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

Joshua Miranda

You always hear the word being thrown around of a “calling” and that’s what it became for me. Hell or high water, broke, stressed out, overwhelmed, I was always drawn back to creating in the music space. Read more>>

Kate Kinder

As a fourth grader, I dressed up in my mother’s beret and a painting smock holding a palette for career day. So, in some ways I’d say I’ve always known I have wanted to be an artist. Read more>>

Carol Malak

I grew up taking dance classes and always loved performing at our year end performances or showing my family the dances I learned. Read more>>

Jodi Reeb

At the age of five years old, I realized I wanted to be an artist. My friend and I spent an afternoon making crayon drawings of animals on large sheets of newsprint. Read more>>

Amanda Austin

Only through hindsight can we process and understand our experiences, how we became to be how we are, and able to trace the journey to the place we find ourselves. Read more>>

Jayme Mantos

Ever since I was a little kid! My mom is a very talented writer and my dad was an equally talented musician and comedian, so I was always encouraged by them to pursue this field professionally once they saw that I developed a passion and talent for it. Read more>>

Jean-Jacques Schoch

When I was eleven years old, a school friend asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. “Music composer” came out of my mouth and it kind of surprised me because I had never consciously thought about that before. Read more>>

Lizzie Hunter

I have vivid memories of conversations with classmates who, from an early age, had very clear ideas of what they wanted to be when they grew up. Read more>>

Robin Harris Jr

As I began to transition into the real world after college, I was trying to figure out what industry did I want to go into and build a successful career. Read more>>

Elle Reynolds

I knew for a long time that I was interested in pursuing a career in music, it’s something I’d dreamed about since the first time I performed on stage and that dream only grew stronger over time. Read more>>

Jalen Boston

When I started to see producers like Lex Luger and Hit-Boy produce on albums I was obssed with like Watch The Throne. I had just started producing and seeing them made me want to professionally pursue music producing. Read more>>

Taron Jordon

I knew early on that art was my passion. I use to draw Mickey and Minnie Mouse pictures for my gym teachers at Harper Elementary School in Evansville Indiana, because they had a large toy collection of them. Read more>>

Aletia Thomas

Despite achieving my Fine Art Degree in 2010 & some early success in the arts, I was told it was time to get a REAL job after university, so I went from one job to another ending up serving the public in retail and eventually landing some office work putting my eye for detail, work ethic, organization and other skills to good work. Read more>>

Marcie Paper

I went to college for Art Therapy. I had no intention of being a studio artist. But once I was there and taking the classes I found that I wanted nothing more than to spend all of my time in the art building painting. Read more>>

Ana Áboli

I have always been quite creative and dreamy since I was a little kid. I spent most of my afternoons with my grandmother, my “Lala,” doing crafts, cooking and inventing new games. Read more>>

Aizik Brown

I first knew that I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic career professionally when I was in middle school. I used to spend countless hours drawing my friends and classmates names on a piece of paper with their favorite colors and cartoon characters. Read more>>

KC LaCourse

In 2016 I was reading a Cowboys and Indian magazine, and noticed a western poem. I read it and wasn’t that impressed. I said to myself “I can do better than that “ I wrote my first cowboy/ western poem. Read more>>

Lillian Aguinaga

I knew I wanted to be a professional artist starting at around 12 years old. Initially, I thought I would go into graphic design,. Then I realized that I wouldn’t be happy staring at a screen most of my life. Read more>>

Oba Iman

From a young age, I discovered my creative side by expressing my emotions through drawings on the walls of my mother’s apartment. This love for art has always stayed with me, and in 2017, I began building my own personal art collection, with a deep belief that I would eventually become an artist. Read more>>

Christopher Cardwell

I started experiencing Dj at the age of 14 when my mom brought my an Ion Dj cd turntables. I was very interested in this equipment where I can change speed of the music along pitch to the sound where I can make it sound like a chipmunk lol. Read more>>

Ellen O’Clover

I can’t remember a time when I *didn’t* know that I wanted to be an author. I was always a reader and writer, and I was lucky to grow up in Columbus, Ohio, where I attended teen writing workshops at The Thurber House Young Writers Studio and Kenyon College. Read more>>

Raquelle Petrari

Ive always wanted to be able to live off of my art. When i was finally introduced to the tattoo industry by my best friend and boss, i left my job at the hospital after two years to be a full time artist. Read more>>

Jacqueline Cohen-Baity

I auditioned for various record labels and was chosen by well-known producers to sing on their tracks. From there, I decided to pursue music in my spare time where I enjoyed learning about music consoles and how tracks are built. Read more>>

Randy Brumley

I was six years old, I remember because I could read. I read the Joke Box or the Riddle Box every day in The Tulsa Tribune. Cracker Jack prizes were also a good source of material. Read more>>

Lauren Eckhardt

It all started when I became a mother, after 12 years in the field of Human Resources. I realized that if I wanted my boys to pursue their dreams, I had to do the same. Read more>>

TREMOND ESTELLE

I first knew that I wanted to be an artist professionally around 2016. Read more>>

Kali Bailey

I knew when I was 13 that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I was homeschooled in a tiny town in South Georgia and loved all things fantasy, sci-fi and action-adventure. Read more>>

Carolyn Bowles

Growing up, my parents saw how much I loved to create. At an early age they signed me up for painting classes in an artist’s home once a week. Read more>>

Troy Campbell

My earliest memory of wanting to be a creative was at the age of around 6, I spent most of my playtime looking for things to take apart and build into something else, collecting trash from our garage and things I’d find in the neighborhood in southern Ohio. Read more>>

Yeala Grimes

I’ve been an artist my entire life. The visual arts have always been a key part of my expression, learning, and thought processes. From a very early age I knew that I was always going to be dedicated to my art and my craft, and that has not changed. Read more>>

Kyle Davidson

I’ve always had a passion for R&B music from a very young age. The first album I ever owned was Next “Rated Next” and that shaped me into the ‘lover boy’ I am today. Read more>>

Andrea Santos

I was serving in the military and my time in service came to an end sooner than originally planned, and among all the chaos that involved in reference to figuring out what to do next in order to provide for myself and my family I felt really good about taking a chance at doing music. Read more>>

Isabel Pardo

I always knew that I was going to pursue a career in the arts. I was lucky to come from a public school system with a very encouraging arts program that offered a lot of opportunities for early insight into creative careers. Read more>>

Judy Maxine

As a child, I was in a very bad accident that left me having stitches on my face and loosing half of one eyebrow. Growing up, this was very difficult to conceal. Read more>>

Urmee Saiya

As a child, I used to watch a lot of films with my family and I guess that is what started my love for the arts. Going to rent DVD’s with my father for the weekend is one of my fondest memories. Read more>>

Dana Shavin

I had always “played around” with art because my mother was very creative–an interior designer and an amateur art teacher. Likewise, I began keeping a journal at age twelve, thanks to my older sister, who encouraged me to write everything down. Read more>>

Zach Person

I started playing guitar when I was ten years old after watching punk bands perform at my local skatepark in Moore County, North Carolina. I had my first lessons at the age of eleven with Baxter Clement (Owner of Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, NC) who encouraged me to dive deep into the history of blues and early rock and roll. Read more>>

Sarah Pribis

The first time I ever saw a Broadway show (Beauty and the Beast), I knew that I wanted to be a performer when I grew up. I was about 12 years old and my parents took my brothers and I to NYC, and I’ll never forget the feeling I got from live theater… just this unbelievable energy all around me. Read more>>

Kevin Mosqueda

I knew I wanted to pursue music early on in my life. I was gifted a piano during Christmas which was my first instrument I learned how to play. At the age of 12 I then picked up the guitar. Read more>>

Oz Lu

Right from the start, I knew I wanted to dive headfirst into the wild world of filmmaking. But let’s be real, breaking into the film scene is no walk in the park. Like many young filmmakers, I kicked things off as a regular movie fan. Read more>>

Olivia Simmons

I was one who was always writing and excited when the opportunity was given to write for a column, blog or any type of platform. Read more>>

Hebé García

Since childhood, I have always been interested in drawing and painting. I used to watch my mother paint with admiration, and I still clearly remember the smell of turpentine, her oil paints, and her brushes. Read more>>

Taylor Force

I always loved styling and coloring my hair from a very young age but it never occurred to me that I would make it my career, until my first day on the job. Read more>>

Yoshi Barrigas

From as long as I am remember I had a camcorder in my hand. It probably started with capturing memories for family gatherings. My earliest “storytelling” obsession was wrestling. Read more>>

CJ Teffner

I had convinced myself by 13 or 14 years old that I would be a rock star, like my hero Jeff beck or Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. I didn’t know there was a path, or what it was, I didn’t care…I just expected it would happen. Read more>>