Today we’d like to introduce you to Brianna Rae Quinn.
Hi Brianna Rae, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always loved to create. I started writing poetry when I was as young as 5 years old, creating new versions of “Roses are red, violets are blue” in a hardback pink composition notebook. I loved creative problem solving.
I did my first DIY project in high school with money I had from my first job as a barista. I’d found some magnetic tape at the craft store while looking for spray paint. During Prom, my Sophomore year, some of us were able to take home to center pieces. I snagged a foot-tall, silver tea light shaped like the Empire State Building. I wanted it black to match my room and while I was in that store, I just got inspired.
I ended up hot gluing the magnets to the back of my makeup products and sticking them onto a magnet board so I could more easily keep track of them. I was so proud of myself that I’d posted pictures and received some (limited) but positive feedback for my creativity. I wanted to keep going, but I had a limited budget. From there, I started visiting the dollar stores and seeking out inexpensive ways to be creative.
Come my freshman year of college, I decided to start filming. Enough times, people had asked me “How did you make that?” that I finally wanted to have some place to send them if they wanted to try it themselves.
I made one video every week, sharing my little projects and trying new mediums to appease my ever-changing hyper-fixations. Through that, it gave me a lot of confidence to learn and grow new skills on my own, even outside of crafting.
I became an author. I got back into performing, making props and costumes for community theaters. Eventually, I got picked up and mentioned by some larger creators. I’m still small, but growing, and I love that I have the opportunity to continue creating and feel supported in that. That’s always been the most important part to me.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One thing that I still, in a way, consider myself lucky for, is that I can support my creative endeavors through the extra funds I earn from books, YouTube videos, and performing without it being my full time job.
I’m still in a place where I am not beholden to an audience. I don’t have to forsake everything I want to do in favor of what an audience wants only. I’ve never had to abandon a poor-performing project because I’ve always had my 9 to 5 to fall back on.
Instead, my challenges came in two flavors: personal goals and free-time.
I often set my own, arbitrary goals for my projects. “I want this done this week”, or with my current book, I’m trying to have it done by October, but I found myself running behind after a very overwhelming year with a new job. My husband has to remind me that I set those goals myself. While my ambition, by many accounts, is an admirable quality, I’m often a victim by falling short of my own unrealistic expectations.
The other challenge falls into that same example above. All of my projects can only be done outside of my work hours in my free-time, and if I don’t have enough because of rehearsal schedules, or rewriting curriculum for my main source of income, teaching, it has to fall to the side. Growing is difficult without consistency, and it’s still hard to overcome my personal feelings of failure when I’m unable to work on my projects regularly, but in a lot of ways, I do still consider myself lucky for having my day job.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have always said, I am not a specialist. I love to do a little of everything, and I think that’s what allows me to have so many side-hustles.
I like to teach myself how to do as much of my own work as I can, but I think what sets me apart is how I want to make even the most complex of projects accessible. I want to play and encourage first-timers, often like myself, to not fear hating a new project or medium. I ask, “What is the most cost effective way to try this medium?” “What is left out of these directions that I wished I would have known first?” I often find myself thinking, “This isn’t hard. I just didn’t know.” I want to share the HOW and inspire creativity even for really specific things. The more I share my creative problem solving, maybe we start sharing ideas and building community and a collection of information on a topic to help others feel creatively fulfilled and finish the projects that currently only live in their heads.
Truly, it reminds me why I don’t leave my day job. At my core, I love to teach and watch people learn and grow. I just took that from standardized content to creative skills to help give others the tools they need to create also. That’s what I’m most proud of.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I find most people really only know me for some of my various side-hustles. I’m either a performer, an author, or a content creator. Rarely to people recognize me as all of those things.
Usually when I first walk into new theatre spaces, I’ll introduce myself with a fun fact like “I’m a published author,” because that’s likely news to them. In my videos I often have to clarify that I’m a performer and director which prompts some of my prop making videos. Being a creative never stops at one medium for me!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Briannaraequinn.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/missbriannaquinn
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/brieiy
