We asked some insanely talented artists, creatives and makers to tell us about when they know they were going to pursue a creative career.

ShaCora Smith

I’ve always known that fashion was my passion. I am my moms first child of 3 and the only girl, so I spent a significant amount of my childhood doing things my mom liked to do when it was just us. I remember being a little girl watching Sex and The City and Girlfriends with my mom and always looking forward to see what those women wore in each episode and actually discussing it with my mom. I remember just consuming everything that my mom did from getting dressed to go out with her friends, to the music she listened to, and how the process of watching her do it was always my favorite thing to do, besides playing in her clothes. As a kid all I wanted to do was play dress up all day every day but as a kid I didn’t know it was even possible to “work in fashion” until I got to Highschool and discovered the many positions you could do in the industry. My ultimate goal is to become a Fashion Designer. I want to create looks and fashion pieces that will inspire other young black girls from Ohio to live out their dream in fashion. Read more>>

Hayden Szeto

I come from a long lineage of artists in my family tree, so you could say all the roads kind of led to it! My father is a renowned painter in China and had tried to teach me to follow in his footsteps when I was a child, however, I just couldn’t sit still and my father would take break sand watch movies with me; this lead to develop a love affair with film at a very young age, which led me to my very first theater class in high school and that’s when, as they say, I “caught the bug”. Read more>>

Hagan Wessbecker

Oh, that’s an easy one! I wanted to be a Rockstar all the way back at i years old. I can confidently say that is when I made the decision of what my future would be like. I never wanted to be an astronaut or a cowboy, (….okay…. Maybe a cowboy…. haha but not for long!) I always wanted to do music. My dad took me to get a guitar and an amplifier at 8 years old ehen i first told him i wanted to play, and the rest, as they say… is history. I remember learning deep purple’s “smoke on the water” and then “iron man” from black sabbath. Those songs introduced me to the craft that would bewilder me throughout the rest of my waking life. The guitar is my first instrument. I have a knack for most anything I play, though. Read more>>

Ja’son Manwill

At the age of seven. I watched a piano player play the Wind Beneath My Wings on an Acoustic Upright Piano. When I heard him play and watched his fingers move on that ivory I was blown away. I decided that day that I wanted to learn how to play that song and much more. Two weeks later, I set down at the same piano he was sitting at, and played The Wind Beneath My Wings from start to finish, and from that point on, I had the rush of playing and performing for people and audiences worldwide.. It was something that I was ready to do, and right after that; I learned, Bass, Guitar, and Drums. I played my first Public Performance two weeks later, and did not stop until the Brain Injury in 2009. Read more>>

Alita LaShae

I actually didn’t know I wanted to pursue acting when I first moved to LA. I actually came her to pursue writing. I wanted to be a screenwriter (I still do, and am?) but when I got here, I found myself being asked to do modeling jobs for friends, and occasionally being in a video someone was filming. After a string of those things happening, I decided to look into getting in an acting class, because I wanted to take it seriously. I’m glad I did, because it helped open many doors for me both in acting and in my personal life. Read more>>

RudeboyFlexxx

My first song I ever recorded was called “Up Next” I was 11 years old my brother “Gregory Stakks” played a big part in the first song I recorded because he wrote the verse for me. I didn’t even know how to count bars at first I just had a passion for Music. After hearing my voice in the song that’s when I knew i could really be a star. I perfected the craft and started writing my own songs and they sounded like Hits you would hear on the Radio. So I told myself it’s time ..time to take this music seriously and Make it .. Read more>>

Angela Entzminger

I loved DuckTales as a kid and used to read the credits at the end of the show. That’s when I discovered that adults worked on the show and since one day I would be an adult, that television was a career I could pursue. Read more>>

Hung Viet Nguyen

During 6th grade, there was a writing essay the topic was: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. My reply was to be an artist. However, I came from a large family and an environment that didn’t favor the pursuit of art. I went to Science University in Saigon, Vietnam where I studied biology. I came to the US in 1982, and from then on, the dream of becoming an artist came back. Following my dream, I worked as an illustrator and graphic artist during the daytime and a fine artist at night. In 2015, I retired from my day job as graphic artist and become full time fine artist. Read more>>

SVNDAY DRVR

Music has always been a part of my world in one way or another. I learned to play the piano when I was younger, taking lessons for about 6 years, and writing one song on sheet paper. I was in my high school’s varsity choir for two years and part of a 6 man acapella group where we did our own arrangements. Senior year, almost everyday after school I would go home and write hip-hop lyrics; a few of my buddies produced beats and we had fun messing around with that but I never took it very seriously at the time. I put out two songs under the alias Kid Atlas. Read more>>

Hannah Quintero

When I think back to my days in college, I originally wanted a career to help people which entailed going in to a pre-med program to become a neurosurgeon. However, I also loved art and wanted to continue painting as an escape from the demands of my studies. At the time, I did not think I was ready to put my art out there and approach art galleries even with much of the encouragement I received from my parents at the time to sell my art on the side. I also never gave it much thought about selling my art to be honest and had no idea how to go about it. As much as I wanted to, I grew up with the notion, that artists were not able to make a stable living off of creating art and the value of their art were not discovered and appraised until after their death, hence the starving artist mentality. We have a tendency to automatically think of Vincent Van Gogh in this instance. Read more>>

Jaswant Shrestha

Since I was 4 years old, I wanted to be an actor. Those movies projected on those big screens made a lasting impression on me, and after growing up, I wanted to make that impact. Read more>>

Colin Verdi

I feel like I’ve always known, but I didn’t have many examples growing up of other people I saw who were doing it. Almost all of the adults in my life were working full-time corporate office jobs, and none of them anything related to art or design. So I wanted to pursue a creative path, but it was really intimidating and scary without any examples of other people who were making it work for them. So even though my heart wasn’t in it, I did first try to get a full-time, corporate type of job, because it felt like the “right” thing to do, or the path of least resistance at the very least. Read more>>

Cristina Glezoro

From the moment I was born I was surrounded by art. On a stage is where I feel the most comfortable. I danced and sang for multiple years and theater caught me when I was 9 years old, that’s when I found my new favorite thing in the world. Of course when I was a kid I performed because it was what I had always known and it made me happy, but I didn’t truly see it as something I could pursuit as a profession even though I was already getting paid for some gigs. Once I entered high school I started to dream with the idea of actually make a living out of it, but people had planted a fear on me that “people can’t make a living by doing art”. Read more>>

Sofia Bilbao

I’m majoring in Film and Media and minor in Theatre. This is my second bachelor’s degree, my first one was Communications Studies back in my country, Uruguay. I never stopped loving my country, I just left for better opportunities in my field, but I miss it so much :(. If I could go back in time and talk to my 15-year-old self, she wouldn’t believe where I’m today. My dream back then was being an anthropologist and discovering dinosaurs’ bones. But then when I asked one professor in the field to tell me more about the career, she told me that only 100 people finish the career, 4 get a job and only 1 work in what I wanted, and it wasn’t in my country, the rest became professors. Read more>>

Roei Zoar

My first exposure to music was at the age of four. That’s because my mom used to listen to classical and orchestral music. I fell in love with all the instruments, especially the piano, violin, and cello. What is fascinating about music is that it’s a universal language and connects people from all over the world. Over the years, I fell in love with more genres, especially EDM. I remember the first time I watched the Tomorrowland Festival, and I was hooked. I struggled severely in the school system and felt that I was wasting my time. I taught myself how to play piano at the age of 15, and honestly, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Read more>>