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

Aaron Kendall Wilson

I first got the inkling that I wanted to pursue a creative career in college. I remember for one of my communications classes; we had to artistically take the information we learned and present it to the class. One of my classmates made a song. I wrote the lyrics, and he played the piano. We then shot a music video on campus. Read more>>

Daniel Nieberg

It was something I kind of instinctively knew from a very young age. I think at around the age of 10, before having ever composed a thing in my life, I decided I wanted to be a composer professionally. It wasn’t until a few years later, at the age of 13 or 14 that I actually started sitting down and writing music. As a kid, I was always connected with music, especially classical music. I remember in kindergarten, I would stay inside some days during recess so that my teacher could play opera music for me. Read more>>

Melanie Garcia

Growing up I was always drawn to creative or artistic activities. I never really considered career options outside of the arts. As a child of immigrants I feel fortunate to not have had an imposed pathway in a more “financially secure” career. My family was supportive of my interest in the arts even at a young age; emphasizing working towards your goals and finding happiness in that pursuit. Read more>>

Chanda Hopkins

I was raised by my mom and stepfather to be a creative. My father was a professional singer and I inherited his voice and love of singing. My stepfather was a musician and I grew up in a house full of music, with a drum set and a plethora of instruments in the living room. My uncles and grandmother on my Moms side were all hobby artists and could all draw anything or anyone realistically. I inherited some of their skills but no one ever talked about art as a career path for me. It was just always assumed that I would be a singer or actress, as I also had a love of the stage and a knack for memorizing entire scripts. Read more>>

Jessica Morrison Abold

I’ve been doing creative things since I can remember. When I was younger my family would always tell me how well I could draw, and I think I just ran with that and focused honing in on my talents. I always took an art elective throughout my academic career, and I was always trying new mediums or crafts. It started with painting and drawing, to hemp necklaces (lol, I know I’m dating myself, but that was all the rage), to beaded jewelry, to charcoals, then sculpting, then a small sampling of photography, then manipulating metal jewelry, and eventually focusing back on painting. Read more>>

Rey Bustos

My parents moved me and my older siblings to the U.S. (Los Angeles) from Colombia, S.A. in 1964 when I was six years old. At that time and age I really did not understand what was happening or why I could not understand what people were saying, I did not know the concept of world languages, therefore I became withdrawn and often frightened. On top of the huge and upsetting new life that I was thrown into I was also placed in school for the first time in my life, 1st grade in a dreary, and ugly school in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. Everything in this new world seemed ugly and full of hardness, concrete and scary new people. We now lived in an apartment rather than a two story home in a beautiful land we left behind.  Read more>>

Brelle Arianna

I realized at a very early age that I wanted to thrive in the arts. I saw everything around me as something I could design or create. I have always had a love for anything I could create with my hands. I could see something and easily recreate it. I’ve done almost every form of art I could find to express myself. I have designed clothes, wrote music, sang, danced, I’m also a freelance Makeup Artist of 8yrs, I’ve modeled and more. If it invokes creative expression, I wanted to do it. Read more>>

Maxx Nies

When I first discovered Taylor Swift at the age of 7, I fell in love with her, her music, and herself as an artist. The way she wrote, performed, and created her art inspired me so much and still does to this day. I think I watched her perform once on tv and said that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. After the passing of my great grandmother I wrote my first song and never stopped. My passion and determination has only grown stronger since then and I continue to shoot for the stars! Read more>>

Avvi

I have always been drawn to music. I grew up studying classical cello and voice, so music was very much intertwined with my childhood. However, the idea of pursuing a career as an artist didn’t cross my mind until I was in high school. That is when I really leaned into songwriting and performing live. I became very much involved in any extra-curricular involving music. Because music was and is so much a part of me, I wanted to make it my career. Singing and creating music felt natural and familiar. So, at age 18, I moved from Upstate New York to Nashville, Tennessee, to study voice and music business at Belmont University. Read more>>

Alex Cerutti

Since day one! As far as I can remember I’ve always had an interest in the arts. But it wasn’t until around age 11 when I discovered street art and murals that I distinctly remember my creative spark igniting. It was the first time I felt I found something that was uniquely mine and not something someone else put me on to. Around age 14, everything really changed. I discovered and became obsessed with screen printing, a medium that allowed me to print both shirts and stickers. It quickly became all I could think about, any chance I got would be spent learning, printing, and perfecting my skills. It became my first love quite honestly. Read more>>

Pete George

It was in the mid 1980’s and I was playing in a band in Cleveland. I loved stand-up comedy, and the Rodney Dangerfield Young Comedians specials were airing on HBO. I decided to take a chance and see what I could do. It was a Sunday night, open mic competition at the old Cleveland Comedy Club. There were ten people on the list to perform with some already professional. We had to do ten minutes of material. I was so scared that my knees buckled right before I was introduced. Someone had to help me stand up. Lol… Read more>>

O’Dasha Collins

When I graduated college in 2018, I was looking for my next “thing” so I started a YouTube channel DashofDaysh TV. I did it for fun for the first year or so until I really noticed how life-changing social media could be. Covid hit in 2020 and it drove me to find additional sources of income. Here we are in 2023 striving towards full-time entrepreneurship. Read more>>

Jodee Bleu

When I graduated from high school I was lost. I had many opportunities to go play college basketball and I got accepted to almost every college I applied to however basketball was no longer my passion. I had been playing with the same team of girls since preschool and decided to keep those memories in a vault. I went off to the University of Texas at Arlington where I found my peace. Looking for a job on campus I met one of my mentors Joey, great guy he introduced me to the game of music. He literally put me into the studio every day after class and gave me a job on campus to give me a dose of the real world. This is when I knew I wanted to be a artist. Read more>>

April Duran

Ever since I can remember I loved acting and creating productions that I forced my whole family to watch on holidays and get togethers. I would assign roles and direction and most of the times play a part in the show. Ive always loved performing whether it was for drama class, theater, dance, gymnastics, break dancing (yeah I said break dancing) or anything involving a performance and/or stage. Read more>>

Dino Sardella

It happened when I was a little kid. Watching Anime and reading comic books was a true wake-up call. They made me realize quite soon that “storytelling” was the right path for me. I started to write my own episodes of the shows I liked, making up new characters and conflicts. That made me feel good about myself and made me feel in connection with the world around me. To this date, I still try to achieve that feeling and that connection through everything I do. It’s important to keep your inner child alive, that makes your adulthood even more interesting. Read more>>

Casey de Fremery

Like many people I’ve met along the way, Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” played a huge part in how I got to where I am. I was about six years old when Jurassic Park came out in theaters and when the Brontosaurus is revealed, I remember my jaw dropping and badgering my parents to go see it again (the first time I saw a movie twice in theaters). Ever since then, I’ve pursued filmmaking as my career and never really waivered, especially when other “safe” careers I was advised to pursue ended up being traps. Read more>>

Annalisa Giolo

I had always known I wanted to be an artist. I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t singing, dancing, planning for a show, creating. I knew I would do anything to be able to continue creating and producing works of art with a purpose. I kept studying, worked in many fields and embarked a very long journey that brought me from my small hometown near Venice (Italy), through vibrant Barcelona, all the way to the creative hub of Los Angeles, where I live now. My artistic path began very early, with music, dance and theater, and I knew in my heart that I would try to find all the ways to keep art as the biggest and most important part of my life. Read more>>

Laura Mazon Franqui

I grew up in a musical home,with a grandpa of profound sensibility and amateur musical knowledge, who would listen everyday attentively to the radio music from Bach to Schoenberg, and an aunt who was a 1st figure of the Cuban Opera.At home the classics became my childhood songs and music was all around. My family was heavily interested in books, art and everything related to knowledge and sensibility, and on those days without electricity we used to entertain ourselves by telling stories, playing music or even making little “family shows”. You can see pictures of me at 2 years old “playing” the piano, singing, and trying all sorts of costumes created by my mom,and I think that those speak for themselves. Those were happy times. Read more>>

Bonnie Adams

Before I had kids I was a nail technician. My favorite part of that job was drawing pictures on the acrylic nails. When I had my first child I was praying about a different direction to go. I wanted to have a more flexible schedule and be able to stay home with my baby. I have always loved to bake, I started when I was a child with my mom. I never really thought about it as a career until I decided to try to make my daughters first birthday cake. As I started to practice the decorations for the cake I wanted to make her, I realized how much I loved it. Right after her birthday I started to make cakes for others and now it’s been 21 years! Read more>>

Kelli Hayden

I knew immediately at the earliest age one could know that they desired a creative way of life. I can’t think of a single moment where I never did. I got my first camera at the age of ten, and then I started drawing shortly after. To this day, 27 years later at the age of 37, I still do both, fondly. Read more>>

Ayman Samman

Growing up in Cairo, Egypt, my childhood dream was to become a soccer superstar, just like many kids my age. However, my creative streak was undeniable. I constantly sketched, told jokes to my family, and mimicked cartoon character voices. In middle school, a national junior writing contest caught my attention, offering both cash prizes and immense prestige. Encouraged by my teacher, I entered with a fantasy short story, despite never having formally written one before. To my surprise, I clinched second place and was invited to a ceremony where the First Lady of Egypt personally awarded me the prize. Read more>>

Elisa Bergstrom

I have always known, to some degree, that I wanted to stay involved with the arts. Whether it was drawing and sketching as a child, taking art classes in high school and college, or finding time to paint after work or when babies were napping, I’ve always tried to allow time to be creative (although, it hasn’t always been easy during certain life stages!). It wasn’t until I was at the beach with my family a few years ago that I felt a strong inclination to pursue calligraphy and art professionally. So, once we got back to Dallas I started researching ways to advance my skills and I’m excited to now paint, engrave and offer calligraphy on a professional level! Read more>>

Jiaqi Sun

Growing up in an artistic family, it seemed as though destiny had predetermined my path towards a career in the creative realm. As a child, I was fortunate to have both my parents encouraging me to engage in creative activities such as drawing and painting. I attended to art classes and explored various artistic mediums. It was only natural that art and design slowly but surely became my true passion. I feel lucky that my parents are wholeheartedly supportive to me, as they themselves had pursued professions that ignited their own passions. As I delved into the world of Graphic Design in college, I was deeply fascinated. Graphic design, motion graphic, typography, zine. There is so much areas to explore and the process of making beautiful design is a pleasure. Also spreading joy and delight through my work, became my driving force and fulfillment. Read more>>

Lucy Dickens

As the daughter of a watercolor artist and a photographer, my parents instilled in me a passion for the arts and the great outdoors from an early age. It was back then I developed a sharp eye and zeal for the outdoors. I loved watching my mother paint, who was the first person to encourage and inspire me to create. Luckily, my family—avid outdoor explorers—enjoyed backpacking and camping their way through some of the most unspoiled terrains unseen by many. I was inspired to create and began sketching my experiences. Read more>>