Meet Laura Youngkin of The Brave Millennial and Brave Bandit in Beverly Hills

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Youngkin.

Laura, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
From an early age, I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment business and that storytelling would be a part of my path. My professional journey in the entertainment business began in New York in 2005, when I worked for a Broadway producer. In 2007, I headed to LA for graduate school and got my MFA in Producing from CalArts. During those early years, I did what many in the industry do: tons of PA gigs worked on a few agent/manager desks, took on a few internships and dabbled in TV, documentary film, commercials, etc. just to learn and figure out my place. I was really interested in pursuing scripted development, but the 07-08 writer’s strike threw a wrench in the timing and there wasn’t much to work on other than reality TV for a while. I decided to stick with immersive and live entertainment and set my sights on Disney. After calling the assistants of two Disney VPs every other week for six months, I finally scored an informational meeting with them and landed my first Disney gig. After working in the live entertainment group for a year, I moved over to Walt Disney Imagineering and joined the team responsible for bringing James Cameron’s Avatar to life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. My time at Disney was incredibly valuable and challenging.

In late 2015, I left Disney to start my own practice and pursue some passion projects. I opened my own creative strategy and production practice called Brave Bandit and began a research and storytelling project focused on millennial women called The Brave Millennial. Those two endeavors have grown and evolved quite a bit in the last two and a half years, and now have more opportunities to intersect. My creative and production work is varied – right now I’m working in the theme park space, the experiential/immersive marketing space augmented reality space and advising a host of clients on strategy and storytelling. I’m also attached to a couple of scripted television projects, finally coming back around to my love for scripted TV. The Brave Millennial began as a nationwide events tour in 2016 – I hosted 11 forums in nine major US cities over the course of ten months, interviewing more than 300 millennial women about the impact sexism, ageism, racism and unconscious bias has on their career and upward mobility. It’s grown into a community and network of women all over the country and has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. This project has allowed me to do more consulting, speaking, and writing about inclusion, diversity, equity and access and introduced me to a community of people who share my passions.

Through TBM, I’m currently producing a huge diversity and inclusion leadership summit being held at Microsoft in May. It’s taken a few years for me to hit my stride and build out both these businesses and I’m excited about what 2018 has in store for them and for me. This year, I also started writing a regular column for Forbes, covering millennial women and the issues that impact them at work. Throughout all of these professional experiences, bravery has always been a word – a mantra, really – that I always come back to. I’ve been fortunate to work with and learn from some phenomenal collaborators over the last 13 years and those people, in concert with my ambition and experience, have constantly inspired me to keep going, keep trying, keep failing and keep dreaming.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” — A League of Their Own

In short, no, it hasn’t always been a smooth road. There have definitely been struggles. I’ve never met a soul who hasn’t struggled when pursuing something larger than themselves.

One of the most formative and life-changing struggles for me happened in college. After the first semester of my freshman year, my Dad (my hero and best friend) was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer. We spent the first of many holidays in the ICU. For most of my time in undergrad, he was undergoing cancer treatment or recovering from major surgeries. My young life had been fairly privileged up to this point and this event turned my life, and my parent’s lives, upside down. Dad had been laid off the year before (in the economic downturn after 9/11) and the astronomical cost of his care was more than my Mom’s benefits as a school teacher could cover. I became responsible for putting myself through college and was determined to finish. It was a struggle to stay on top of all my classes and commitments to the theater department while working part-time and being constantly worried about my Dad.

During these years, I grew and changed so much as a young woman. We leaned on our family and close friends to help put the pieces together for several years. My Mom was a beacon of resilience. My parents encouraged me to stay in school, pursue opportunities in New York and not give up on my dreams. They did whatever they could do to help me succeed, and we learned a new way of being a family. Those years and the years that followed were really challenging for all of us. My Dad’s unshakable optimism and his phenomenal doctors saved his life and he’s been cancer free for ten years. It’s what I’m the most thankful for – he was there to see me graduate college, graduate from grad school, and walk me down the aisle.

Tell us more about the business, The Brave Millennial and Brave Bandit story. 
Brave Bandit is a creative strategy, development and production studio. We’re known for developing, designing and producing immersive events and entertainment, themed attractions and experiences, and providing subject-matter-expert consulting and advising to other companies. In any given day, we could be developing and executing a branded/immersive experience for Comic-Con, doing a workshop on storytelling for the FEMA National Security Council, curating a character for a robotics project, while also advising our overseas clients on how to turn their creative IP into compelling theme park attractions. My team has experience in almost every corner of the arts and entertainment and that variety and depth set us apart. We also take a people-first approach to our work and prioritize the relationships we build with our collaborators and clients.

The Brave Millennial is a platform dedicated to the advancement of Millennial women in America. We’re known for hosting thoughtful, inclusive, and provocative events. I am very passionate about intersectional inclusion, equity, diversity, and access in the workplace and TBM is my outlet for taking action on those issues and contributing to the conversation. In addition to writing about the value of Millennial women for Forbes, I also speak about this project at colleges, companies and conferences around the country. We also host a series of events throughout the year with brand partners and like-minded organizations. Currently, we are curating a huge leadership summit focused on workplace equity and inclusion taking place at Microsoft in the spring. We also work with a data-driven strategy firm to provide custom consulting to companies looking to attract, develop and retain more Millennial talent. This endeavor is evolving and growing and remains a deep passion of mine.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m really not a big believer in luck. There have definitely been some divine moments of “perfect timing” in my life, but they were only made possible by my own ambition and work ethic and by aligning myself with wonderful people in my communities. The most divine moment was the day I met my husband. There was an event happening at work that sounded interesting, but only executives were invited to attend. I decided to go anyway, because it would be great networking (I was fairly new there) and thought I’d enjoy it until they figured out I didn’t belong and kicked me out. I walked into the room and immediately noticed Dylan across the way – definitely interest at first sight. He was there giving a presentation. I introduced myself and three years later we got married. If I hadn’t been willing to break the rules and think strategically that day, we never would have met.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thebravemillennial.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebravemillennial/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bravemillennial/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LLyoungkin
• Other: www.bravebandit.com

Image Credit:
The Brave Millennial, Disney Parks Blog, Big.Vision, MacBeth Studio, Veronica Bradley, Bree McCool

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