We recently connected with Natalia Fuentes and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Natalia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

The realization that I can make money doing what I love is still surreal. Right out of college, I wrote and edited a lot of Tik Tok content for a company in the world of books. I could not believe I was feeding myself by doing what so many times has been labeled by my elders as my generation’s biggest flaw. Gen Z has become synonymous with the worst parts of social media. If only we looked at the surge of creativity it has simultaneously produced…..

Then again, making a living from what you love is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, what once felt like pure, creative passion starts feeling too much like a desk job. Learning to distinguish between the writing I do for work and the writing I do for fun is getting harder by the second, but I find solace in that it ultimately proves the true challenges behind pursuing an artistic field. It’s not all fun and games. It’s work, it’s a struggle, and a lot of procrastination, too. I’m still learning to love those part of the process as I do the fun ones.

Natalia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, and moved to the United States in 2018, where I started by pursuing a career as an actress. Soon enough, I realized a couple of things: 1. I absolutely hate auditioning. 2. I liked analyzing the terrible scripts I was given at auditions more than acting them out. 3. Most of the roles at my disposal were for characters called “Tiffanny” and “Jennifer.” No hate to the Tiffanies and Jennifers out there, but if you’ve heard my accent, you’d realize why a casting director wouldn’t find me fit for such a role. Either way, I found the Dramatic Writing department at my university a couple of months after arriving and I never looked back.

A couple of things have happened since. I’ve written an award-winning play that got a full-scale production in Georgia last Spring, I’ve written a couple of successful short films, won a best original screenplay award at an Italian film festival, graduated college, and moved to New York. I’m currently learning to love the difficult magic of the Big Apple while writing a witchy feature film, working part-time at one of Manhattan’s oldest local bookstores, and assisting at a production company called Jax Media… all in the midst of a writer’s strike!

And that’s just the drama of my professional life… don’t get me started on the rest! We’ll stay here all day!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I was so afraid to ask for help a year ago. Networking sucks. It sucks! And it’s also unbelievably rewarding to jump over that hurdle of fear, embarrassment, impostor’s syndrome, and just… do it. Text that person on Linkedin. Schedule that informational. Ask that person to join you for a coffee. People love that! People really do love getting coffee.

Almost a year after graduating, and almost a year after my first interview with Voyage, I can say I have learned to feel proud of needing help.

It’s okay to look for helping hands at the beginning of your journey, and that’s something I wish I had believed in when I’d just graduated. I didn’t necessarily lack the resources. I had everything I needed to succeed at hand, I just needed to ask. I still do. Sometimes it’s harder asking for help than finding the help itself.

The most valuable lesson I’m still in the process of learning is that the help you need is not usually the help you expect to get. Yes, I am a screenwriter, but ever since I moved to New York, I have found the value of exploring my creativity in many other areas of filmmaking. From assisting in production for an HBO comedy special by running around Manhattan looking for fake beards and hats, to working as an intimacy coordinator for a series of short films, to starring in a fashion film just last weekend! I’ve made so many new friends by helping and letting others help me in unexpected scenarios.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think it’s the way something deeply, deeply personal can turn public at the bat of an eye. I love watching my work undergo that transformation. It’s happened with my play, my shorts… Like watching an organism evolve thousands of years in a compressed period of time. From microbe to beast. The closest thing I know to magic.

It’s also extremely painful. It forces you, the artist, to evolve in real time, too. You’re suddenly forced to see your work from hundreds of different eyes, conflicting perspectives. Sharing can be so… cringey! I love it. I hate it. It’s complicated.

But it’s overwhelmingly rewarding to see the final product of a script turned to life and see that your Frankenstein monster is more beautiful than you could’ve ever imagined on paper.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://natalia1020266.wixsite.com/nataliafuentes
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nati.fu.fu.fu.fu/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-fuentes-08a21320b/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@natis_fuentes

Image Credits
Hannah Loui Mateo Herrera Alejandra Olavarria Isabella Granada