Meet Mayanna Berrin | Writer & Content Creator

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

Hi Mayanna, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk is inherently terrifying as a concept but what I think people tend to overlook is how little you may actually lose by taking a risk.

I think we think we’re going to lose more on risks than we actually ever do and I know I’m guilty of thinking about risks that way.

For the most part we think of risks as something inherently dangerous regardless of scope or context.

I think the prevailing anxieties we have about risks are something to the effect of “If this doesn’t pan out or it fails in some way I’m going to lose everything.”

But in many ways, nearly everything we do is a risk:

Asking someone on a date could be a risk (you risk receiving rejection), taking a challenging role at your job could be a risk (you risk not being able to meet or exceed expectations) but ultimately if you never take any risks professionally or personally, you won’t give yourself new opportunities to grow and learn.

And, unless you’re betting it all on the slots, most risks will yield a valuable result either in the form of a reward or the opportunity to learn from failure.

So, I do my best to challenge myself and put myself out there which is always a risk but more often than not I see a result that ultimately helps me develop into the person I want to become.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Ultimately my goal with my writing and content is always to create stories that would have made a younger version of me feel seen.

As an adult, I want to use my writing to give back to that awkward, bespectacled manga reading silly kid who didn’t know what she was doing but was always trying her best. The kid who walked around everyday with a Nintendo DS in her pocket and a sketchbook in her backpack.

I owe everything to her because she didn’t apologize for who she was and even when people around her didn’t understand her, she never let that stop her from being herself. It’s a quiet defiance in me that never really went away and so I do my best to tell stories that she would have loved to read and watch.

I strive to be yet one of the many voices for good and positive things for young people, we will always need more of that especially in online spaces.

In terms of the projects I’m most excited about — I’m currently pitching and shopping four different original animated series that I’ve developed with my writing partner, Bryan Smith, and each one is near and dear to my heart.

They each encapsulate my passions for gaming, learning, exploration and discovery.

The road to this point was not easy but what I’ve learned is that the ultimate weapons that everyone has in their creative pursuits are: kindness, passion, and most importantly — sitting down and actually writing the thing!

Producing your ideas will always speak louder than anything else: there are a lot of people out there with incredible ideas but if you don’t sit down and actually write the thing, ideas is all they’re ever going to be and once you write them — advocate for them at every opportunity.

When someone asks you to “send something along,” you should be able to do that immediately.

If you don’t have the materials ready to send, you’ve got some work to do.

Because your stories matter so don’t hold yourself back from allowing them to be told.

At the end of the day what I want more than anything is for people to know how passionate I am about writing and telling stories. It’s my favorite thing in the entire world, and I would love nothing more than do it forever. It’s my dream to be in a writer’s room creating content for people of all backgrounds.

So…hire me? I’m real good I promise.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Easy:

Getty Museum – For the Art!
Griffith Observatory – For the Science!
Toro’s Grillhouse – For the Cali Burritos!
The Americana – For the Shopping!
Little Tokyo – For the Anime!
The Pack Theatre – For the Sketch Comedy!
Magpies – For the Ice Cream Pie!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s a lot of people who deserve credit and recognition in my story:

My family for their support, my talent manager Sax Carr for seeing potential in me and taking me under his wing, my friends for sticking their necks out for me and helping me find new opportunities and finally, my creative partner, Bryan Smith for being my best friend and ultimate collaborator in all things. I wouldn’t be where I am without any of them.

Instagram: @mayannaberrin

Twitter: @Bemayanna

Image Credits
Cave Club — Mattel Gamerz Club Cast — Art by the incredible talented Chandler Candela (@chancanan on insta and @chancanan_ on Twitter) Next Stop — Art by the incredible Alexandra Ferents (@sfera.art on insta)