That instinct — to notice, to document, to find the story in the ordinary — is what brought me to journalism. But honestly, I was a content creator long before that word meant anything. As a kid I was choreographing music videos in my living room, filming makeup tutorials into my front-facing camera, vlogging moments that felt important for no audience but myself. I didn't have a strategy or a platform — I just had the urge to make things and share them. I still remember the first video I posted when Instagram launched its video feature — fifteen seconds that felt like everything. That instinct never went away. It just grew up with me.

Creating has always been the through-line. Long before I had a byline, I had a scrapbook. I crochet, I sew, I make jewelry — not because I have to, but because my hands need somewhere to put what my mind is working through. There's something about taking raw materials and making them into something that didn't exist before that never gets old, whether that's a piece of writing or a piece I made by hand. I've always been drawn to creativity in all its forms. Music, art, food, culture, the way people dress, the podcasts that feel like overhearing the best conversation at the next table. I move through the world collecting moments, and journalism gave me somewhere to put them.