We asked folks a question that led to many surprising answers – some sad, some thought-provoking and some funny. We’ve highlighted a cross section of those responses below.
Jennifer Cefaly
As a child, I believed that creativity lived exclusively in the world of artists—painters, writers, dancers, designers. I thought you had to be holding a paintbrush or choreographing a routine to be considered a creative person. It felt like something that existed in neon-lit art studios or theater stages—not in science labs, spreadsheets, or coding environments. Read More>>
Paul Guyot
I believed I wasn’t good enough. That I didn’t matter. That I was simply a replacement part. When I was eight years old my mother began regularly telling me that the only reason she had me was because she knew my older brother was not going to live. He had been born with a heart condition that took his life at age nine. Read More>>
Edgar Vicencio
That everything I saw online or on TV was only for those people I’d see on there and that none of that would ever be possible for me. All the cool things I’d see people do on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram was not ever possible for me. Oh was I so wrong. Read More>>
Sole Bovelli
The idea that we have to choose to be one kind and identify as that. I spent many years bouncing from all kinds of different experiences because I was an explorer. I think that’s what led me to be an artist. There aren’t any rules, and I can explore different worlds and different sides of myself. Read More>>
Uros Markovic
As a child I was very outgoing, light hearted and fun… but somehow growing up in a very traditional cultural environment I was forced to live very introverted, shy, quite, and modest… Even tho I just loved what I was doing, being a male dancer in a male dominant, traditionally valued patriarchy environment I always faced judgment. Read More>>
Meera Sharma
As a child, I was oddly confident, not because I had anything going for me, but in spite of everything I didn’t. I was awkward, definitely not the popular kid, and I didn’t fit the mold of what people thought was “cool” or attractive. I wasn’t athletic either -I was the kid who got made fun of during P.E. and picked last in team games. Read More>>
