Here’s my story!

In 5th grade, my teacher approached me and asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I chose to be honest and told her, “An artist.” She said, “Don’t do that, that’s a waste of time. You should become a doctor, lawyer, or computer engineer.”

I was shocked by her response, but in my lack of conviction in myself, I told myself, “She’s probably right…” So I decided to listen to her and I stop drawing. Once I got around to getting into college, I chose computer science as my major.

Studying software development taught me a lot, like how to learn, failure & mistakes as part of learning, problem solving ability, logical reasoning, and the importance of community to learning and growing. Even though I made the choice based on someone else’s desires for me, I still put my all into it.

With enough time and effort, I landed my first software development internship at Amazon. Returning to school, I found another internship as a software developer for a small startup company in mental health, which turned into an opportunity to become the Senior Technical Project Manager and Lead Software Developer of the company. I led the (very small!) team to rebuild the entire product in one summer, which was my proudest accomplishment there.

Having done what I thought was impossible, something awakened within me to make a change. Eventually, I decided to leave my job in tech, and I started working at a nonprofit prioritizing inclusion in entrepreneurship doing project & operations management.

Trusting my intuition to return to the creative, one Inktober in 2019 I started drawing again. I started getting serious about it, taking classes & developing my draftsmanship. I started to consider different career paths in art, including animation and games. Meanwhile, while I was working at aīre ventures, we unexpectedly received a grant to produce a documentary and my boss decided to appoint me as the Production Manager.

I had an “a-ha moment”: the combination of my process-oriented skills (in operations, project management, & technology) and my people-oriented skills was a superpower for production management. None of my experience was wasted: I thrived in production and really enjoyed it.

For me, my next step was clear: use my skills in production management in the world of animation, where I could use my unique specialization while serving as a bridge between production and artists.

Because of my own diverse identities, I’ve made efforts throughout my career towards creating a more inclusive world. I hope to use my role in production management to build a more inclusive animation industry!

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