The Millennial Life Crisis

Welcome to Creatives Anonymous, a weekly newsletter about navigating creativity in the 21st century. It inspires, encourages, and empowers readers to take back their creative power.

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We are moving towards an era of life design. 

The pandemic and the Great Resignation have forced us to re-evaluate how work fits our lives. It’s not just about having a “dream job” anymore, but creating a “dream life” for ourselves, where we design our work around the type of life we want.

Fitting work into our lives instead of the other way around allows us to chase the wildest dreams we have for our lives, such as living in another country, working fewer hours, or taking more than 2 weeks of vacation. 

More people are realizing this and designing their work lives to facilitate it, whether switching careers or leaving Corporate America and going out on their own. They’re after freedom, flexibility, and, most of all, more fulfilling (and often more creative) work. 

We’re seeing this happen the most with the Millennial and Gen Z generations, who have been known to prioritize work-life balance more than previous generations.

Dubbed the “Millennial Life Crisis,” Millennials are changing careers and pivoting to something that makes them feel more fulfilled, even if it doesn’t align with what society considers “successful.” Millennials want to “start over” and abandon everything they’ve worked so hard to achieve since graduating college in favor of a slower-paced and more fulfilling life (hence why trends like cottagecore and homesteading have grown in popularity). 

I’ve seen this shift in my friend circles, where many of my friends (and even myself) are switching careers and leaving their industries because they want to do something more fulfilling and design a more balanced life for themselves. 

In this edition of my ongoing interview series, I chatted with my very good friend (and talented visual artist), Nina Mascheroni, who’s doing just that. 

Nina is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Harlem, NYC. She works mostly in paper collage, fiber arts and marker drawing. She moved to NYC to pursue a career in the fashion industry after attending Colorado State University for Apparel Design. Over the past eight years, Nina has worked for brands like Tanya Taylor, Alexander Wang, and Cinq a Sept in product development and technical design. 

Now, Nina is a graduate student at City College, transitioning to being a visual arts teacher in a public school setting. Originally from Denver, CO, she found her love for the arts through stagecraft, doing lighting and scenic design for the stage. When she’s not working, Nina loves stopping to take pictures of flowers, drinking beer outside, and going to concerts. 

This interview was edited for clarity and conciseness. 

Why did you want to make a career change from fashion design and production to art education?

I have always loved fashion and wanted to move to NY to work in the industry. Even in my first internship, I realized that fundamental flaws in the fashion industry were hard to overlook, like lack of sustainability and inclusivity on many fronts, only being growth-driven, and not valuing the craft of making textiles and clothing. I worked at many brands across multiple roles, trying to find where I fit best, but eventually realized that I couldn't give 100% ever to something I had to compromise my ethics and morals to work in. 

I had always considered being a teacher as my mom and many close family friends and relatives work in education, but I wasn't sure where I fit in. I decided to pursue visual arts because I think it is where you can reach most students, even if they are not succeeding in other subject areas. 

After finding City College’s program focused on social justice through the arts, I knew I was on the right path. I also wanted a better quality of life, including being part of a union for pay and benefits transparency/consistency. On top of that, I wanted more days off a year to travel and have time to be a person, not just a worker. 

How do you think some of the creative skills you've gained in fashion will translate to your new career in art education? 

I feel like a huge part of teaching is being able to differentiate your curriculum to meet students at many different places, including students who are learning English, students who don't like art, or students with disabilities. Product development in fashion was doing exactly that! I had to be able to present information to the factories overseas and to local seamstresses who had limited English skills. 

I also had to present essentially the same information in meetings with management. The way I communicated with each person throughout the industry was very different. I also had to compartmentalize information for each team to ensure they weren't overloaded with irrelevant information and could clearly and effectively do their job.

How will this career change will impact your creative practice?

I am excited to test all my lesson ideas before teaching them to my students. This will help me be more structured in my regular practice of making art. 

However, I think the main shift will be the amount of unstructured time I will have on school breaks to tackle a bigger-scale project across multiple days, which I do not have time for currently. 

Right now, most art projects I have done have not spanned more than a weekend in time to complete. I'm also looking forward to getting back into sewing and designing my own clothes now that it won't be my 9-5 job. 

What advice do you have for someone looking to shift from one creative career to another?

My advice is to think about how you want to live your life, not just what you want to do at work (also, credit for this idea is really due to my mom, but I will pass the advice along!). I love fashion and clothing, but the reality of working for a brand big enough to have job security, good pay, and benefits is that the demand for more things is always there. You have to push yourself, your team, and your vendors daily to make more money. That became unfulfilling, and I had to figure out what I could leave work for, feeling like I had given my efforts to something worth it after a long day. I also had to think about what lifestyle I wanted outside of work, specifically having time to travel. I knew I wouldn't be happy with a remote job, so I knew I had to find something with more time off. 

What’s one creative project that you’re working on now?

I am about to start a quilt for my boyfriend's sister and brother-in-law as a belated wedding present. I decided I wanted to give the people closest to us a meaningful gift for their wedding that could take on the meaning of a family heirloom. I feel like so many things on a wedding registry have become utilitarian, or people have forgone the registry altogether. I'm also excited because my boyfriend and I will work on it together, which will be a first for us!

Learn more about Nina and her work.

I’m looking for more creatives to profile for my interview series! If this sounds like you, fill out this form to be considered.

CREATIVE CORNER

• 🎞️ Media I’m consuming: I’m reading “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert, a great read about creative living.

• 💡 Idea I’m loving: Every year, I always get the urge to go back to bullet journaling (the way Ryder Carroll intended for it to be, not the “new age” version), so I’m playing around with that style of planning again.

• 🎨 Current creative project: Still working on my manuscript. I got in a few sessions last week and am at about 15K words.

• 💭 Weekly musing:

Thank you 💕

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