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1. I love working in groups — I think it makes each individual more powerful.
2. I want people to see themselves in a person. I never want someone to aspire to be someone else.
3. I’m obviously a white woman with privilege. I want to make sure I always collaborate with people who aren’t like me so we can create a work that isn’t one dimensional.
4. You don’t have to wait for anyone’s approval to do things.
5. Being taken seriously as a young woman is the biggest hurdle as I grow older.
6. Women are inherently told their bodies are objects, so that’s how we treat them.
7. My mind is changing all the time. I can’t live in a space that has a fixed aesthetic. I just need a blank slate when I come home.
8. I look for subjects who have stories to tell — who are looking to tell something.
9. I wish I didn’t think about what my body looks like. It can be done — it’s just a long process.
10. I remember being 12 or 13 and reading ‘Seventeen’ and ‘CosmoGirl.’ They were all about self-improvement.
11. When you see stories about women that aren’t being told by women, it can make you feel like you don’t exist.
12. Because I loved dance, I always need to be physical and moving, so photography that is more tactile made more sense.
13. If I have extra money, I always love to support my friends who’re making art.
14. We live in such an image-heavy world that not seeing yourself in that landscape can really make it tough to feel human, to feel like you are part of the world.
15. I didn’t really have an identity crisis because I really, really knew who I always wanted to be But I definitely had a lot of problems with my body. I was very skinny, and I guess my body was sort of pre-pubescent, but when I grew hips and thighs, I just didn’t know where I was in the world. It was weird.
16. If your story is being told by someone who doesn’t really know it, it’s not going to come out accurate. A lot of it has to do with context. Whoever’s behind the camera or pen or whatever.
17. On film, you really have to focus on what you’re looking at. You’re imprinting a physical image.
18. Hashtag activism is a catalyst, but things have to actually happen in real life.
19. I didn’t see spaces where female artists could exist and exhibit their work. So I created a platform for this — one that allowed our works to be seen, but to also weave a community of women that could lean on and work with one another.
20. When I was 16, I created this online platform for female artists. I messaged women who I loved; that’s how I got work and connected with people. You don’t need to plead for entry into a system that doesn’t want you anyway.