Being Creative, Getting Paid

Names and identifying details have been changed.

One of my earliest memories, from when I was 3: I dunked my hands into the paint can and watched them disappear into the blue liquid. My sister Stephanie and cousin Axel were covering each other and the floor with blue handprints and footprints, giggling loudly, and I joined in, slapping blue onto everything around me. I felt as light as a breeze: I was with my favorite people in the world, doing what I loved most. 

Creating something has always made the world feel vibrant. Almost from the moment I could hold a tool, my dad was teaching me about different painting techniques and mediums, from Crayola crayons to pottery, from cross-hatching to carving. Paintings and drawings by my sisters and me as well as other family members hung on the walls of my dad’s, grandpa’s, and uncles’ homes.

In 5th grade, Jaiden Animations on YouTube inspired me to start my journey into digital art. I drew on my iPad using apps like IBIS Paint, both copying animations I’d seen and creating original characters. I learned from tutorials online like Draw So Cute, and from my sister by watching her draw on her iPad and on paper. 

That love for art steered me toward a high school geared toward advertising. My dad knew I wanted to go to an art school, and the school focused on art as well as more reliably lucrative skills related to the advertising field. I started there in 2021 and took classes in visual art, graphic design, and marketing and branding. 

In my second semester of sophomore year, I planned an event for my skateboarding club. I messaged everybody, checked the date and weather, and coordinated details in a way that made the skateboarding club leader compliment my talent for bringing people together. I found that organizing events was something I genuinely enjoyed and was good at.

At this high school, my love for event planning and art were combined. We learned how colors and lighting set the mood for spaces, and how to advertise to get people to come to events. 

In 10th grade we had an assignment to create a campaign for the waffles brand Eggos. The entire grade was split into groups of five. We researched the target audience, debating whether it should be parents or their children. We decided to make ads for the parents, emphasizing that Eggos are easy to make and healthy and that their kids will like the taste. 

I began to learn how to conceptualize who’s your audience and ways of appealing to them. And working in my group of five taught me how to be on a team, including how to balance ideas and manage time. 

Blue Girl

While I was learning how to build a creative professional identity in school, I shaped my personal look too. In the summer before 11th grade, right before my 16th birthday, I became “the blue girl.” I took the first big plunge one August day, and ordered Punky Hair color in the shade Atlantic Blue. Soon after it arrived, blue hair dye stained every inch of the bathroom and my hands. I raised my head from the sink to look in the mirror at my wet hair, my wet clothes, and hands all stained blue, and felt that creative vibrancy. 

I pushed open Stephanie’s bedroom door with my elbow. I heard the AC humming and my sister’s keyboard fill the silence of the summer afternoon while I waited for her reaction. 

“Oh my god. Sloane, your hair.” 

I giggled and walked back to the bathroom to rinse the extra dye off. After that, I enlisted Stephanie to help me shop for all blue clothes and get rid of any clothes that didn’t go with the new look. 

When I went back to school that September, people started calling me “the blue girl” or “Bluey,” which I liked. Later that year, I took a Branding and Marketing class. The teacher talked about how a signature look helps you stand out as an individual in a crowded job market. She had us explain who we were using branding categories like voice, storytelling, and color. Without meaning to, by dyeing my hair and buying blue clothes, I’d started to create my brand.

I used my event planning skills in my personal life in the winter of 12th grade. My favorite part of every holiday is seeing the joy on others’ faces during a well-planned party, so I threw the Christmas party of my dreams. Fifteen friends came to my foster parents’ living room. We watched The Night Before Christmas, the Sabrina Carpenter Christmas special, and Stranger Things. We ate pizza and desserts. We played online games, made gingerbread houses, held a gift-wrapping contest, and exchanged Secret Santa gifts. The night was filled with laughter and conversation, the smell of cookies, and the sticky feeling of icing on my hands.

Planning parties and other events taught me a lot about how people interact and how the right events and activities let people connect better. That’s when I realized this was something I could pursue in college and beyond. 

Finding a College That Was Right for Me

I began my college search and application process in the beginning of senior year. I reflected on what I enjoyed doing, and what careers and jobs could highlight my talents and skills. First, I considered my interests, hobbies, and skills: art, writing, technology, and especially organizing social events. Then I went onto Google and AI websites to find out what jobs and career fields use those skills and interests. The jobs best suited to me were event planner, graphic designer, animator, and creative production manager. Then I used some of the same sites to learn more about how people get these jobs, and how much they pay. 

Being around creative people who share my goals and care about the same things I do makes me feel like I finally found my place.

I searched for majors that aligned with my skills and interests. I decided to major in advertising and marketing communications. I read that that’s a good major to get you to a career doing event planning. I’d love to plan any events, except maybe weddings; I’ve never understood the point of them. My second choice was public relations, which also reflects communication and connection. 

I really wanted to go to the same college as my best friend Felix. He was interested in the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan, the fashion-focused college that is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. We looked for colleges that had my major and Felix’s: media graphic design or animation. We also applied to SUNY colleges in upstate towns of Morrisville, Fredonia, and Cortland, which had what we both needed. 

When the acceptance letters started coming in, things weren’t as simple as I expected. I realized I didn’t want to leave New York City. Seeing acceptance letters from colleges I didn’t want to attend filled me with dread, and guilt. My foster parents sat with me while I opened the Morrisville college letter. I was accepted. My foster mom Andrea cheered. I wanted to be as happy as they were for me. 

“Aren’t you excited?” Andrea asked, looking into my face.

“I am,” I lied. All I could think about is how far away Morrisville is from the city, my family, and Felix. I would be all alone. 

But then I found out I’d gotten into FIT. I was ecstatic when I read the email on the bus heading to school. I grinned and looked out the bus window again. I texted Felix that I got in and told him to check his emails too. 

I met up with him later that day after school to walk with him to his early college classes. We checked his emails together: He wasn’t accepted to FIT. I took his phone to see for myself. “Oh,” I said numbly. I didn’t know what to say. There wasn’t anything to say.

After a stretch of silence, it was time to think about our next steps, even though things didn’t go the way we had planned. 

Creating My Life

Felix and I decided that he would attend the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and I would go to FIT. They are close to each other in the city.  We reminded each other that he was still my best friend, and I was his, and that we’d get together often. 

As I always do, I made a plan. I got myself into a dorm at FIT, then gathered as much information as I could about classes and housing life. I bought so much room decor to make me feel at home that it had its own suitcase. 

Now, my first year is ending, and I’ve discovered that it wasn’t the LED lights and posters that made my dorm feel like home: It was finding friends who pull all-nighters with me to work on advertising projects, study, and brainstorm creative ideas. Being around creative people who share my goals and care about the same things I do makes me feel like I finally found my place.

As an advertising major, I’m learning lots about event planning. From my advertising and psychology classes I’m learning how to properly communicate with people through advertising and writing in a way that sticks. In my computing classes, I am using Adobe Photoshop to design promotional event flyers and Premiere Pro to edit corporate videos. And even in my accounting class, I’m learning how to create and execute a budget when planning an event. Through these classes, I see how creativity is applied beyond traditional art. 

I applied my classroom budgeting knowledge to a 15-person holiday personal event Felix and I hosted together: a pre-Halloween pumpkin-carving picnic where we worked on our costumes and had a three-legged race, with prizes. I used an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of our spending. 

Doing well in my college classes and exploring the career on my own aren’t my only ways of preparing to become an event planner. I’ve been told that I need to hit the ground running before I graduate from college. I want to get an internship at an event planning company like Eventique, Coco Events, or EMRG Media, so I can combine what I know about psychology and design to help create engaging events. 

FIT sends a lot of emails about job opportunities and helps students find work, which has helped me find event planning jobs to apply for. And my friend Julia is helping me with job applications (in exchange for my paying for our Hulu membership). My life coach recommended I start a social media account that shows my event planning skills to people who might hire me. I’ve been getting my friend Madie, who already has a very large social media following, to help me start this process. 

I’m hoping my love for fashion and in particular the color blue helps me stand out in the creative fields I want to work in. And after one year of college, I can already offer employers experience in planning events using digital tools, creating flyers and videos, working on a team, networking, and branding. Building a resume takes creativity too.