I’m a 26-year-old woman in San Francisco. I have an intense love and passion for all things music and audio-related. I think with age (and society convincing us we’re old), my sense of confidence and community as an artist has definitely grown smaller. It has been really hard finding a safe space as a woman in music. I constantly find myself longing for more hands-on experience in a studio setting, with musicians and mentors.
I come from a technical theatre background, where I focused on Stage Management, and soon developed a further love of Audio Engineering. The joy of setting up sound plots, creating audio cues from scratch, and mixing a show live is like no other. From a young age, I have always wanted to produce my own music.
I “played it safe” and chose technical theatre as my major when starting my college career, because I honestly didn’t see a place for myself onstage, despite wanting it so badly. I spent so long believing I couldn’t do it, so I simply didn’t. I have only just recently sought out safe spaces to create music and discover myself as an artist these past few years. Finding internships, online groups, and community-building workshops has been my saving grace. It truly is the hands-on experiences that help shape us and further our skill sets as artists.
Since finding SoundGirls, I am so inspired and moved that there are spaces for people like me. Seeing other women working in music is a life-saving level of importance that I feel others may not realize. It teaches young women that they too can feel confident in doing what they love, despite what others may say, and to bet on themselves from a young age. It is important to protect this for women now, and in the future. Seeing a woman audio engineer at 19 is what pushed me to believe in taking the next steps for myself, and I too hope I can be that for someone else one day. Everyone wants somewhere to express themselves and their art; that is only human. In my opinion, it is the essence of being human.
Below are some communities I have found to help me on my journey: