We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Avalynn Ly a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Avalynn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

One of my favorite quotes I often have to repeat to myself is “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is today.” I have always had a deep love of music and artistic story telling. I have journals going back to when I was 9 years old and writing bad poetry in spiral notebooks where I should have been doing homework; memories of strumming my guitar quietly in my room, in the dark, in the middle of the night when everyone else in the house was sleeping when I was 13; being unofficially designated the family picture-taker on vacation at 15. In high school, I participated in (and won!) the school talent show, was personally invited to try out for the school dance team by the dance coach, burned CDs of original songs for my friends to blast in their hand-me-down cars with 6 CD changers. Still, coming from an immigrant family, it was often difficult to get my parents to see the worth in the creative arts despite my inclination towards it.

I’m fortunate that I had other interests, including biology, chemistry, and psychology. By the time I was in college, I had picked a major I was both good at and interested in. Still, I continued to play in the outdoor amphitheater outside the dorm on relaxing days, participate in an a cappella group, and doodle the occasional verse in my ochem notebook. My mind was focused on getting to grad school, but my heart continued to ache for a creative outlet. I finally got back into performing on stage and posting YouTube covers when I was in graduate school, but it wasn’t until I was several years deep into my career that I finally pursued getting signed with an agency.

Being a creative professionally truly opened my eyes to how different everybody’s story was from mine. So many of the other creatives I’ve come to know have been in the space for years – they had fully fledged Instagrams and TikToks, they were plugged in to the local performance spaces, they had robust brands and creative identities. Many of them had gone to school for acting or music or photography. For the first time in my professional life, I truly felt like a fish out of water – here I was, with a science degree, trying to fit in with people who were experts in lighting and acting and music.

If I could go back in time, I would have absolutely wished to have gotten started in the acting/music/modeling industry sooner. Time and experience are valuable resources I will never equal other creatives in. However, I am still happy to have gotten started when I did. Working in medicine means I get to use a different side of my brain than when I am creating art, and I can honestly say that everything I’ve accomplished creatively I’ve accomplished myself without the help of any parental or expert guidance or help when I was younger. I love living my double life of art and science and, though I could have started sooner, I would not trade my own timing for the world.

Avalynn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a science nerd with the heart of a creative. Since I was young, I have wanted to pursue the arts and somehow marry that passion with my interest in the sciences. I am lucky in that I get to do both – I work as an emergency medicine physician assistant by day (sometimes nights, weekends, and holidays!), and in my free time write and perform music, model, and act. I am signed to the Boysen Agency, arguably the best talent agency in Houston (though I am biased!) and have been lucky to have support from the staff there as a relatively inexperienced actress.

I am most proud of the fact that I have been able to balance a full time “traditional job” with all the artistic loves I’ve had for my entire life. I want people to know that it is possible to be multi-faceted in your interests and pursuits, and that you don’t have to have started very young. You can choose to pursue anything at any time – it is never too late!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve had to unlearn a huge lesson: that art is “easy” and can be done effortlessly.

My first lesson came fast and hard when I first was signed to my talent agency. I always took to writing music, dancing, and even modeling with relative ease. There were things that needed to be worked on and improved upon, sure, but for the most part there were certain types of art I just felt more comfortable doing. When it came to acting, however, the story completely changed. As I got my first audition for a minor role, I found myself doing take after take of my slate and my audition. I felt like I looked wrong in front of the camera, like all my words sounded off, like I wasn’t myself. Every audition I got was accompanied with emails to my agency asking for clarification, or multiple Google searches trying to figure out simple terms. How did this come so easy to everyone else? As I got to know other actors, I realized most of them had gone to school, or at least had acting lessons, where they had a professional explain how to frame their scenes, how to light their auditions, and what even basic terms meant. Although I’ve been able to land a few bookings, I know that I have quite a ways to go as far as my acting goes and am continuing to seek help with improving my auditions.

Society in general tend to assume that art is easy – how hard could it be to push a button on a camera, or recite some lines, or rhyme some words, or throw some color on a canvas? What non-creatives do not see are the hours and hours of time spent behind the scenes perfecting the details of what goes into the final product. It’s not until you try to create something yourself that you realize the blend of difficulty, skill, and talent that goes into it all.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There is nothing more satisfying than an audience member coming up to me after a show telling me that they’ve really enjoyed an original song that I wrote and identify with it. Many of the songs that I write stem from deeply personal experiences – sometimes I feel they may be TOO personal or unique. When someone tells me that they liked my song and listened to a recording of it over and over again, it is a reminder that so many experiences – happy or sad – are incredibly human and universal.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @avalynn.ly
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/avalynnly
• Other: https://soundcloud.com/avalynnly

Image Credits
First main photo (blue shirt and guitar): Kerri King Photo 1 (guitar with hat): Kerri King Photo 2 (light): Joy Yang Photo 3 (orange shirt): Drew Jordan Photo 4 (scrubs): Kerri King