We asked some insanely talented artists, creatives and makers to tell us about when they know they were going to pursue a creative career.

Brandi LeShawn

Growing up I have always been involved in the art of music. From playing instruments to pretending to be Dorinda from the Cheetah Girls, I knew music was my first love. I have always wanted to be a singer/song writer and performer. After having my son I gave up on my dreams. It wasn’t until after ending a toxic relationship, that I fell back in love with music and dancing. Read more>>

Kate Shepherd

I’ve been a wildly creative person my whole life ever since I can remember. I never really thought about what I wanted to be when I grow up I was just always really led by my desire to make things create Beauty. I have a deep reverence for beauty and colour and shape. and one of the things that brings me the most Joy is creating something that didn’t exist a moment ago. Read more>>

Julie Crone

Since I picked up a paintbrush and oil paint at age six, I immediately fell in love. I have been creating in some form or another ever since. Creating art was always my “happy place” but it wasn’t until my adult years I learned to express myself in an abstract way. When I was young I loved dolphins and would copy the artist Wyland’s work until I got it right, then I had my Picasso phase, Seurat phase, Van Gogh phase, this list goes on. Read more>>

Karyn Shanks

I think I always knew. I never cared to be the star but even as I child, I always organized the kid living room shows with my siblings and cousins. I don’t have a specific age or year I can pinpoint but it has always been in me. I listened to songs and studied them, as if I had a paper to write or something. Read more>>

Dashure Howard

The moment i knew i wanted to pursue music as one of my careers was when i was 18. I had just moved back to Atlanta after graduating high school from Statesboro High School. 2 of my closest friends (brothers) made music, so one night we ended up going to the studio and one of them (LostCause Mookie) was working on his first album, he was like ” aye bro ! get on this song with me and my other brother (WealthyBaby) and on the song i went last out of everybody. Read more>>

Maddy Hicks

When I was little, I wanted to be a singer/songwriter/actress/author/veterinarian. The vet idea was short lived, and then it became clear that I really just wanted to do something creative. I’ve been writing songs and stories my whole life. It’s always been my way of expressing myself, and performing came naturally along with that. While I knew generally that I wanted to do something with music as a kid, it wasn’t until middle school that I really began to commit to it. Read more>>

Erin Christensen

I’ve been baking my whole life, but I first decided to really focus on my cake decorating skills when my husband and I began having our children. We have three daughters, and I wanted to be able to make their birthday cakes myself and ensure that all of them were completely unique and special. When our oldest daughter turned 2, Winnie the Pooh was her whole life. Read more>>

Elizabeth Marin

I have always loved painting and creating, but it wasn’t until I graduated from college and started working full time that I realized how important it was to me. I would spend all of my time after work creating, and it give me so much more satisfaction and happiness than my legal career ever gave me. I grew up thinking that art was a nice hobby, but never something that you could pursue professionally. In fact, I did not know of any full-time, professional artists until I moved to Charleston, South Carolina. Read more>>

Elyse Bruce

People often ask me when I decided I wanted to earn a living in the arts as if as a teenager or young adult, I had an unexpected a-ha! moment and a lightbulb went off in my head as I realized the arts was a way to be gainfully employed for the rest of my life. It wasn’t like that at all. In fact, I knew long before I went to school that it was possible to be happy and make money by creating art or telling stories or making up songs. I had seen it on television thanks to Mr. Dressup (aka Ernie Coombs and former understudy of Fred Rogers) who appeared on CBC’s Butternut Square, and on CBC’s Razzle Dazzle Show. Read more>>

Nick Bradley

For me it was a day many of us know all to0 well. A day that is feared by all in the 9-5 corporate world. It all started on the Monday after the 4th of July. I had just finished up my lunch at the local coney island and was sitting in my car with the feeling that I wanted more. Not food or anything the Coney could offer, and not even something to help with the holiday hangover. What I wanted was something I cared about, professionally that is. Read more>>

Rocky Pardo

I grew up loving art and creating art everywhere I went. My love for jewelry also came at an early age. I would accompany my mom to our local jewelry store as a kid with my mom and see Roger Rimel’s work and profess: “THAT is what I want to do.” It wasn’t until started playing with metal in 2006 and instantly fell in love with the material that I realized precious metal could be my medium. After obtaining a BFA in Metalsmithing in 2014, I worked as a bench jeweler at that very same store. Read more>>

Stephen Robertson

I’ve always wanted to be an artist, my whole life, but I realized I wanted to pursue arts professionally around 2018. I had just graduated the University of Memphis in December of 2017 and realized quickly, I was way too ambitious and too much of a dreamer to do the corporate life. The more life defining moment came when I joined a creative collective by the name of v$nr in 2020. The individual who birthed the movement, Bryan Roberson, who most know as Yobreezye asked me to be apart of the collective. Read more>>

Britni McNeill

I actually grew up very shy! I had such a hard time talking to others and really coming out of my shell. By the time I reached freshman year of high school, my mom actually was looking through class sign ups with me and she saw a Theatre class and immediately told me I should try it. It definitely took convincing, as I barely wanted to talk to people in normal conversations let alone stand in front of people and act! Read more>>

Herschel Grangent Jr.

Although I didn’t pursue content creation until MUCH later in life, I have to say that I always knew deep down that it was something I wanted to do. When I was very young (we’re talking 5 or 6) I would make up these little shows with two characters talking back and forth. The characters would be… well, they would be my hands. And I would have them interact with each other like people do with shadow puppets, Read more>>

aBnormal joY

In hindsight, I’ve known I wanted to pursue music from the moment I wrote my first rap when I was 8 years old. As a kid I was a professional follower of my older brother Elijah. Whatever he wanted to get into, I wanted to tag along. We’ve drawn numerous pictures, written full graphic novels (a little too heavily inspired by the animes we’d watch back then but that’s not the point), poems, then finally we came home from school one day and he wanted to write a rap. Read more>>

Kendall Davis

I knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path when in college for I was an art major. However, it took me until I was 50 years old to make the leap to quit my teaching job in order to open my own ceramic store. I taught art for 17 years, raised a family then realized when I turned 50 that I needed to start doing what I really wanted to do which was to be my own boss and make art. Read more>>

Lynn Weinberg

As early as I can remember I was destined to make things. I even have a picture of me lacing sewing cards at 4 which shows that my interest in textiles goes way back. Then I became fascinated with drawing and painting and my parents encouraged my creative pursuits. I was introduced to sewing in middle school and my love of fashion and creating my personal wardrobe began. Read more>>

Rebel Poet

I come from a large Latin family! Growing up, we would get together often to celebrate special occasions. One of the things I remember most and looked forward to most about those times was my uncle performing his poetry for the family! I was maybe 7 or 8 and I remember that he would gather everyone to come watch him. I would sit right in the front on the floor crisscross in awe of the passionate performance! Read more>>

Courtney Rose

Picture this (pun intended)…Summer 2013, Washington DC. My dad and I took a last minute trip, packing with us his Nikon DSLR and my obsession with the movie Forrest Gump. I didn’t even know how to turn the camera on, but one morning while he wasn’t in the mood to travel through town and I was, I took it with me and with a serious determination, figured it all out. You see, photographs have been important to me since I could remember. Read more>>

Gregg Erwin

Well I have always sang and been around music my whole life. I never really thought that it would go anywhere. I drove a truck for 21 years and hauled all kinds of things. (Mostly agricultural stuff) Then back around 2014 I was working for a company out of Texas and had some killer bosses. They had came to see me perform in GA while they were out here. Read more>>

Daniel Andrews

I knew pretty early on when I was about 8 years old. I started performing in church with my mom and there was just something about being in stage that was just so different, and I knew then it was something I had to pursue. Read more>>

Scary Not Scary Podcast

We are a paranormal podcast with a splash of true crime, and all the most craziest weird stories you can think of. We are Mandi, Ashley, and Carolina the hosts of Scary Not Scary podcast, Our topics are very broad and we don’t shy away from anything, we are based in San Antonio, Texas. All three of us are creative in our own unique way, but coming together and wanting to start a podcast was a unanimous decision. Read more>>

Didas Akognon

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was around the age of 10. At the time, I was in the 5th grade and apart of the morning show at my elementary school. My fifth grade teacher, Mr.White asked the class before this dismissal if anyone wanted to be part of a weekly morning show. I was selected along with several other classmates. Read more>>

Sergio Gomez

I lived in Mexico City until I was 16 when I moved to Chicago. During my childhood I did not understand that someone could actually become an artist and actually have a career in art. Although I saw a lot oaf art in Mexico, I never met a practicing artist. When I immigrated to the US with my family, I found in art an escape from my communication barrier. Read more>>

Cinthyan & Giselle

Giselle: I always knew I wanted to pursue a creative career but had really hard time figuring out what that was going to be. I tried my hand at event decorating and found out I love that more as a hobby. I found myself constantly searching and saving things for inspo on the internet and then started wondering how I could make some of those things for myself. That’s were the spark started for creating RC. Read more>>

Maxx Pain

I started doing school plays in third grade at the age of eight with zero musical talent other than singing along to the radio. One of the lead singers in the school play got into trouble in class and the word was out to replace em and me being insanely optimistic and competitive I applied and ended up getting the part once I hit the five golden rings high note. Read more>>

Isabella Castorino

I’ve always known I was different. From a young age, I noticed that people would let their gaze linger on me longer than others and that making eye contact with me was not their goal. It was always about the birthmark. When I was in the first grade, I was called to the office for early pickup and was met with a high school girl I did not know. Read more>>

Britney Chappell

I’ve always been drawn to the arts, from singing Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” from my car seat to memorizing lines from my favorite movies as a kid. I often had to play by myself as a child so I learned to use my imagination early on. It was always fun for me, I was my own entertainment. Acting was my childhood dream, it was my response when adults asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Read more>>

Rodrecas Davis

Like most people, I’ve been making things since childhood. But the most formative experience occurred in the 6th grade. While we all had an art class, with Mrs. Adams, as part of our curriculum, I was invited to be part of an extracurricular class that focused a little more in-depth on various materials and processes. This led to my working as an illustrator for the junior high school newspaper. Read more>>

Jeremiah Williams

The moment I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was after being in a middle school play. It was small, and most will see it as corny, but it was something real and special for me. Before this I had always dreamed of going to the NFL because of my genuine love for American football. Read more>>

Monique Daniels

I was always into the arts but if I had to pick a defining moment, it would be when I was in second grade. My teacher was showing my mother a picture I created that was hanging on the classroom wall and I overheard the teacher mention that I was talented. That was the first time I was aware of any artistic talent. Art was always an interest of mine. I went to art camps, took private art classes, and was even in theatre for a time. Read more>>

Dricka Necole

By the time I was in 6th grade, I can remember coming to a clear conscious understanding and knowing that I would like to pursue a professional career that allowed me the freedom to express myself in ways I couldn’t before and that would additionally compel me to provide a meaningful service to others in honoring the same freedom of expression through the utilization of my artistic and creative ability. Read more>>

Iris Perez

Since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted to dress up, wear makeup. Not just regular makeup, I wanted people to have a double take, so I started doing sfx makeup. Took me a while to get it, it’s not an easy task. I remember my mother showing me some old pictures of her in her Halloween pictures. She always went to the extreme. As I grew older, I became a mother but that never stopped me from the passion I have for makeup. Read more>>

Db Gib

I honestly used to freestyle growing up but people around me that’s close to me growing up always told me I should go in the studio time after time of hearing my music because they say it’s very different and people would mess with it that was over like 3-4 yrs ago and since then people still tell me that to this day I started in the studio last year but this year I went more into it with the music lifestyle I done went to 3 showcases this year in ATL been in multiple blogs and articles from there and Dallas Texas and made music videos in Miami south beach Fl , Gainesville Fl, Read more>>

Sadé Lemons

I first knew i wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally when i was very young (about 7 yrs old). One of the first things I wanted to be as a career choice was an artist. I was always drawing or painting something in my spare time and was pretty good at it. As I got older, I slowly grew an interest in the medical field; however, the artistic/creative abilities and desires never died. When I first entered high school, I decided to take a chance and audition to be a part of the performing arts school WCSPA. Read more>>

Olympia Papageorgiou

While growing up, I was always surrounded by music and creativity! My parents are both musically inclined, my great grandfather and grandfather were also very musical. I have an Aunt who is also a professional singer/performer. Music has always existed for me. Because of this, I knew I wanted to continue singing throughout my life and always found ways to implement it in my life. Throughout school, I joined choir, performances and had private lessons as well. Read more>>

Kyle Sherry

I’ve always been very interested in creative work but didn’t really find any footing until a few years ago. I followed the path of going to college and finding a career. After college, I decided to pursue my dream of living in California. I found a job in Santa Barbara and was immediately swept away by the natural beauty. I’ve spent years traveling up and down the coast, into the sierras, and down to the deserts. Growing up in Ohio, I had never seen anything like it and my desires to capture and share everything I was seeing was growing exponentially. Here my passions for nature and photography finally came together. Read more>>

Lynn Johnson

I always knew I wanted to pursue a creative path. What I wasn’t sure of was how that path would reveal itself and ultimately come to fruition. Drawing, painting, photography and then graphic design in college were the beginning of my artistic pursuits. I’ve always loved to draw, using all sorts of materials to find interesting ways of making marks. After college, when I was working as a graphic artist, was around the time I picked up the paintbrush again and began the transition from water based media to oil paint. Read more>>

Shruti Vij

I always had an inherent interest and talent for art. Initially it was not easy to make art my profession . When I approached galleries , the first question would be ” which art school are you from?” I did not have an answer as I am a trained designer and a self taught artist and had never taken a single art class. But I did not give up and worked very hard. I wanted my art to speak for itself. I let my imagination guide me and be reflected on the canvas. For me art has always been soul satisfying. Read more>>

Forrest Greenslade

How I became an artist is a weird story. I had spent my working life as a biologist and organizational executive. My last “real job” was President of an international women’s health organization. My retirement plan was to be a speaker and management consultant. I wrote a leadership book, “The Simple-Minded Manager Cutting Through Your Work Life Chaos”. Things were going well when I had a massive heart attack. The riggers of a speaking business was no longer a viable option for me..  Read more>>

Jennifer Miranda

I have always felt I was creative. I love arts and craft, dancing, acting and even a little bit of baking. Creating with my hands brings me so much Joy. But it wasn’t until 2018 when I had the opportunity to teach a Bible Journaling class at a local bookstore that something sparked in me and I wanted to create digital content to be used in the Bible. So I began to sketch in a notebook cartoon like faces with curly hair and really finding my style. To my surprise I could draw! I didn’t think I had it in me. Read more>>