Do you remember the moment you realized what you wanted to do professionally? Was it magic? Was it scary? We wanted to hear from some of the most talented artists and creatives in the community and so we asked them to tell us the story of the moment when they knew they were going to pursue a creative career path.

Hezekiah Palacios

I started recording and posting in 2017 with my phone and books as a tripod. Never was serious with the craft at the time. I just know I wanted to be a big “ well known “ star. Started on with bad quality. Watched so much videos of other youtubers while learning the do’s and don’ts of content creation. I ended up purchasing my first camera in 2020 but still wasn’t taking my craft seriously. Until 2023, when I did my first collab with my friend/ another “ well known “ content creator Emaneediorr ! That video had gotten over 400 views. Ever since then I kept pushing and pushing striving to be the best I could be! Now im sitting with 686 subscribers and posting a lot of content getting recognition that i wanted and deserve! Read more>>

Facy Sedated

It is a little difficult to define the exact moment in which I decided that I wanted to dedicate my life to art because it was not really a decision that I took, it was not something that I decided. I have lived all my life in Mexico, living from art in a Latin American country is not usually seen as an intelligent decision, it is often said jokingly that deciding to be an artist is equivalent to starving to death. Read more>>

Ke Xu

The first time I decided to pursue a creative path was during a small art market event at my undergraduate university. It was a market exclusively for students, so the crowd wasn’t very large. But when people purchased and complimented the products I created, it made me truly feel, for the first time, the impact of sharing my work with others. Before this, I only knew that I enjoyed crafting and drawing. However, after that day, I felt a deep sense of fulfillment I hadn’t experienced before. Seeing others appreciate my work made me realize how meaningful it could be to share my creativity with the world. That moment stayed with me and inspired me to seriously pursue a creative path. Read more>>

Jocelyn Benford

I have always had creative interests and pursuits. I spent my teens and 20s working as an actress, and later I worked as a jewelry designer for a few years. In my subsequent long-time career as an elementary school teacher, I regularly found ways to weave creative projects into my classroom curriculum. Living in NYC, I have always loved going to the theatre and visiting art museums. But I never spent any time developing my skills in the visual arts nor did I consider myself an artist, until just a few years ago. Read more>>

Knaladeus

Music has always been a huge part of my family. My dad was a DJ and dabbled in Rap, and production to a degree. Also on my mom’s side, there were already known musicians. I didn’t really knew it was something I truly wanted to pursue until around the age of 15. I remember hearing a song off of Nas’2nd album ‘ It Was written ‘ called ‘Message’, In my brothers car and I remember telling myself, I want to make people feel what I felt after hearing that. Read more>>

Adaeze Akilah

I always took an interest in fashion, more specifically, modelling and styling. Being raised with Belizean and Nigerian parents, my interests were brushed off, as doing well in school was all that mattered to them. Around this time, I was a freshman in college and I just remember feeling super conflicted between my dreams and satisfying my family. While I decided that my main focus would be on school, I would often post pictures of my outfits on Instagram and shoot with friends for fun. I think the first time I really started to see a professional opportunity for myself is when I was featured in a SSENSE editorial. That’s when I started to view my potential as talent. Read more>>

Anna Zgurovskaya

My name is Anna. Im a fashion stylist based in Miami, Fl. I was a professional dancer my whole life -started when I was 5 but always had a strong connection to fashion world. When I was little my Mom and I were creating clothing for my Barbie Doll -using magazines as inspiration. That’s how it all started. I’ve always loved shopping and looking at fashion shows, my friends always were saying – that they need my help in creating their wardrobe and I need to think about doing it professionally. And during pandemic – when I wasn’t able to perform in a shows anymore I’ve decided to take a Condé Nast Course for Fashion Styling. And I absolutely loved it. It came out so naturally for me -that I knew right a way that it would become my passion for life… Read more>>

Enrica Zaggia

I’ve had this thought many times. The first time I wanted to be a painter, I was around five, and my world was small—I was always drawing. Over the years, though, the idea started to scare me. The more I understood how the world worked, the more I doubted I’d ever make it. So, I studied something unrelated at university and then worked as a chef, keeping art as a kind of bittersweet hobby. I did this for nearly eight years. Five years ago, I was a chef in a small restaurant in Venice. One morning, I realized that life wasn’t making me happy—not at all. I knew if I was going to change careers, I’d only do it for the one thing that could mean as much to me as cooking. Read more>>

Josh Deener

As a teenager I found my love of music and performing as a musician. From my earliest memories I had always had an interest in film production from watching things like The Muppets and various films ranging from Hitchcock to Martin & Lewis. It wasn’t just the acting that intrigued me, it was HOW they were doing it, HOW they were bringing the charaters to life, HOW did they manage to create that shot? Fast forward to adulthood, I worked and cared for my family as best I could, but there was always the underlying creative self that wanted to be a puppeteer and an actor and film maker. After moving to Arizona in 2017 I was able to explore my film interests by finally having acting opportunities. After my first acting project with the YouTube channel “JP&Beyond” in 2019 I realized acting and film making is what I truly had a talent for. Read more>>

Fandy Wu

I didn’t set out to become a creative professional—it kind of just happened. My journey started in 2020, the year the pandemic turned everything upside down. Stuck at home, I decided to focus on my passion for fitness by sharing it on Instagram. Back then, the algorithm favored established creators, so getting noticed as a newcomer was tough. Determined to make it, I spent hours liking posts and engaging with similar accounts, hoping people would check out my page. Read more>>

Ruby Stathers

Since I was young, I enjoyed spending time drawing in sketchbooks, and looking at art for the sense of expansion it brought to the mind. I never thought I would pursue it as a career, though, because I picked up that working as an artist was only possible for a select few with great talent. So, I continued on, unsure of what I truly desired, picking up a hospitality management degree related to my love of travel and being in that atmosphere of welcoming others’ while they’re experiencing exciting adventures. I wasn’t feeling fulfilled or that comfortable in these roles, I realized after a few years. At the time, it boiled down to my lack of confidence and difficulty in expressing anything other than my authentic emotions. “You’re not bubbly enough,” they told me, as I left what I thought was my dream position. Read more>>

Javier Cardenas

Since I was kid, music had always been a part of me even without playing an instrument. Definitely, music has had such a big impact on me that I can describe my life with a musical soundtrack easily. When I was 11 years old, I received a piano as a Christmas gift, I got attached to the instrument and I started studying. Since then, until this point in my life, I have not stopped being involved in the world of piano and music in general. Read more>>

Karyn Denten

From a young age, I was always drawing, painting, or making something. I knew I loved the process, but it wasn’t until college that I realized there were different career paths in the art world. That led me to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications, which eventually opened doors to a career as a graphic designer. After years designing for marketing agencies, I found myself burned out and craving a more personal connection with my art, I started painting in my free time—early mornings, weekends, any spare moment I could find. There came a point when I realized that if I was going to fulfill my dream as a a full-time artist, I needed to take the leap sooner rather than later. That realization was a true turning point for me, and I haven’t looked back. Read more>>

Oussama Tkito

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally when I was 17. That year, my remix of Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan “There for you” was featured in Billboard.com in 2017 with my old Alias “BigNSmall”together with Zak, and it really solidified my decision. Seeing my work recognized on such a big platform like Proximity confirmed that music was more than just a passion for me—it was something I wanted to dedicate my career to. Now at 26, I’m fully committed to pushing my sound forward with major releases on Selected., Groove Bassmenet, Chapter Eight and more… Read more>>

Destani Matthews

I was always meant to be an artist and have a creative career path, simply because I was born into that lifestyle; my mother was also part of the entertainment and fashion industry when she was about my age. She began her modeling career early in her adolescence and throughout young adulthood, on top of being a successful, licensed cosmetologist and nail technician. I admire my mother’s work ethic because she still has a creative mindset and loves to keep up with trends and things that fuel her artistic side. Read more>>

Ali Bill

I had always been a very active child and was in gymnastics and dance by the age of 4. However, when I was 6, my mother took me to my first play, and MAN do I wish I could remember what it was called or where we were! I remember the playbill very clearly… and the feeling of knowing I wanted to be a part of whatever I just saw. My sweet mom took me to audition for the upcoming show they had and I completely froze up, it was terrifying! I remember they wanted me to cold read and improvise and I was totally out of my comfort zone, even though I’m a middle child and loved attention. Read more>>

Lee Mullen

The moment I knew I wanted to be a tattoo artist was when I went with my father to a stranger’s house and watched him get an illegal tattoo. My home state of Oklahoma was the last state in the union to legalize tattooing in 2006. Oklahoma has always been a very religious state, so when I was growing up, it was considered taboo, anti-Christian, and generally not polite to get a tattoo. If you wanted to get one done, there were no tattoo shops around. You had to look underground. Read more>>

Charity “holly” Haith

I fell in love with Entertainment for the first time when I was ten. That was the year that I noticed a new awakening of creative curiosity within myself. I would find myself many nights waking up from a dream I had, jotting down a rough draft script, and then acting out the dream with my barbie dolls and my best friend the next morning. Although I had been involved in dance for years prior to this moment, my mother took note to this new found talent and knew there was something very special happening. A few years later, my mother signed me up to audition for the drama department at Overton High School for the Performing Arts. Read more>>

Diane Lopez

For some their creative journey starts off during art class when they are kids, but for some like myself that journey didn’t start until later in life. I think the little girl inside of me would be pretty surprised to see where I am at today.  My journey to adulthood like many others was a very difficult transition. I had to learn what it meant to be a human in our society and learn about who I am. Right after high school, I thought I had my whole life planned out. I was going to get a degree, have a career and family then that’s it. So I went to college with almost no direction & no idea what career path I wanted. These years of going to school really build the foundation of who I wanted to become but I wasn’t sure the path I would take after I left.  Read more>>

Sean Madden

I am the product of artists. My mother was an oil painter and instructor. And, while my father was career military, he was an accomplished sculptor and woodworker, as well as a talented painter. Growing up in this environment, I absorbed certain qualities that many people go to school for years to learn. From color theory to mounting canvases in frames, it was just embedded in me. Despite all of this, I chose a different path for most of my life. Music. And, of course, my parents eagerly supported this, encouraging me in my studies as a classical pianist and guitarist. Read more>>

Britt Clark

I knew at three years old my life was going to evolve around music. I loved country music (so much that my parents said country radio was the only way they could get me to go to sleep) and knew from a young age I wanted to be a country music singer. As soon as I began to talk I began to sing those popular 2000s country melodies I was hearing on CMT and the radio stations. I picked up a pencil and paper the summer in-between kindergarten and first grade and began writing songs. I had no idea being a songwriter was even a career opportunity for myself until I moved to Nashville at twenty. I grew up on a farm so the lifestyles these popular artists were singing about during my childhood was second nature to me. Read more>>

Emilie Madeleine Dextraze

I’ve always loved pasta, but never imagined I’d become a pasta chef ! A few years ago, I read In Praise of Slow by Carl Honoré, which explores the concept of slow living—a mindful approach that values quality over speed—and it just clicked. When COVID hit, we all had to slow down, and my interest in the slow movement grew wildly. Working from home felt unfulfilling, so I turned to making pasta almost every day. With so much time to practice, I became obsessed with perfecting pasta shapes. I made so much that I began delivering it to family and friends, and as word spread, more people wanted to try it. Eventually, I launched an online shop, allowing me to sell my pasta and deliver it straight to people’s doors. The sweetest part of that chapter was making deliveries with my dad (s/o Mario) which made the experience even more meaningful. Read more>>

Maribeth Woodford

Just about two years ago, I found myself back in corporate America after my yoga studio of 8 years had to close due to COVID. I worked hard in a corporate job, but like many, I was eventually faced with a layoff. My first thought was, “Is this AI stuff going to replace me?” But instead of resisting it, I decided to embrace it. I took online classes, joined an incredible LinkedIn community filled with other AI creators, and from there, my journey truly began. Read more>>

Anjali Karustis

I definitely am not exaggerating when I saw I’ve always wanted to be an artist. If you would have asked when I was very young, I would have told you the same thing I would say today. Of course, I know more about what it takes to be a full-time working artist than I did back then, but the intent remains the same. My passion for creating has probably grown since I was younger as well. Read more>>

Cloee Thomas

I realized I wanted to pursue a creative career the moment I graduated high school and enrolled as a photography major. However, I shifted my focus after receiving discouraging advice from some who claimed I would be wasting my potential in a creative field and should instead pursue a degree in S.T.E.M. I switched to a biology major, but after two years, I knew that path wasn’t right for me. I decided to pursue a degree in the History of Art and Visual Culture instead, reasoning that even if I couldn’t make a living creating art, at least I could be immersed in it. Read more>>

Michael Trepagnier

I think the first time I uttered the words ” I want to be an artist” was way back to elementary school. I was walking home with a few friends, I think this must have been 4th or 5th grade. There was a route that we would all walk home together on, and once the larger set of neighborhood kids split off from the pack my buddy Philip got to talking about where we would want to live when we “grew up” – I think I said New Orleans – and what we wanted to BE as adults. I said “I wanted to make art”. Read more>>

Veronica Ripley

I’m a trans woman, and back in 2016 when I started streaming to Twitch there just weren’t any other trans creators. I felt it was necessary for the sake of community support to provide an example of a trans person doing something creative and fun like streaming, especially at time when our existence was becoming (and remains) so controversial and politically fraught. Read more>>

Angela Buccinni Butch

Growing up in Buffalo, my ambition was to become a dancer. At the age of 6, I would dream of being a ballerina on horseback. The grandiose spectacle of the circus was not frequent to Buffalo or something I had ever seen or been exposed to. So how did this 6 yr old girl know that’s what she was destined to run away with …. I dedicated my childhood to dance. Scrubbing studio floors, holding paper routes to cover the cost of lessons, eventually I found myself studying at The Boston Conservatory. With a BFA in dance and choreography, I moved to NYC to begin a professional career and soon found it very difficult to keep my toes on the ground. Read more>>