All the Panicled Asters that Ive seen have white flowers. 1 foot tall is within their range. Asters can bloom in their 1st year and and can be smaller. I'd guess it's S. lanceolatum, which has larger leaves along the flowering stems. The minimum number of ray petals is 17, and usually much more than that. There's no flowers in the photo that have 17 petals, so it looks like the flowers have have lost quite a few of their ray petals.

It's also possible that I have misidentified some in the past but according to these references it is know to display blueish, pink, or violet petals/rays:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphyotrichum_lanceolatum

...sometimes tinged pink or purple. The roughly 20–40 disk florets bloom yellow and turn purple.

several examples of blueish/violet blooms:

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/79301-Symphyotrichum-lanceolatum/browse_photos

also mentions "The species seems quite variable. Plants with larger, blue-rayed heads superficially resemble S. robynsianum", and mentions that it is also know to hybridize:

https://www.michiganflora.net/record/485

S. lanceolatum ranges throughout the whole continent. There are officially named varieties of S. lanceolatum, with colored ray petals, but the variety most common in the midwest has white flowers. Should the varieties stay varieties, or should they be elevated to species status?