My political and creative advocacy work began in 2019 when I co-founded Generation Ratify, a dynamic, 100% youth-led organization that advocates for the long overdue ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and the advancement of gender equality and justice in the United States. Our mission is to build a coalition of young people across the country leading an intersectional feminist revolution that empowers and advocates for the full equality of young women, gender non-conforming, non-binary, femme, and Queer folks. Through our work, we aim to educate youth on the lack of constitutional gender equality in the United States and teach and empower them to advocate for gender equality legislation in impactful, engaging ways. As the National Creative Director, I’ve had the opportunity to guide the lens of our movement, as it grew from its infancy to now over 12,000 members. Over the past four years, I’ve aimed to make it as magnetic, engaging, and effective as possible. It is my responsibility to manage and direct the conceptualizing, organizing, and scheduling of creative projects and events that engage youth. These efforts include designing and illustrating resources for protests and events, leading webinars, conducting artistic research, participating in various weekly and monthly project-based, collaborative calls, communicating with local, state, and regional members and advising their creative efforts, and communicating with other teams within my organization on collaborative projects and performances. Over the past few years, I have harnessed creativity for protest in events such as when organizing art-based protests and days of action where youth across the country used creative protest tactics to share their voices. I and the Creative Team continuously educate our peers on how to utilize art for social change, teaching workshops that equip participants with the skills to engage in rapid-response, cost-effective, and visually bold creative protest. Now, more than ever, it is incredibly important to maintain the energy and power of student organizing. We must continue to advocate and fight in the face of hateful legislation and ignorance. I envision that our movement will continue to grow, create change, educate, and empower indefinitely. Even now, as an organization whose initial purpose was solely to ratify the ERA in our home state of Virginia, our fight has expanded on a national level and encompasses many issues at the intersection of gender equality. Through my work so far, I’ve proven that artists are as necessary for the process of change as anyone else. It’s our nature to look at the world differently and create new possibilities– to create an exchange of accessible art, unapologetic expression, and humanitarian values. I want to create art that disproves the trend of overlooking its utility, to show that artists are as necessary for the process of change as anyone else. The work that creatives do is what creates a bridge to help communicate the message. Because I am an artist, I know that much more is possible through the use of protest art to infiltrate our democracy and revolutionize it. I want to get the point not only across, but front and center because I believe art with purpose inspires change.

I never wanted to be the person that peaked in high school. But my senior year went really, really well. I aced my classes, got into great colleges, and was very involved in community leadership. Everyone knew who I was going to be in the next collegiate phase. Things seemed to have been building up to this exact point in my life. Then I got to my first semester of college and was exposed to complete newness. I am still the same person I was a few months before, but the change in environment made everything rapidly stagnant. A vastly new routine forced itself onto me. Time became elusive and so did friendships. This long-anticipated expectation of how things would roll out for me sort of dropped off the edge. Suddenly, I became a less clear version of myself. The things I thought I understood could no longer be relied on to ground me. It shocked me to feel so few ties to what I used to be. I was struggling. Honestly, it’s intimidating to be left to your own devices when the devices aren't the old tools you were familiar with. Struggling feels a little messy- it seems like the world revolves around constant achievement and once you peak you must strive to plateau on the top of the pyramid. Now in a valley, I know another peak is coming- I feel it on the way. I can function now knowing that life is mostly just finding the rhythm between the high and low points. Right now is the greatest opportunity for becoming: the time to put in the work and figure myself out. I’ve realized that, in the long run, I’ll spend much more time here in the middle ground than at either elevation extreme. And the valleys, even though they can feel low, are just as important as all the other points. I’ve come to discover that the valleys are even maybe more important than the peaks and that challenges should be celebrated. Now perching on the edge of my second semester, I am learning to trust myself. I am learning to navigate. I’ve begun to discover self-assurance and feel resilience. I believe that I am smack in the middle of where all the potential lies. I’m seeing growth in my experimentation. My character is developing and I’m becoming someone wonderfully new. There are so many things I am still figuring out. But if I can settle into the unknown and allow myself to stay here for a while, I think fantastic things could come from it. The right things. The things that are meant to be developed in uncharted personal territory. Because you have to have the struggles and the moments of not knowing what is next, for opportunity to welcome itself into the scene.

A society cannot grow if ideas are not shared freely. Perhaps the best way to share ideas and knowledge is through the arts. The arts helps all voices have an opportunity to participate in the exchange of free speech and community thought. The arts are critical to the evolution of our society because without it, censorship thrives and inhibits growth, learning, and change. There can be no progress without the crossfire of expressed ideas and culture. Our free speech is protest, and therefore so is our art. Making art is the most effective way I know to express myself. I have grown up in a community of artists, creative thinkers, and communicators, and being surrounded by creativity has allowed me to feel comfortable embracing my individuality. I’ve learned to use self-expression to form connections between seemingly unconnected things. The arts have given me the power to create something from nothing and also something from everything. The arts have guided me to take the less-traveled, but more unique and impactful path of communication. When something inspires me, I plummet into an energized mode of impassioned research, sketches, and brainstorms to connect my concepts with my materials through a multidisciplinary format. My professional arts involvement began in 2019, when I co-founded Generation Ratify, a youth-led gender equality organization. We have since grown into over 10,000 empowered, impactful members across the United States. In my experience working as the National Creative Director, I’ve dedicated my artistic skills to make fighting for equality as magnetic, engaging, and creative as possible. I lead us in using creative and art-based protest measures to make our voices heard. My time creating art that mobilizes youth has expanded my inspirations and the mediums I use, especially while creating solo during the pandemic. I’ve developed skills in communicative art, including graphic design and illustration, and experimented with performance, theatrical costume and make up, and poetry and lyric writing. Being a part of a movement that uses art as a vessel for change allowed me to prove to myself that my artistic voice is powerful, even when standing alone and no matter what the world sends my way. It’s an artist's nature to look at the world differently and create new possibilities. Because I have a creative perspective on my future, I know that much more is possible through the use of protest art to revolutionize society. As an artist, I aim to get the point not only across, but front and center through my creative work. What I am most proud of is that from my work so far, creating alongside future-policymakers, I’ve proved that artists are as necessary in the process of change as anyone else. Art gives me the power to create an exchange of radical art, radical expression, and radical values. Through a creative education, I aim to connect further with my creative tenacity, while developing a range of technical skills and learning experiences. When I am able to synthesize these skills and advance my style as an artist, the impact of my creations can be even greater. I know a future of creative possibilities is on the horizon for me and for all who are inspired.

Art is the most effective way I know to express myself. I have grown up in a community of artists, creative thinkers, and communicators. Being surrounded by creativity has allowed me to feel comfortable embracing my individuality and to use self-expression to form connections between seemingly unconnected things. Art has given me the power to create something from nothing and also something from everything. Art has guided me to take the less-traveled, but more unique and impactful path of communication. When something inspires me, I plummet into an energized mode of impassioned research, sketches, and brainstorms to connect my concepts with my materials through a multidisciplinary format. I’ve also always valued group performance as an important way to express myself, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began to rattle the world as we know it, it took away my voice and sense of self as part of my artistic community. I shifted towards visual expression because it was more accessible. I realized that most of what drew me into performance was the history behind telling a story and the visual aspects of it, such as costumes and makeup. With all this time by myself, I developed my skills and style as a solo artist and incorporated my roots in performance while adding other creative methods that were more accessible while I was in quarantine. To keep myself company, I listened to music and began exploring all sorts of genres. Inspired by these newfound tunes, I experimented with poetry and lyric writing, as a form of introspection and identity solidification. I shifted more towards visual art and experimented in producing self-directed forms of theater. I was reminded that creative self-expression endures all hardships. What I concluded was that when I create the message, performance, and visuals, I feel most like myself, and most like an artist. Because of the pandemic’s shift on my creative opportunities from social to singular, I’ve been able to prove to myself that my artistic voice is powerful, even when standing alone and no matter what the world sends my way. My professional creative involvement began in 2019, when I co-founded Generation Ratify, a youth-led gender equality organization that has grown to over 10,000 members across the country. In my experience working collaboratively as the National Creative Director, I’ve dedicated my skills in communicating as an artist to make fighting for equality as magnetic, engaging, and creative as possible. However, I’ve noticed there’s always a disconnect between how people think change can be made and the reality of creative possibilities. Through my work so far, I’ve shown that artists are as necessary in the process of change as anyone else. It’s our nature to look at the world differently and create new possibilities – to create an exchange of radical art, radical expression, and radical values. As an artist, I want to get the point not only across, but front and center. Through a creative education, I aim to connect further with my creative tenacity, while developing a range of technical skills and learning experiences. When I am able to synthesize these skills and advance my style as an artist, the impact of my creations can be even greater. I know I can develop my unique understanding and vision for the world even more and learn how to utilize it in the real world to take action. My artistic visions have had a long and winding journey to get to where they are today, and they will continue onwards on that path through pursuing an arts education and beyond.

This mixed media artwork, Perfection Guaranteed!, was inspired by the themes of marketing the female body, and the impossible, unattainable beauty standards that are enabled by capitalism. It represents how people, especially feminine-presenting people, feel like they must be manipulated in a million different directions to be acceptable in society. Of course, this dilemma can be extended into intersections of many situations, such as race and assimilation. Personally, it is most represented within this piece as the exploration of gender and presentation. Regardless, there is tension within the web of expectations. In my experiences as an artist, I’ve noticed a disconnect between how people think change can be made and the reality of creative possibilities. Through my artistic vision, I can prove that artists are just as necessary in the process of change as anyone else. It’s an artist’s nature to look at the world differently, demonstrate connections, and create new possibilities. Within the composition, the background illustrates the intertwined perception of constant new standards being pelted your way and the anger radiating from the subject. I wanted the tension between society’s expectations (representative in the yarn) and the subject to be not only visibly, but physically present. Furthermore, the malleability and cinching of the unstretched canvas relates to the physical molding of the feminine form. She is being fit to the mold by force. Similarly, the web is so complex and built into the system of the painting that if you somehow manage to disobey and break free of one string, another will tie you down. In spite of it all... You cannot reign her in. You cannot tie her back. You cannot puppeteer. She resists. She attacks. Don’t you dare tell her to smile. She bites back.