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Tell me about 100s Under 100. My friend Valentina Vergara and I met Carly Ayres through our senior thesis, which explored the underrepresentation of women in design history and as professors in design classrooms. We invited Carly to participate in a panel discussion that we held to try and bridge that gap a little, and she ended up becoming a friend and mentor. After graduating, Carly was helpful in connecting us with designers and referring us to jobs. She really believed in us and made us feel powerful! Valentina and I started attend- ing these incredible events she organized called 100sUnder100 #show-n-tell. These talks are a physical manifestation of an online community that she started several years ago through Slack. She had been producing the #show-n-tells for some time and wanted to move on, but didn’t want them to stop, so she asked Valen- tina and me if we’d like to take the reins! These informal events give creatives of
all kinds the space to talk about their ideas, process, hobbies, work, or anything
they’re passionate about to an audience of creative peers. There’s always drinks and mingling before and after the talks, which is a great opportunity to meet other people in a low-pressure and non-networky kind of way.
What advice do you have for someone entering the field? Never underestimate yourself. Recent grads are made to feel that with little experience, we have to be overworked and underpaid, and we are constantly being made to prove ourselves. Experience obviously matters, but young people bring different skills to the table. We haven’t been molded by years of working in the industry, which can mean fresh perspectives and new ways of thinking. We have an invaluable connection to our gen- eration, which is often the target audience for major clients. As young creatives, we add a lot of value to a team! In film or music, you don’t hear, “She’s only twenty, what does she know?”
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FARAH KAFEI AND ADAM BLUFARB Zine, Push & Pull.