Fear is something we all carry, though it shows up differently for each of us. It can keep us safe, but it can also hold us back from opportunities, relationships, and growth. We asked some brilliant members of the community to share the one fear that has shaped their choices the most—and their answers reveal just how universal, yet deeply personal, our struggles with fear really are.
Shonda Sorrells
Rejection and uncertainty. There’s something to be said about the power of the unknown. Read More>>
Cyrill Reiser
I would not describe it as a single fear that held me back, but rather a deep sense of shyness growing up. I was naturally quiet and cautious. My parents still tell a story from grade school where a teacher said that if I could have, I would have asked for permission just to breathe. Speaking up or putting myself forward never came easily. Read More>>
Sarah Khan
For a long time, the fear that held me back most was not being liked. I worried that there was something fundamentally off about how I saw the world or how I thought about things. This fear started when I was a child, a little brown girl growing up in Northern Canada, and it followed me through school, graduate studies, and even my career. Read More>>
Grayce Carson
The fear that has held me back most is the fear of not being good enough. From a young age, I was the kind of person who wanted to retake a test if I earned a 97 instead of a 100. I have always struggled with doing things I am not immediately good at, which made perfectionism feel like both a motivator and a trap. Read More>>
Takenya Millhouse
The fear of failure. For a long time, it made me play small, second-guess my instincts, and hesitate when opportunities showed up. I was more afraid of getting it wrong than trusting myself to figure it out. That fear had me waiting, overthinking, and holding parts of myself back. But life taught me that failure isn’t the opposite of success—it’s part of the process. Read More>>
Junhan Shen
It is a very ordinary one: obscurity. As an artist, “being seen” can feel uncomfortably tied to legitimacy—like if no one notices the work, it doesn’t fully exist. I’ve carried the worry that I could pour years into drawing and still disappear into the noise. What helped was reframing visibility as a practice, not a miracle. Read More>>
Anthony Jones
The fear of failure. I know there’s no such thing as being perfect cause there IS no such thing, but my mind still paints an illusion of perfection I have to learn, as I get older, that we human mess up and that’s okay. Even though, my inner child gets irked at the thought of not doing something without mistakes one time. Read More>>
Jessica Jones
For a long time, the biggest fear holding me back was believing that creativity couldn’t really be my path in life. I was always told creative jobs weren’t possible or realistic, and that stayed with me. Over time, I’ve learned that you really can do anything if you try and if you’re willing to back yourself and keeping going, you will succeed! Read More>>
