being a creative in generation z

Something I found unique growing up was the power to harness the Internet to build something for myself for the first time.

My senior year of high school, I sat down and realized a marketing strategy for my upcoming senior thesis, which I was self-publishing via KDP. I was going to make a poetry Instagram, and I was going to work on it every single day for the year just to see what happened. I didn’t know anything about social media. I just kind of did it and figured it out along the way. And because of that, I gained 4,000 followers in about six months before I gave the account up and continued onwards with my life.

I went to fashion school, which, if you know anything about fashion and the kids going to these schools, means that to keep up with your peers you need to be social media savvy. This was especially apparent in my first program, which was called Fashion Business Management. Everyone who was anyone was in that major and wanted to be a star, and so everyone carefully curated their Instagram feeds so that they would get the maximum amount of exposure that they could leech off of. And that’s where I really began cracking down on social media strategy, especially because it was essential for weeding your way into the fashion industry as it is right now.

I don’t want to work in fashion anymore, but because of experiences in media and on the Internet, it made me into the creative person I am today. I sought out outlets to find inspiration from and curate my own creativity, which has led to many opportunities as a creative-minded person to continue doing what I’m doing. I do, however, want to acknowledge my privilege in the fact I am from the United States, I had the opportunity to work multiple jobs in college, and received a free education at an arts high school, where I was selected to attend based on the strength of my writing sample.

Attending a magnet school for the arts changed my life.

I wanted to go to law school originally. Ironic, because, in college, I did end up focusing on law for my second degree and the legalities of human rights and labor abuse in the fashion industry. But would I make a good lawyer? Hell no. And that’s what lead me to art school, to pave a completely different path for myself that ultimately ended up being for the better.

I’m going to admit though, going to this school was a special kind of hell at times. We were asked to have twenty page short stories done in about a week and then expect to go through fifteen workshops the following week. There was a lot of bullying in my literary class, particularly from this one clique. There was a lot of competition. There was also just a lot of high school drama; for example, one in my literary class I felt vulnerable and comfortable enough to disclose how depressed I was and had been suicidal multiple times before. A group of people in my class then made the decision to make fun of me and my mental health, and one girl implied that I should’ve done it. I ended up going to guidance because of that, but the school counselors told me to suck it up. I see why kids were depressed at that school with counselors like that.

This school, however, did lay the foundations for what would become of my writing career. I did not major in writing in college because I knew it would’ve burned me out and killed any leftover artistry I had. And so I majored in business, which helped me for the better. More on that to come.

Fielding the social media world + networking via digital platforms.

People look down on sliding into DMs if it’s a sexual context, but let’s look at it from a professional one: it’s a gold mine. If you like someone’s art or writing, find their email. Find their Instagram or Twitter. In the journalist world, we say reach out via Twitter and ask for a cup of coffee with the writer if you’re both local. This is how you build connections with people who could help unlock a high plane of creativity for you, or they could even give you the connections to have more visibility in the world, more fellowships, etc. if they like you enough. Make use of the power of social media.

Majoring in a business program made me a better artist.

I work at a theatre, and something my boss has been reiterating to me a lot recently was that actors don’t seem to realize that they’re a business and need to act like entrepreneurs more. That’s when I really began to realize that my education was going to help me in the long run, even though I genuinely want to completely switch careers.

I majored in Fashion Business Management and International Trade and Marketing with minors in Asian Studies, American Studies, English, and Film and Media. The degrees focused a lot on digital media and how to present something in a way that’s appealing; e.g. I took a Creative Fashion Presentations class where we essentially just made aesthetic powerpoints after staring at the fashion forecasting sites.

In business programs, you learn how to sell a product and a brand. And guess what? Eventually, you’re going to become the brand and your output is going to be the product. Now, I hate capitalism, so it sucks to think of it this way, because then you’re equating yourself to a money machine. But think of it this way: if you don’t know how to market, how will people ever know about the work you’re putting out into the world? If you publish a book, who’s going to read it if there’s no marketing whatsoever?

You are your only asset. Keep learning business skills in order to improve your situation.

The power of cold emailing.

I cold emailed my boss at Fashion Snoops for an internship. We were the same major at my college (she’d graduated by the time I came onto the scene there), and had that thread tying us together. I got the coveted internship that every FBM major at my school wanted despite switching out of FBM, and, because of that, I built a portfolio of interior design, architecture, and home products writing and editorial experience.

I cold emailed for quite a bit of the writing gigs I’m on now. Some I found via Instagram, because I loved certain brands and whatnot, while others I just casually tried out and ended up getting. At the end of the day, it added to my resume and built up a portfolio, which then helped me get better opportunities that I was very much passionate about.

You gotta be brave as a creative; try cold emailing. It’ll get you places that you may have never known you needed beforehand.

Digital minimalism ended up taking it to the next level.

When I was mildly depressed, I was attached to social media at the hip. I was constantly scrolling and looking at people’s stories and guess what? It made me even more depressed because of the fear of missing out. And so, one day, I looked at my Instagram and screen time and realized that was enough. I wasn’t going to do it anymore. I deleted Twitter off of my phone, removed my emails from the phone, and decided to log out of my Instagram for extensive amounts of time. I only posted when I had new work out.

Now, I’m much happier, and I find that this helps me focus as I have more time to write versus endlessly scrolling down a feed of people’s lives who I didn’t care about. I made a side account where I just look at recipes and the digital publications I like (Kinfolk, Whetstone, etc.) and don’t really gaze too much into my main account.

Be more intentional with social media is what I’m trying to say. Often we indulge too much in it, leading to a rabbit hole that we can’t climb out of and it becomes more meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Don’t fall into the rabbit hole!

Experimentation is the key to creativity.

I literally do not care about rules. That’s my thing when it comes to the art I’m creating; I do not, to be blunt, give a flying fuck about old traditional sonnets or all that jazz. The one thing I inherited from my father was his stubbornness and entrepreneurial spirit, and when I think I’m right, I’m right. I usually don’t have the confidence to say I’m right for many things, but I know I am when it comes to my process and how I go about things. I just don’t care and it doesn’t work for me.

I think it’s important to acknowledge where things came from and who started it (especially, especially, if it came from BIPOC or LGBTQ+ individuals. Marginalized groups were often stolen from conceptually throughout history and are foundations for many things that we deem white. Like Southern food in the United States. That’s all Black culture mainly.), but you can see them as influences, use them as such, and create something entirely new with your work.

Something rehashed over and over again is that there are no new ideas. And it’s true. As many humans that have been alive on this earth and you think suddenly you have the biggest and grandest idea that no one’s ever had before? Nah man. A lot of this comes into question of privilege and accessibility (e.g. if a poor kid from the slums of Mumbai wrote the next Les Miserables, would he get the same exposure as, say, a privileged person from the Iowa MFA?) at the end of the day.

It’s up to you to take something and spin it in your own way. Obviously, do whatever you want, but if you’re bored with the status quo, then break it. Ain’t no one stopping you.

Take any opportunity and explore what you like.

I started out doing a lot of unpaid gigs, which led to even better gigs, and now I’m actually getting paid. But it took a lot of exploring to find out what I genuinely liked to write and create content about, and so, dear reader, I’m suggesting that to you right now. Try things you think you may not like, because you might be pleasantly surprised. I was always scared to invest in a camera and start taking photographs again, because I thought that I wasn’t a real artist. I’m scared right now, as I’m writing this, to officially sign up for sculpture and ceramic classes, but now that the thought is in my head, I know I’m going to do it.

Life is really too short. Try something out even if you’re vaguely interested. It might end up being something you really love and then launch your career to all-new heights.