We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julianna Freed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Julianna, 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?
I think there’s a few ways to answer this question – I mean, I had a generally tumultuous childhood, I really struggled with my sexuality through the better part of my adolescence (thanks a lot Glee), and I lost my mom very tragically when I was 18. I’d say those are my Big Three that gave me kinda thick skin. My entire life I felt like I was always just enduring, but losing my mom was a level of pain and grief that I truly didn’t think I’d survive. People would always tell me “you’re so strong” to which I would respond (in my head) “I’m not sure if I have a choice.” And they would say, “I don’t know how you do it, I wouldn’t be able to” to which I would respond (again, in my head) “yeah you would be able to, because it’s just what you do.” You either do it or you end your life in one way or another, drinking or doing drugs or letting something else waste you. I, thankfully, came out on the other side of that. And I’m grateful to have done so and stayed soft (honestly I’m softer every day, it’s a blessing and a curse!!!) It’s messy and ugly and humiliating and REALLY REALLY REALLY hard, but you get all these beautiful, delicate moments in between. And most of the time, in my experience, you get those moments with other people. All that to say, I owe everything to my friends and my family – I would be nothing without all the love I’ve been shown, my entire life. I think, ultimately, that’s where I get my resilience from. Because, to me, resilience isn’t just going through the ringer and being strong (literally whatever that means), it’s a decision that we make to carry pain and do something with it KNOWING that it’s not the last time we’ll have to do so. Having so much love in my life makes that decision easy.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My Story™: I’m a queer videographer, creative director, and graphic designer and everything I do I do for the gays people!! I’d say my lore starts in 2019 when I first downloaded Photoshop. I clicked all the buttons and made a lot of really ugly designs until I actually figured out how to make cool stuff, and now here we are. I got into video during the pandemic – I had a lot of friends working in the film industry and a select few who mainly worked on music videos. I started as a PA and down the road ended up writing and directing a video for famous content creator, Daniela Legarda (she’s my best friend since I was 9, I won’t beat these Nepo Baby allegations!!). But I really got in knuckles deep when I started working with Kelly Romo, also my best friend and also bought me my first camera which we just shot our first MOVIE on!!! Every video, every graphic, every merch design I’ve done for her is really what has given me the opportunity to learn and be better at what I do. Kelly’s artist project is one of my main focuses at this point in my artistic career, and this also includes collaborations with a lot of other artists.
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?
I think what has been most impactful to my journey as an artist is 1. Random urges to learn something new – origami, how to tattoo, calisthenics, American Sign Language, those were short lived (except now I know how to sign “lesbian” and I have a tattoo of Simp Plankton on my leg). How to work a camera and edit a music video, however, stuck! Which was arguably very impactful on my journey of working cameras and editing music videos. 2. Having a creative partner – working with your friends can sometimes be a conflict of interests, but I have gotten extremely lucky in my working creative relationship with my best friend, Kelly Romo <3. We’re super dynamic together and, most importantly, (for the most part) we have so much fun in the process of making all the stuff that we make together. Which brings me to my third and final quality that has been most impactful to my journey as an artist, 3. I do this sh*t for FUNNN. I have that luxury, because I got to a point where I had the decision to either go all in and make video and design my JOB, what pays my bills, what pays my rent, or do something else – I chose to do something else. I, personally, prefer to keep Job and Life as separate as I can. Job is what I do to make money for Life, Life is the things I do that bring me joy. And Life is silly and also short, too short to not just do sh*t for fun!!!
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
When I get overwhelmed I typically freak out and abandon whatever task is making me feel overwhelmed until the feeling dies down a bit. My advice is don’t do that <3 I think there’s a balance, and somewhere in between is probably where I’d recommend to go when you start to feel overwhelmed. I think sitting with that feeling for a minute can be really helpful and can get you back to whatever was overwhelming you with a level head and a more clear perspective on how to get it done. Most of the time I come back to it and am like “oh literally all I had to do was xyz” and realize that I’m freaking out prematurely.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @julsfreed
Image Credits
Cindy Lopera, Julie Kemp, Julianna Freed
