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

Karrin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I have worked regular jobs since I was a senior in high school. During college, I couldn’t work due to being a student-athlete. When I stopped running track and just did school, I started working regular jobs again. I never felt fulfilled working those jobs. It just felt like I went to clock in and clock out. I knew it wasn’t serving my any purpose or helping me elevate. Before the 2020 covid-19 lockdown, I was presented with the opportunity to become a model. I tried to get signed during high school, but due to my school and sports schedule I didn’t have the time. After being rejected multiple times, something in me told me to just go for it and see what happens. I went to a casting call and I ended up getting asked to be signed that day of! From that day forward, I gained a new found passion. Then the 2020 lockdown came around and it put those plans on standby for a little, but I didn’t let it stop my hustle. I started to make connections with local photographers and brands, forming relationships within my community. I started doing a lot of photo shoots (even had 3-4 photoshoots per week) and starting to change my social media to look more professional. Every time I was in front of the camera, I started to gain more confidence in my skills and it became my happy place. Even now to this day, I still find joy and brightness when I’m in front of the camera. I get to not only display whichever brand I am promoting, but I just get forget about life and the pressures even for a little bit. I wouldn’t change the decision I made to walk into that modeling agency for the world because if I didn’t go in that day, I never wouldn’t of been able to experience the opportunities I’ve been presented so far within 2 year of my modeling career. I thank God for allowing me to be able to do this and be able to also tell apart of my story.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Whats up world? My name is Kay and I’m originally from Oregon and I currently reside in Las Vegas, NV. I got into my industry honestly by a leap of faith. I used to be all about sports, sports, sports. I was a student athlete for as long as I can remember, so modeling wasn’t really on my mind as far as a career path. When I couldn’t do sports anymore and life happened to get the best of me for awhile, I lacked passion and drive for what I wanted to do in my life. Then at the end of 2019, I got a message from a modeling agency asking me to come to a casting call. I decided, “Why not give it a shot?” and I went to the call. I ended up getting asked to sign with the agency the same night and it lit a fire in me that I haven’t felt since doing athletics. Even the COVID lockdown didn’t stop me from doing a bunch of photo shoots, networking with people in my area, growing on social media. Every time I step in front of the camera, I feel a sense of confidence and motivation. A motivation to get to the next photo shoot and the next opportunity.

I’m most proud of being a black sheep in the family and going across the grain. I could’ve easily went and did what a lot of what my family members are doing and took a very easy route, but I didn’t and still don’t want that. I want to be able to wake up every day and absolutely love what I do. Modeling has always opened my eyes to other possibilities and given me more goals I want to achieve in my life that were never on my list before.

I want anyone who is reading this to know I am completely authentic in everything I do. Every project, gig, photo shoot, runway show, video, any content I put out, I let my true self show and I never put on a disguise. Too many people today try to be like everyone else, look like everyone else and walk the same path as everyone else. That’s great and all, but that’s not what I’m about. I am me and will always be me. I will never strive to look, be, or do exactly what the next person is doing. That would be a disservice to myself. I have a big heart if you show me you are worthy of seeing that side of me. To anyone who works with me will see how professional I am and also how I like to keep it fun while also getting quality work done at the same time. If you don’t love what you do, why are you doing it?

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

A good portion of my life, I have dealt with depression. But around 2018-2019 is when the effects started to become more physical. I started having really bad anxiety attacks on a nightly basis. Struggling to breathe, bad nausea, body tingling, cold and hot flashes, body would become sort of paralyzed from my hands to my legs; I would feel like I was going to die. I would be so terrified of the nighttime because I know what was coming. In 2020, I started to get my attacks under more control, but the stomach problems never went away. I would get really bad nausea throughout the day to where I didn’t want to eat anything. It would keep me up at night and sometimes trigger an anxiety attack even if I never felt anxious. I found out I have gastritis, which is where the lining of my stomach is swollen. I cannot eat or drink certain things anymore and I was forced to take some foods/drinks out of my life that I loved in order for me to not get sick. My stomach problems are also stressed related, so anytime I feel extremely stressed I will start to feel sick. Even though I’ve had moments where it took me down for the day to where I couldn’t do much but just lay down, I still got up and did what I needed to do. I have had plenty of photo shoots where I was feeling so crazy sick to my stomach, but I put on my game face and got work done regardless. If I showed you photos to where I was feeling like I was on the verge of throwing up, you wouldn’t believe me by how good I hid it. That to me shows resilience. Pushing through pain and sickness and still managing to get up and work towards something.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative is being able to have a voice and the freedom to do what you want with your art. To me, working a regular job isn’t what I truly want to do. Years before I was even a thought, a 9-5 was the way to go in order to make money, provide for yourself and be able to live a stable lifestyle. In today’s world, that isn’t the case anymore. You can be so creativity and still be able to make money and have financial freedom. That brings happiness in doing what you love to do while making good money at the same time; that’s a beautiful win-win situation.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/westcoastkay__

Image Credits
@dee.sauce @zatscinema @andre.waymond @Henry_m_ward @alexandrapallasphotography @cobaltstudiospdx @the_second_chris