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

Megan Alyn Brumlow

I knew that I wanted to be in the entertainment industry at a very early age. I started talking at 9 months old and by a year I was speaking in full sentences. The only thing that calmed me down as a child would be music. Read more>>

Woosik Choi

Since I was a child, I liked the stories in fairy tales that my parents read, and through them, I could imagine a world I hadn’t experienced. Also, since I was in middle school, I was often fascinated by video media such as animations, dramas, and movies, and couldn’t sleep until late at night. Read more>>

Chloe Labian

I was in high school when I encountered the all too common problem of picking a career. Initially I was stuck between a STEM career or a career in the arts. I knew that I loved both just in different ways. Read more>>

Rebekah Lowell

When I was a toddler I started drawing. Some of my first memories include drawing what I saw outside, or drawing while I was outside. I still have one of my first drawings of a Mallard. Read more>>

Julielle

I have always enjoyed performing in local theater productions, but while studying music in a study abroad program, I had the opportunity to sing a few tunes at an Irish pub in Nova Scotia. Read more>>

Kaylah Hagler

I started taking 101 classes after I got off my full time job when I first started getting back into art. When the classes would finish, I saw my work and realized I started feeling more alive.and curious! Read more>>

Justin Giddings

When I was just a little kid, I loved to perform for my whole family by dancing to Michael Jackson songs. The dancing was meh, but I loved the attention! From there I moved into voiceover work and from the wee age of 7 I started working professionally and have never looked back! Read more>>

Andrea Animashaun

I’ve always enjoyed creating – sketching, crocheting, cooking etc… About four years ago, I began a new project of making candle melts using leftover wax from candles I had purchased. Read more>>

Levi Nichs

I’ve always loved performing, I went to college for music and played professionally in a blues, funk and soul band in Austin, TX for 5 years then Covid hit and I had to pivot. Read more>>

Noelly Rodriguez

I knew when i was 6 years old and i stepped on my first stage in church my parents are singers an musicians so i knew this was my purpose. Read more>>

Lydia Heidt

Before I was old enough to start taking dance classes, my parents told me I would try to dance in the aisles during my older sister’s recitals. As soon as I could start learning, I knew I would never stop dancing. Read more>>

Zahra Sayeed

I was born an artist. Ever since I was a child I was constantly creating. People around me including my classmates and school staff were always asking me to draw something for them. Read more>>

Eden Collins

The short answer? Five years old. I told my grandma that I was going to be an artist. The long answer, 20 years old. Instead of becoming an artist, I took a safer route and studied pre-vet in college. Read more>>

Aileen Kyoko

From my naively precocious beginnings, I had this inner knowing that a creative path was my destiny. By Elementary school, I was obsessed with theatre and performing. My first role was playing a clam in a production of “Peter Pan”, a real method acting moment. Read more>>

Nicole Solomon

By the time I was in third grade I knew I wanted to be either an actor, a rock star, or a writer, because music, movies and books were my passions. Read more>>

Lex Gurst

I knew from an early age that I wanted to pursue something art-related– drawing, painting, sculpting with Play Doh, community art classes– creativity was always an important part of my life, and something that was fostered by my family. Read more>>

Sharon Brownlie

In 2014, when I was on the verge of publishing my own book, I faced the reality that quality book covers were costly. Operating with a limited budget as an independent author, I decided to explore creating the cover myself. Read more>>

Mariah Thomas

My entrepreneurial journey began with a simple love for words and a penchant for self-expression. As a teenager, I found solace and inspiration in the glossy pages of magazines like “Teen Vogue,” “Elle” and “Cosmo.” Read more>>

Daniel Zamora

It will be helpful to begin with a bit of an origin story: I knew from a very young age that I was gay. I was born in the 1970s and started coming to consciousness as a young person in the 1980s. Read more>>

Dylan Baumgartner

I first knew that I wanted to pursue a creative career back when I was eleven or twelve years old. Guitar Hero II and School of Rock had come out around that time and I think the exposure to that combination lead me to wanting to play guitar and perform in a band and I’ve been involved in musical projects for the last sixteen years of my life. Read more>>

David Daniels

There has never been a time in my life when I wanted to do anything but create.My artistic journey was not a straight line from point A to point B, but underneath it all was my passion to create. Read more>>

Reece Harris

I first realized that I wanted to be a musical artist when I was young. When I was an adolescent, I use to freestyle rap with my siblings. Read more>>

SEK

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was when I was 19/20. I had been running a gallery in my home town with some friends that was, by some odd chance, passed on to us. Read more>>

Sharon Graves

I always knew there was an artist inside of me but as a mom of 4 active kids, it seemed that ship had sailed. When I was 48 I was diagnosed with a serious auto immune disease where I was no longer able to work and I went downhill very quickly. Read more>>

Turner Allen

In 2019, I lost my job at UPS. I remember walking out feeling hopeless. I had no job, no degree and no idea what i was going to do with my life. At the time, I had a small home studio set up where I’d record a few of my friends. Read more>>

Shi Feticcio

I think I first consciously realized— and accepted— that I wanted to pursue an artistic, artful and art-filled life when I was in my 20’s. I grew up in a household that was founded on the arts and the pursuit of creation. Read more>>

Willa Kaplan

I always knew I wanted to pursue music professionally because I’ve been singing and songwriting since I was a little kid. It was never really a question for me of what to do but more when and how to do it. Read more>>

Kat Reilly

I always knew I was a creative person. As a kid, I continually invented stories, made collages and found any way I could to express myself. But to be honest, I didn’t think of myself as someone who would be a PROFESSIONAL creative. Why? Read more>>

Sonia Sleeger

My artistic path began while my sister and I became caregivers for our last living aunt who was 72. She had been diagnosed with Dementia and later Alzheimer’s disease. This was a long, hard journey that lasted 11 years. It was by far, the most stressful thing I had ever been through. Read more>>

Kelsey Flanagan

Going as far back as early grade school, I was always drawn to having a life with music. When I was young, the dream first took shape as wanting to be a singer in a band, but as time went on and I collected life experiences and skills, that dream shape shifted a few times to bring me to my current career as a studio producer and audio engineer, songwriter, vocal coach, and even managing a couple artists now too. Read more>>

Nikki Kellogg

I’ve always been creative since I was a kid, doing artwork, projects, making things, and sewing costumes for myself. Photography was always a large part of my life too, I guess I liked having something to look back on to refresh my memory. Read more>>

Lisa Crawford

As a child growing up in South Africa with in the 60s & 70s we had no television back then. I would love watching my Dad’s home movies and silent films like Charlie Chaplin, Woody Woodpecker etc.. , I would dream about going to Hollywood one day and becoming a filmmaker. Read more>>

Liam Manak

For as long as I can remember I have always had a very strong interest in art and fashion. I grew up always making things, wether that be drawing, painting, sculpting, sewing, knitting, … the list goes on and on, Growing up It was pretty obvious to everyone around me that I would end up pursing something artistic as an adult. Read more>>

Jaime Swezey

Even from early on I was obsessed with film. I would frequently watch films on repeat in my youth and imitate my favorite characters. I even tried to get into a big film that was being shot locally, however that was unsuccessful. Read more>>

Juan Arango

Music has always been an intrinsic part of my life, so much so that I can’t recall a moment of epiphany where I decided to pursue it professionally. My musical journey commenced at the tender age of ten when I first picked up a guitar. Read more>>