Meet Jaela Coleman

We were lucky to catch up with Jaela Coleman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jaela, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My resilience stems from continually overcoming challenges that I once thought were impossible. I believe my resiliency is rooted in wanting to better the livelihoods of myself, my family, friends, and others all over the world. At an early age, once I started having siblings, I took on the responsibility of getting a job to provide for myself, so that I could relieve pressure from my parents, allowing them to focus solely on the needs/wants of my siblings. As firstborn, I’d always felt like I needed to provide for myself, so that my sister and brother didn’t feel pressured that they would have to grow up quickly, get a job, save for college or a car etc., just to “fit in”. Being raised in a suburban area, within my earlier school years, I felt out of place and faced societal pressures that slowly started to affect my mental health, my relationship with trust, and the way I perceived myself. I believe this was one of the many first stories where I got my resilience from. After graduating high school, I decided I’d go to college, not just for myself to earn a degree but to give back to my family, to give them things in life we weren’t able to have years ago, and overall help things be a little easier for them in life. My first year of college was during 2019-2020, when COVID-19 was very prevalent, and in the middle of my first year, everyone (including me and my friend) got sent home from living in the dorms. This changed a lot of plans I had for myself for the current time and for the future. After this shake-up, I was always working or in school, trying to save up to be able to afford an apartment closer to school. Over the last few years, I went through many trials and errors with friends, roommates, and went through some difficult times that have truly changed me as a person. The difficult times that have affected me throughout my years in college include constant displacements, traumatic experiences/stress, financial burdens, and so much more. As I write this, I reflect on myself from the time I got my first job until now, and see a young girl who wanted to feel comfortable in her own skin, without the cost being sacrificing being a kid. Younger me wanted to be able to provide herself (and her family) with the things they needed, liked, and wanted. Younger me wanted to make a positive change, whether that be directly through my family, friends, something for my community, and/or hopefully the world.

I will always be thankful to have been raised in a very humble upbringing. My parents always provided my siblings and me with what we needed: food to eat, clothes on our backs, and shelter over our heads. Along with these necessities, they have (and still provide) the most important things: love, attention, and real-life knowledge. They’d go out of their way to do something (even if we couldn’t afford it sometimes) just because they loved us and wanted to see us happy. Now that I’m older, I can better understand from their perspective that although I may not have gotten everything I wanted, I didn’t need to. My parents worked their hardest to keep my siblings and me in a safe environment for the betterment of our futures, for us to break cycles from their childhoods, and ultimately do great things for ourselves. I am eternally grateful for them, their sacrifices, and their everlasting support. Without my family, I would not have my resiliency to keep going throughout college. Not only was I able to graduate and earn a degree, but I’ve been able to teach my family and friends important things I’ve learned, or have intellectual conversations that I can now understand, and have my own experiences to share. Life has been a little better for our parents, and my siblings are happy and thriving. They got to be kids for most of their lives, and hopefully, I was able to help them have better and healthier adolescences than I experienced.

I get my resilience from my family because they show me humanity. They remind me to continue to have empathy and compassion. To continue being forgiving, find the good in others, and learn from each other.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am an emerging freelance designer and digital artist, known as “aleaj designs”. I am a first-generation graduate from California State University, Long Beach with my Bachelor of Arts in Design. My work ranges from environmental design (non-branded/branded) to some interior design. I also create logo designs and redesigns, abstract typography, sketched-to-digital drawings, and digitally rendered product designs. ​​​​​​​I admire, value, and create unique designs and art that include elements of sustainability, community, and creativity. When designing, I primarily use a blend of traditional drawing techniques with modern editing apps, such as Procreate, and programs like SketchUp, Enscape, and Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign). Outside of designing and work, I am usually riding my skateboard/Penny board around the city, relaxing by the beach, traveling, hiking, exercising, or meditating, doing yoga. I also love attending community-based events, whether it’s music festivals/shows, farmer markets, film festivals, and so on. I love being involved in anything where people are encouraged to come together and to be themselves, be present, learn with/from each other, and ultimately have a good time. Currently, what I’m focused on is finding my career that I enjoy and am making a difference in the world by doing.

A recent event that I’m happy to say I was able to be a part of was the Long Beach Underground Film Festival. This festival took place in Long Beach, California, in July 2025 and encouraged all filmmakers to submit their films, and based on their genres, they would be screening the films in nontraditional film venues. I recreated their logo for the festival, and it was then sold as merchandise! This was the first time one of my designs would be used as merchandise and would profit from it (it was on tote bags, hats, and t-shirts), which was really cool for me as a designer. The film festival was also mentioned in one of the local newspapers, and my design and name were featured! I am still so happy and proud of myself for expressing my creativity and attempting different styles I’ve never tried before. It was also really fun learning more about different art communities, creatives, and helping support each other.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three most important qualities that were/are most impactful in my journey have been my optimism, resilience, and love. Being optimistic helps other people have empathy and better understand each other when going through times of struggle. When situations are bad, the least someone can do is to try. In order to stay resilient, you have to try your best to make a situation better or make something out of nothing. The last quality is love because without love, there is no real motive to do what a person wants to do in life. You have to be passionate about what you do, and really understand how you’re contributing to making the world better for the next generations. For me, because I do want to help people, love is the main motive that fuels my passion for what I do, and I believe if we come from a place of love, we can see more people genuinely be happy, healthy, and whole.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

As an emerging designer/artist, I’m always looking to collaborate with other creatives who want to create positive change in their communities and around the world! I like to get involved with communities by making art for brands, events, organizations, and upcoming artists whether it be creating logos, event flyers, social media content, etc. If you need to express a vision but can’t visualize it, I can help come up with many ideas or put together a vision for you. I’m also looking to collaborate with other creatives, designers, and professionals who are just starting their careers or who have been on their successful paths for a while now and have advice to give to young emerging designers such as myself. I want to connect with those wanting to use their creativity to help others with the same goal as myself: to succeed in life and help themselves/their families. I am currently working on an online community where designers are encouraged to join and network, share ideas with each other. The community I’m hoping to build is through a Discord server called Emerging Designers. This server is for designers of all mediums. It’s catered to helping emerging designers find opportunities, make connections, and learn new skills through a supportive community. Currently, I am the only one on the admin team, but I am hoping I can connect with more like-minded designers whose motivation for designing comes from community and wanting to help each other succeed in life. I created this server to meet other designers, help them stay in touch, and be able to help one another.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Highlighter Series
Are you walking a path—or wandering?

The answer to whether you are walking or wandering often changes from season to season

Highlighter Series
What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?

With so many high-achievers in our community it was super interesting to learn about the

Highlighter Series
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?

We asked some of the wisest people we know what they would tell their younger