YOUTH DOIN THANGS

Earlier this year, when I experienced an existential crisis and dropped out of uni to pursue a more creative career, I often found myself wishing that I had a cool older sister who was happy and successful and willing to offer me some honest advice and encouragement. As the first-born, I had no one. Friends, maybe? They told me to ask a professional. I'm really an introvert so the thought of approaching some strange career-guidance counsellor freaked me out. Also, do those even exist outside of American tv shows? Instead, I turned to the one who would never judge me. Google. In seconds, I had links to the blogs, twitter accounts and interviews that told me all about the photographers, writers, and filmmakers I look up to. I read how I should work hard and respect those who have been in this industry and that industry, and how I should do this and that and eating vegetables is good for you… but those weren't really the answers I was looking for. The right questions weren't being asked. I wanted to know EXACTLY how I could get to where they were. Hardwork can't be the only answer! Don't you need the right contacts? Should I start using twitter more? Is it really okay to be spending this much time in my room? 

As I continued to dive deeper into the internet's archive, I noticed a lot of repetition in interview questions and pretty soon, I couldn't tell the difference between them and the candidate's wiki page. 3am rolled around, I was tired, the screen was beginning to blur and I wanted to know what Karl Lagerfeld's Chinese Zodiac was so I could find out if we were compatible. I wanted to read a fun interview. But can you imagine, Karl Lagerfeld answering "fun" questions? 

I re-evaluated. I didn't want to know anymore about those plastered in popular magazines, apparently dominating the world. The outside world is so irrelevant these days. I want to know who's dominating my twitter feed. I wanted to talk to people I could actually relate to, people who were young enough to be my friends, but were way too cool and/or busy. Busy because they were running a blog, making music, creating a brand or spending their time illustrating for some obscure e-zine that's only available every full moon. I wanted to know what made them tick. I wanted to know how they were balancing a degree and a career on the internet at the same time. I wanted to know if they thought it was weird that they were even able to have a career on the internet when around twenty years ago, the internet didn't even exist. 

We're known as the Internet Generation (please don't ever refer to me as that), even being called the 'digital natives' by the media (so creative guys), and most of us can't imagine life without it. In minutes, we can gather and digest information online and then share our thoughts and observations with the world in seconds. We are experts at it. These days, people are using the internet to self-publish, self-promote, and beg e-friends to help pay for e-college classes… 

I could write an essay on it but I'm not going to. I'm going to launch a blog project that I've been planning since June. 

I worked hard all summer, gathering contact details and trying to think of questions that haven't been asked ten thousand times before by everyone else, and I kept quiet about it, only asking my sister what she thought of the name ("kind of dumb"). Now finally - I'm ready to present it to the cyber world,  

Youth Doin Thangs

This project is going to be a collection of interviews where I'll be asking cool people doing cool things about cool stuff. I want to create a digital archive of creative individuals, ones who inspire me. Like I mentioned above, my focus will be on young people who are doing their own thing. They have creative hobbies or they are working creative jobs, running brands or blogs, making music or art, and getting their work out there via the internet. It's nothing too serious, if anything it's a completely personal project that I'm doing only for myself. I want to know the answers to the questions I'm asking. And incase anyone else does too, I'll be posting it all on here starting Monday at midnight.