole.”