Meet Edie Young | Activist, Artist & Community Organizer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Edie Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Edie, what do you attribute your success to?
The more important factor behind my success I would say is the people I have worked with. I worked with some amazing people to achieve goals in my school club the Disability Student Alliance (DSA), in my organization We Are Artistic, and in other organizations like Queer Youth Assemble. It is important because they may have different viewpoints or different ideas on how to achieve the goal. They may even bring something new to help you achieve even more of a success. doing things on your own in a school club or organization can be hard to do on your own.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I do digital art, photography, and creative writing. My love for art started in Ms. Maria’s drama class as she made drama fun by letting us design short films and put on plays. It made me realize how much love I have for art. Then in 2019, I started We Are Artistic because I realized how support for artists like me can go a long way after seeing that many artists can not afford support. Many artists are also tired of scams pretending to offer support. Now We Are Artistic provides artists support by doing artist support posts where artists can comment in the comments and meet other artists and collabs and challenges where they can submit their art and get prizes. We also offer a resources page where they can get resources. We also uplift others by hosting card-making events where we have people of all ages come together to make cards for a wonderful non-profit called Cards For Hospitalized Kids. the cards can be very artistic, or just have a simple uplifting message like “You are awesome” We provide all supplies. Many people enjoy the activity and it teaches them that it is simple to use your art or a simple message to uplift. My organization also partners with many other organizations such as The Cleverly Creatives founded by Brianna Paulino.

I would say it wasn’t easy as there will always be challenges. like some challenges were getting people to recognize that were a legit organization and getting volunteers. I had no experience with starting an organization so I learned tips like how to recruit volunteers, how to manage social media, etc. I overcame those challenges by researching, by not giving up. There are many ways to get tips if you are trying to start a group YouTube has some great videos and you can chat with other youth organization leaders, You can also see if any of your friends or family would be interested in volunteering and you can ask them for support they might know stuff you dont or have ideas for your org.

What want the world to know is that We Are Artistic is here for any artist. So don’t be afraid to join our community as anyone who wants to join is welcome. People of all ages are also welcome to submit to our free online gallery.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give credit to all my friends, family and colleagues who have cheered me on, supported me and encouraged me. Also, I want to thank my friends who volunteer their time to help my organization We Are Artistic because we are volunteer-run and need volunteers to function, and my parents who have been willing to drive me to events, and help me set up. Also, I would like to thank the generous donors because we also rely on donations to keep doing events.

Website: https://www.weareartistic.net/

Instagram: Instagram.com/weareartisticgroup

Facebook: Facebook.com/weareartisticgroup

Other: https://weareartistic.carrd.co/