When I Started, I Was Just Trying to Feel Like an Artist Again. Now I’m a Webby-Nominated Filmmaker.

Let’s rewind briefly to 2018, a time filled with so much torment and heartbreak that I will not dwell there very long.

That was the year I lost the most important part of me—the essence of who I truly am: my creativity.
I was stuck and couldn’t see a way forward no matter how hard I tried. So I did the best thing I could think of—I disappeared.

I deleted and deactivated all my social media, blocked most of the people in my contacts, removed the pressure everyone else was applying to me, and just stopped.

During that pause, which lasted a few years, I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt like a fish out of water. And to make matters worse, no ideas sparked, nothing piqued my interest, nothing made me happy.

But even in that dark time, one idea stuck by me. No matter how down and depressed I became, that idea never left the back of my mind.
Little did I know, that idea would eventually get me a Webby nomination.

The First Spark

To understand that one idea, let’s go back to my childhood—the start of everything.

As a youngin’ in Jamaica, I was obsessed with books, taking photos, and creating a scrapbook.
If I searched my home now, I’m sure I could still find that scrapbook.

I created it by using a school notebook — the black-and-white exercise book that everyone seemed to have at that time — and glued photos I took on a disposable camera. To top it off, I wrote my thoughts, who the people in the photos were, and sometimes why I chose that specific photo to include in my little book.

It was the start of a creative journey so rich — it’s presently still unfolding.

The part of that entire process that stuck with me most was capturing the moments and experiences I was having.

At best, I was an amateur photographer — only taking photos of things I deemed intriguing.

Fast forward to 2022, that urge to capture the moment evolved from just taking photos to creating entire documentary-like films.

That was the year I finally looked fear in the eyes and declared, “You will no longer hold me back!”

How I Turned YouTube Into My Own Film Gallery

When I decided to upload my first YouTube video, I took the easy route.

I believe that if something is easy, it will not be difficult to incorporate regularly in life, so I decided to turn the blog posts that I started writing in 2020 into helpful education videos.

I started off with a ton of enthusiasm. I batch created 3–4 videos at a time because the script was already there. All I had to do was press record, right?

Wrong.

My energy while recording the videos went from high to struggling so fast, I had to take multiple breaks to get through all the videos I had planned for the day.

Then came editing.
I was so bored I wanted to stop immediately, delete the files, and forget the whole thing.

But one day, something happened while I was batch creating. I found myself, during an energy re-up break, making a short behind-the-scenes video of a random person harassing me when all I wanted was the quiet morning to film in peace. (For reference, it was a drunk man on the beach around 8 a.m. absurdly asking what I was doing, why I was climbing trees, and why I was ignoring him.)

I knew I preferred the vlogging style, but all the gurus of YouTube were constantly screaming and drilling that educational videos were the best to create, so I ignored my instinct and continued making educational videos.

Those videos didn’t last very long, so I involuntarily took some time off from uploading weekly to recalibrate.

When I returned to YouTube a few months later, I still wasn’t doing the videos I wanted — not because I was following someone else’s advice, but because I had no clue how to even start creating the videos I wanted to create.

That lack of knowledge led me to binge-watching a lot of cinematic vlogs from artists like Life of Riza, Megan Tan, Isabel Page, and Sorelle Amore.

Their videos felt like movies, and they always left me thinking deeply about the topics they chose to explore.

I wanted to make my videos feel like cinematic vlogs that take you on a journey and tickle your brain with a new perspective.

That desire led me to cinematography school, and for 8 months in 2024, I was hands-on, tired, confused, and wondering why I was the only person in my class who consistently made and published videos.

I loved it, hated it, and felt so much relief when it was over that I knew I wasn’t going to be happy on a huge production set. But I got exactly what I went to New York Film Academy for — I went from entirely clueless to an expert on how to make my films feel cinematic.

I applied everything I learned to the videos I was making outside of classes, and slowly but surely they started to transform, and my gallery kept expanding.

The Second Spark: I Finally Feel Like an Artist

When I lost all hope in 2018, it took almost two years before I felt a spark again.

Two years in hindsight doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you go from creating artistic things almost daily to nothing, two years feels like an eternity.

The words flowed first, then the images naturally came to complement the words, and before I knew it, words and photos on a website weren’t enough for the feeling I wanted my creations to invoke.

I was determined to not stress myself, to not push myself to the point beyond exhaustion, to never burn out. I just followed the flow and the little sparks I was receiving.

I jumped down every rabbit hole that caught my attention because I knew something was there that I needed to find.

By following curiosity and leaning into my habits formed in childhood, I filmed everything, blended them with my thoughts and the best music to complement the mood, and published them.

With every video, my storytelling improved. My angles got better. My excitement and energy didn’t decline — it increased tremendously.

Even on bad days — especially during winter, when seasonal depression hits hard — turning on my camera and filming what was naturally happening around me lifted my spirit.

Because of this, I never leave home without my camera.

The Video That Changed Everything

That simple practice of bringing my camera everywhere with me led to a video about exploring New York City during the summer of 2024.

The thing about this video is that it didn’t start as a video concept.
The idea to make the video came from my daily explorations around the city. The explorations came first.

I had so much footage that I didn’t know how to formulate it, and that’s when the simple idea came to me — it’s a video about spending the summer in New York.

I gathered all the footage when the summer was over, edited, and published it.
Now that video, which started as a challenge to go outside more, is my first Webby-nominated film.

What a Webby Nomination Means to Me

To be honest, this nomination is a validation — one that reminded me that the path I chose to explore will never look like someone else’s journey.

What I create is entirely unique to me and is, in fact, 100% me.

I’ve grown to learn that outside validation doesn’t mean anything if you don’t already feel validated within yourself.

Within my heart, I feel like I’ve already won because I took a chance to believe in myself wholeheartedly.

And To You, Reading This

No one else can replicate what you do exactly how you do it.
Not ever.

You are entirely unique, so embrace your weirdness, your flaws, and your skills.
I guarantee you — no one else has put together the things you’ve put together exactly the way you have.

Start believing in yourself — because you are it.

Also, remember that Webby-nominated video I mentioned earlier? I have a small favor to ask.

It’s called It’s Time to Go Outside: An Introvert’s Summer Diary — and you can help me win the People’s Voice Webby Award for Best Narrative, Storytelling or Writing (Creators).

Yes, you.

This specific award is voted on by the public, and voting is open now through April 17, 2025.
Can you please vote for my video?

It would mean the world to the little youngin’ from Jamaica who just wanted to capture experiences and share them.
Help me make her dreams come true.

To vote, just click here or the button below:

Thank you so much for reading and voting — I appreciate you.