We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taylor Engle Anderson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Taylor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path when I was around 7 years old. I was always drawn to creating. I’d use paper and colored pencils to design outfits and bring imaginative worlds to life. When I was old enough to use a computer, I started emailing an “Engle House Newsletter” to my parents, and when I was 8 years old, I wrote my first book, “Casey and the Fish,” which followed the lives of my pet cat and two fish. My mom helped me put the pages together into what looked like an actual children’s book, complete with my own illustrations, an author’s bio, and a plot summary. I didn’t realize I was manifesting my own future at the time; I wrote in the back of the book that this novel was my first of many, and that I’d soon be in bookstores to sign copies. While that never happened with “Casey and the Fish,” it did happen 20 years later when I published my actual first novel: “211 Blue: The Story of The Chameleon Cop.” https://www.amazon.com/211-Blue-Story-Chameleon-Cop/dp/196005905X

Taylor, 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 spent two decades unconsciously suppressing my thoughts and feelings, riddled with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Like many of us do, I learned to project a stale, hollow silhouette that never really felt like me. While I was born knowing myself, I eventually got caught up in the sway of the world and forgot who I was. But now, I’ve found myself again, and I want to share that experience with my words.

I channel my own love and joy into my work to help people, brands, and organizations communicate the heart of their mission with raw, empathetic and unique storytelling. My own transformation is my creative inspiration: an act in abandoning a faux-self constructed by the need to people-please in exchange for truth, both in my work and in my life.

The way I first got into the writing industry was pretty crazy! I was a college student in California, and I’d known for years that I wanted to move to NYC to launch my career. I was desperate to make this happen, so one day, I got crafty: I found a bunch of Vogue editors on Instagram, and I started messaging them to see if I could meet with them and ask for some advice when it came to getting into the industry. Miraculously, one of them replied at the exact moment I was reaching to turn my phone off in a movie theater. I was ecstatic: she was down to meet, and I was coincidentally going to NYC with my family in one month for a vacation. The universe was on my side!!!

I went on my trip and met with the editor, who gave me some great advice. While Vogue was no longer hiring interns, Harper’s Bazaar was, so this editor put in a good word for me and I was able to intern at Harper’s Bazaar magazine the following summer. From there, I stayed in the City, making it my home as I tried on a few different jobs for size and ended up working in global media for a variety of major companies.

Today, I am a freelance writer, editor, and public relations/marketing specialist with over 10 years of experience. I’ve just published my first novel, which I co-wrote with my father about his life. I’m also working on my second—my debut novel as a solo fiction writer. The book will explore the theme of the shadow self, zooming in on the lives of various characters to understand how many different ways there are to deal with grief, love, and life. It will be published in 2025.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate goal is to keep writing fiction novels: pieces that share what I’ve learned about life, love, and resilience. I want to use my creative work and my unique voice to help people feel less alone. That’s what books did for me as a young girl, and that’s what books still do for me now. They teach me how to be empathetic. They remind me the world is so much bigger than what I know. They save my life. I want to pay them back with my own words and stories.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Our work day doesn’t look like yours! We engage with time differently, and sometimes, it’s more important for us to check out and experience life than it is to sit down and do the work. However, we still have to do the work. Because of this, it’s really important to be disciplined and keep a routine for yourself, but also be open to life’s surprises and always go with the flow. It’s all balance, baby.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://taylorengle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorspicee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorengle/

Image Credits

Teresa Renee Rogers Photography