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

Cheyne Sexsmith

My artistic journey wasn’t always a straight path. I didn’t always know that I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic career as a cabinet finisher and wood finisher. Initially, it was just a job to pay the bills. Growing up, I had the privilege of experiencing various craftsmanship skills such as paint, varnish, and fiberglass, thanks to working alongside my dad. But at first, I never imagined I would make a profession out of it. Read more>>

LeeAnn Tooker

From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be an entertainer. The outlet for that desire to perform has taken many shapes over the years. As a young girl, my primary focus was dance. There are photos somewhere of a 4-year-old little me with my Sesame Street umbrella, re-enacting “Singing in the Rain”. Read more>>

Coleen B Barnhart

I dreamed of this job for as long as I can remember! My mother says I could identify every color of the rainbow by pointing before I could even talk. When I was only two years old I started saying, “I want to be an artist like Grandmother!” (who was a landscape painter), but throughout my youth it seemed like an impossible dream to me. Read more>>

Katherine Cundiff

I feel like I’ve always known I would pursue some sort of path as a creative, even as a young child. I have always been one that enjoys working with my imagination and that imagination has always been a little bit in the clouds. I was often found crafting projects, writing plays, and designing outfits for me and my friends. Read more>>

Demi Chen

It took a rich, winding journey for me, but I don’t regret a moment! I have always loved art and drawing since I was young. But I am first generation Chinese-American, and come from a very STEM-oriented immigrant family who encouraged art as a hobby, and not as a career focus. It wasn’t until college when I watched Disney’s “Tangled” in theaters, that I listened to my heart and made that leap to pursue a creative career seriously. Read more>>

Davontea Scott

As a kid I grew up around music with my brothers captivated by the hip hop culture. We all watched 106 & Park, every episode, with hopes & dreams of becoming the next Lil Wayne. I free-styled and dabbled in music so often that all my friends and peers knew me as the guy rapping at the lunch tables and drumming his own beats with his fingers. Read more>>

Naomi Oshima

Being an artist brings me great pleasure. Growing up, I was surrounded by many kids who had parents who weren’t supportive of their artistic career goals. Parents who wanted their kids to be doctors, not painters. Parents who wanted their kids to be engineers, not photographers. So, there were times when I felt pressured to pursue careers that everybody else had planned for instead of what I really wanted to do. Read more>>

Andrew Sjodin

I found out I could draw when I was fairly young. It was probably around 5th grade. I was sitting at the coffee table with my coloring book and implements as well as some scratch paper. For reasons unknown I decided this day that I would make a go at drawing one of the coloring book cartoons – a Looney Tunes character, I think – instead of simply coloring it. Read more>>

Shuhan Yang

I have been drawing since I could remember anything in my childhood. Growing up I loved making comics, sharing them with classmates, and posting them online. In middle school, I watched some DreamWorks animated movies and that inspired me to pursue a career in making art professionally. Read more>>

Anna Slevin

I have been sewing and designing since I was really young, probably around age 6, and I sort of always knew I wanted to have my own line. I grew up in a huge family, so I had a lot of hand-me-downs from my older sisters that I reworked to make into my own style. We also did not have a lot of clothing stores in my hometown, so shopping was incredibly limited. Read more>>

Eleny Reyes

Growing up, my mom worked in the industry and was an actress for Novelas and Spanish Soap Operas. I would always sit in the living room and watch her rehearse with her coach. It was so entertaining. The craft seemed so fun. There’s one moment that I will always remember. It was waaaay past my curfew, but an episode she was in for a very famous show was airing that night. Read more>>

Katy Wicker

I’ll admit, I was a weird kid. At age nine, while everyone else my age was into shows like Even Stevens or Spongebob Squarepants, my favorite TV show was C.S.I. I was obsessed, believing that the gruesome accounts I witnessed through my television every week were real, and for a short time swore that I would one day become a crime scene investigator myself. Read more>>

Daniel Nielsen

I’ve always been interested in music even though I wasn’t raised in a musical family. As a child I would listen to my favorite songs and sing along with the radio. I could recognize which band and song was playing within a few seconds. I learned to play some guitar and would perform for friends, but it wasn’t until I started seeing lots of live music and met some other musicians, that I decided to dedicate my self to creating music and performing professionally. Read more>>

Alexander Brewington

Ever since I was a kid, I had the desire to be a storyteller. It was something I picked up from my mom and dad. From my earliest memories, I was captivated by the many facets of the human condition, drawn to the idea that our shared experiences and narratives held the power to unite us more than they could separate us. Read more>>

Andrea Santiago

Well, I’ve always loved the idea of turning people into both unimaginable creatures or enhancing beauty that’s already there, and showcasing it on the big screen. Read more>>

Amanda Mendoza

As a kid, I had always dreamed of being an artist. Unfortunately, as a senior in high school I had received mixed messages of becoming an artist or art teacher because society viewed it as a job I would not be able to survive financially in. That pressured me into pursuing Psychology in college, and thankfully, I still did art as a minor. Read more>>

Natalie Ortiz

I grew up with art throughout in my life, from taking pottery classes as a kid, designing jewelry, to playing guitar, and drawing/painting. When it got time to picking a career in my teens, I felt a bit lost and unsure of what to do because I didn’t know that I could choose to be an artist. I didn’t have any sort of mentors or contemporary artists to look up to – so I didn’t really know how this could be a career. Read more>>

Sara Bost Fisher

After I started to get inquiries on a couple pieces I posted online I thought I could give it a go as a business. I was in the midst of a divorce and building my art in to a business to support me and my children was an amazing distraction. At that point I wanted to explore the opportunity to make it in to a business and not just a hobby. Read more>>

Cory Oliver

When I was 6 years old, I used to grab my hairbrush and sing into it, while twirling around in the living room engaging my imaginary audience. I signed up for all of the school plays and talent shows of which I never won. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out I booked the role of a tree in my 5th grade production of, “Fiddler on the roof”. Read more>>

Allie Costa

I came out of the womb talking and singing – just ask my mom! Seriously, I’ve known my whole life what I wanted to be. I’ve always loved acting, and writing, and directing, and singing. I’ve been creating stories and acting them out since day one, whether it was on the playground at recess or at home with my pets as my audience. Read more>>

Samuel Wilton

when i was younger, maybe around middle school. i always enjoyed making things and being creative with my friends. i didnt love school i never felt great at it. i wanted to drop out and make beats for ppl but im from oklahoma so my parents didnt let me and i was even good. i just stayed grinding on it and then started to rap and sing on my beats i was too fye. Read more>>

Noah Gilman

Photography was something that I have always had a connection with. I always saw things through the a lens, imaging how that shot would look. I remember riding around in the back seat of my parents car, I would look outside imagining scenes playing out while we drove past views of the town and nature. It was clear to me that I would use my eye and capture images from a young age. Read more>>

Kaitlin McSweeney

I started drawing at a very young age, 2 or 3, and was obsessive about it, though I’ve been multimedia oriented my whole life, figuring out and attempting to create with whatever materials or tools or instruments I could get my hands on. I was later to making music because I lacked belief in my ability to do it: I was bullied heavily growing up and didn’t summon the courage to try singing until 7th grade. The choir teacher at my school pulled me aside one day and asked, “Why are you trying to sing? Read more>>

JT Roach

I knew that I wanted to commit fully to becoming a professional singer/songwriter/music producer while reading The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield. Reading this book made me realize that no one would treat me like a professional until I treated myself like one and fully committed to the idea. At that moment, I quit my job in Chicago and put together a plan to get to Los Angeles and immerse myself in the music industry to find a way to make it my career. Read more>>

Emily Geller

I didn’t come from a musical family, but always loved singing. As a child, I was involved in theater, but didn’t start taking voice lessons until high school. I used to think you could sing, or couldn’t. That singing was simply a talent. Once I learned singing could be improved with technique and practice, I became obsessed with getting better. Read more>>

Sigrid Artmann

When I was 14 years old, my mother took me to a career counseling session. I was asked what I wanted to do professionally? And I answered proudly and joyfully: “I WANT TO BE AN ARTIST!” The career counselor and my mother laughed at me and said that wasn’t possible. Read more>>

Arella Devorah

I’ve always been creative since I was young and loved singing. I always felt like my true self wherever I expressed myself in this way. It is one of my greatest passions and something I will always do. Read more>>

Bingyi Huang

When I was young, I loved drawing. During my primary school years, my parents took me to an art school. At that time, I would casually paint and do some crafts. I used to do everything from pure art to installation art and small handcrafted sculptures. Later on, I stumbled upon a book that showcased the works of 100 digital artists. Read more>>

Xi Wang

From a very young age, I knew I wanted to be an artist. Growing up in an industrial area near Chongqing, China, my parents, who both worked at the same factory, played a crucial role in shaping my artistic journey. My mother’s professional training in Chinese painting and calligraphy, coupled with my father’s passion for art, influenced me deeply. Read more>>

Hannah Wilhoite

I first knew I wanted to pursue acting and modeling when I did the Arizona foothills magazine competition. I went on stage, heard the applause, and immediately knew that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Read more>>

Cynthia Pareja Dubin

I have always been drawn to colors and painting from a young age. Read more>>

Michael Chomick

It was back in 1986. The actual date was Thursday, August 28th, 1986. I refer to this date as my “Day of Redemption”. On this particular day I was laid off from my job as a newspaper editorial artist. Subsequently, the following month of September I switched my artistic trajectory from that of a commercial artist of 11 years to my current status: a thought-provoking visual artist of 37 years and counting. Read more>>

Aqsa Mustafa

The creative spark ignited within me about seven years ago, marking the beginning of my artistic journey. Initially, it was a personal pursuit, a means to express my inner thoughts and emotions through the captivating medium of art. However, as my skills and passion for art deepened, I found myself drawn towards the idea of transforming this hobby into a fulfilling profession. Read more>>

Elijah Jackson

I knew it when I was around 4 years old. My mother would play the piano and I would sing in the mic. I was signing whole songs at 3 years old. So, at that point, I knew that it was something magical that lived in me. Read more>>