I want to denormalize believing everything news channels are telling us. There are many divided and biased sources out there that speak to different parts of the population and influence what people stand for, to the extent where it is hard to believe what anyone is saying. We need to educate ourselves and make up our own opinions on important matters and share those with the people around us to get diplomatic conversations and debates going rather than all believe in the same thing, just because everyone we follow on Instagram believes in it.
I want to normalize living in a way that is respectful to the environment. We all have heard what Greta Thunberg has to say and hopefully understood its urgency. Wouldn't it be great if everyone would recycle, had their own compost, lived plastic-free? Normalizing sustainability so we wouldn't need the word "sustainability" anymore would be pretty damn cool and also make Greta very happy and who wouldn't want to see Greta happy?
Lauren Frauenschuh is originally from Austria, moved to New York at the age of 18 to study Fashion Design and is now a freelance knitwear designer and Nodel (Not model).
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I’d like to denormalize the idea of celebrity. Especially in today’s age. I feel it’s gotten out of hand since the birth of social media and you can see how it’s started affecting so many people. There’s a huge sense of entitlement across these platforms that can isolate others and create a sense of loneliness and unworthiness. I think it only exacerbates people’s anxiety when they’re constantly subjected to it.
I’d like to normalize conversations about anxiety and depression. It’s more prevalent than ever before, especially amongst younger age groups. These two things obviously go hand in hand and it needs to be addressed – and people should feel comfortable speaking up about it. A lot of younger people lack basic conversation/interpersonal skills as they’re always glued to their phones and struggle to have real, genuine relationships. That in itself is creating huge, widespread issues.
Rory Andrew (@wynne) is a Grammy Nominated, platinum selling songwriter, artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist.
As a songwriter and producer, Rory’s songs have been released by major artists such as ODESZA, Machine Gun Kelly, Jaden Smith, Lennon Stella, Goldlink, August 08 (88 Rising), Two Door Cinema Club, Mike Shinoda, NCT 17 to name a few.
Rory’s original compositions have appeared in many TV shows and films. Most recently, Rory composed an original piece in Guillermo Del Toro’s critically acclaimed film, The Shape of Water, which recently garnered 7 Golden Globe nominations and four Oscar wins.
]]>I want to denormalize the idea that to be “cool”, you have to imitate what you see on social media or be something you’re not. That’s so boring! It’s ok to just chill, be yourself, like what you like, and be confident about it.
I want to normalize being your true, authentic self, especially for black girls. Whether it’s how we wear our hair, how we act, or just what we like, it’s important to me to show other black girls that it’s ok to be who you are and stay 100% true to yourself.
Tia Hill (@tortiachips.jpg) is a host and video producer at Genius, based in Brooklyn, NY. In her spare time, she does standup comedy and hosts her own podcast, 200 And Counting.
]]>I want to denormalize the lack of respect for creative equity. Throughout my career, I’ve observed widely accepted dishonesty/manipulation of creatives that is pervasive within agencies and advertising. Many freelance creatives are often taken advantage of during the pitching and treatment process. On other occasions, talent is engaged to work on creative concepts that yield no compensation, and a dismissive lack of appreciation. I’d like to see this largely accepted behavior come to an end.
I want to normalize responsibility. We’re paying the price for being irresponsible to the environment by the choices we’ve made in our diets, how we travel, what we consume, and how we view mental health in the workplace, ...among many other things. I think we need to raise the awareness of our responsible duty to each other and the planet if we want future generations to enjoy the earth they will inherit.
Daniel Navetta is a multi-discplinary creative artist born and raised in Queens, NY. His inspired work as a director and producer earned him recognition from Tribeca Film Festival, the American Film Institute, the International Documentary Association, and nods for multiple MTV awards, as well as a GRAMMY nomination. His work has been exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Art and the Brooklyn Museum. He has written music for films and television...he has played music in a dozen countries, and when his body cooperates, he runs marathons. He’s a co-creator of the acclaimed podcast, “Business of Hype”, and his photos document his travels across the world. He resides in Brooklyn, NY and spends his days guiding the future of BRYGHT YOUNG THINGS.
]]>Failure as a complete negative. Failure should be seen as a lesson that helps build character and guide you. The idea that we should have immediate success at every situation is an unhealthy and implausible view.
Being an individual. You don’t need to put yourself in class or group. Individuality is what makes all of us unique so there’s no need for people to hide themselves behind an ‘identity’ that they feel will allow them to be accepted.
In addition to their label, Havva currently moonlights as one of the leading footwear design teachers in the UK at the prestigious, Central Saint Martins + London College Of Fashion- University of the Arts. She has also taught many well-known designers including Julia Nodaleto and Jennifer Chamandi. Havva and Ali's father is also a popular teacher at LCF, focused on the technical side of shoemaking, so footwear is truly a family affair! The small-batch, waste-conscious collection is made in Turkey in a family-owned factory as well.
The label has featured in a number of industry publications, including Vogue US, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Vogue Italia, Forbes, The L.A Times among others.
]]>I want to denormalize the idea that poverty is a result of people not being financially literate. Factors such as race, gender, education, and familial socioeconomic status play a large role in the amount of capital that people have to begin with. It's very likely for someone to be financially literate and not have the necessary resources or access to jobs (and time allotted to these jobs) to make sufficient amounts of money. The idea that financial illiteracy will somehow help people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps ignores the fact that some people weren't even given boots.
I want to normalize solo traveling. I think it's a great way to teach your limits and it teaches you how maneuver within unknown spaces as well as how to depend on yourself. I think it's also useful for making you hyper-aware because you are in an unknown place, so you become more vulnerable. I find that when I look back on my own travels, that some of my decisions had to be made in the moment and were dependent on me being able to properly read the environment.
Amira (@amiranatanne) is originally from Louisiana, but has been in New York for the past four years studying at New York University. She's currently working in fashion as a model, but studied Bioethics and was Pre-med while at NYU and plans to continue on to medical school and specialize in women's health.
]]>I want to denormalize overworking. There is only so much one can do without ending up burnt out or hitting a wall. I think New Yorkers (and their employers) have an expectation that more is best - I don't think that less is better either, but it certainly is about balance. Members of my family, and I myself, have unfortunately experienced firsthand the destructive effects of stress from overworking, specifically on bodily health, and I simply don't want it to be repeated.
I want to normalize everyday conversations about menstruation. On the national scale, what we have is a body of people, largely men, who have a finite understanding of women's health, dictating what the opposite sex can and cannot do with their own bodies. If the dialogue surrounding reproductive health and women's rights in this country stemmed from a place of proper education, collective empathy, and respect, I think we would be far better off than we currently are.
Jessica Wu (@jessicazwu) is a model, the Press Director for Peter Do, and founder of Period Space, an online forum for menstrual and reproductive health.
]]>I want to denormalize our silence around white supremacy and its driving force behind the violence, we see in America.
I want to normalize the recognition of the collective power in communities of color to organize our healing and building.
Rev. David Telfort (@davidftelfort) is the installed pastor at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn. A Brooklyn native and the son of Haitian immigrants, Rev. Telfort is a follower of Jesus the Revolutionary and is committed to working for justice and social transformation.
]]>I want to denormalize domestic abuse and the heteronormative narrative in media and television. No matter the pairing of couples, straight, gay, lesbian, or queer, I have yet to come across mainstream media that depicts healthy relationships. Contrary to popular belief healthy disagreements, breakups, compromises, and communication are real and necessary when it comes to devoting oneself to another’s or one’s own spiritual growth.
Not only are the archetypes of these relationships predictable, but viewers consciously romanticize the abuse while subconsciously reenacting abusive behaviors in the name of “love”. Queer characters on television are not void of this violence either. Many queer relationships have an air of heteronormativity, they are queer presenting but not queer minded. Queerness is more than sexuality, it is a framework that in my working definition, provides a third space in a binary society. It does not take two same sex or non binary people to engage in a queer relationship. If we all choose to exist outside of the hierarchy of heteronormativity, we can all take part in the queering of love.
Then I ask you, what would romantic relationships portrayed in media and television look like if the motive was to heal viewers? It is only then that we can redirect our energy from celebrity culture back to heritage practices.
I want to normalize the courageous act of healing. Best and easiest done if one decides to abide by bell hooks' definition of “living with a love ethic,” healing is something that can be incorporated into every moment the human has breathing on earth. Matter of fact, healing, like trauma, is an ancestral trinket we collect like a participation badge of life, and imagine if our closet was filled with trophies, trophies, trophies so high we couldn’t even remember what lay behind them.
Lucky (@garbanzofrijole) is not a writer, Lucky is an archivist of contemporary history. Lucky is a time traveler and time bender who uses intuition as their time machine. The history recorded is specific to her experience yet not limited to her, but a collective consciousness. Even though you may see her as black, she asks you to visualize her beyond the identities placed upon her under a white supremacist framework. When you read her work she asks you to read from your spirit which is beyond any color that is white or black. She asks you to read from your purple, your blue, your yellow, or orange. To peel yourself back and let her words make you a new skin.
]]>I want to denormalize money as a measurement for happiness. Even though we need it, our lives shouldn’t be centered around the pursuit of it.
I want to normalize spending time alone. I think everyone should get to know themselves and be comfortable being by themselves.
Brendan Chareoncharutkun (@brendan_chareon) is from the DC area but now resides in Brooklyn. He spent ten years working with food, starting on farms then found his way into the kitchen. Now he’s trying his hand at something new working as a brand strategist but is still active in the food community.
]]>I want to denormalize talking to “strangers.” And I say this with the crystalline understanding that to speak to, say, a random person on the street, comes with certain privileges. Not everyone can become acquainted with a perceived stranger for reasons that concern safety, comfortability, and a host of other drawbacks. I mean, if we’re being honest, people are unpredictable and sometimes evil brews within some of us. So what I may be digging at is the chance to grow closer and intimate to more people. I desire a world structured upon love ethics and communion. We should be more familiar with what it is to be human because what are we if we do not have each other?
I want to normalize nappy hair. For my entire childhood my parents, siblings, friends, and even strangers would throw wisecracks at me about how my hair felt like a brillo pad (attach a hyperlink to brillo pad…y’all need to feel my pain). It’s time that, as black folk or anyone with nappy hair, that we let nappy be nappy!
Jaylen Strong (@jaylentstrong) is a seeker, a body that breathes, a companion to truth, and an arbitrator of love. His practice blooms from his fascination with his profound awareness of human connectivity. He hails from P.G. County, Maryland and has resubmerged himself in his familial origins here in Brooklyn, New York. He is a writer.
]]>The idea that you need to work yourself to death to get ahead. In all honesty, it’s true. I don’t know anybody who’s winning who isn’t exhausted. But when we’re dying, we’ll wish we spent more time with our kids, or at the beach, or whatever.
Being yourself. “Be yourself” is a buzz phrase these days but it’s not widely practiced or accepted to live life on your own terms without repressing any parts of your identity. I hope that changes one day.
Ernest Baker (@ernestbaker_) has written novels, massively popular pop culture thinkpieces, and screenplays but he’s a human being before anything else.
]]>Our contemporary culture's framework for success and failure. Many of us labor under a prevailing, toxic positivity that insists that success happens to those who work hard while failure is a consequence of having the wrong attitude or a lack of ambition. We need to recognize that success is more often the outcome of our society's structural conditions and its uneven scales of class, race, and gender.
Failure and other acts of unbecoming, unraveling, and unknowing. We're hardwired to think of success and progress as a linear, orderly, and forward march. But I think there's value in losing your way, getting turned around, pausing, and starting over again. It's when you give into uncertainty and let go of the desire to calculate and control everything that the boundaries of the self extend in unforeseen ways and that more surprising and alternate ways of being in the world emerge.
Sarah (@srhkim) is Korean-American, a Los Angeles native, and a former Brooklyn resident of five years. After quitting her job in fashion to explore other possibilities, she moved back to her hometown last summer. She will return to the East Coast this fall to pursue her masters in architecture at Yale.
]]>I want to denormalize people thinking that the Internet brings them validation.
I want to normalize hard work.
Mike Cherman (@mikecherman) is the founder of Chinatown Market (@chinatownmarket) and Six Ounce Studio (@sixouncestudio).
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I want to normalize healthy communication, less screen time and more time spent on being present with your friends, partners, and family.
Alexandria Spencer Foot (@alexmfspencer) is a Brooklyn based film photographer. Check out her latest work with Office magazine here.
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I would like to have the power to teleport and use my powers for the greater good + I want to denormalize hypermasculinity within the black community.
I want to normalize darker skin.
My name is Devin B. Johnson (@devinbjohnson), I’m an artist from Los Angeles but I live currently in Brooklyn. I left home 2 years ago to pursue my destiny. I just graduated with my Master's degree in Fine Arts at Pratt Institute a few weeks ago.
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The rules of gender and gender conformity. Every person should have the right to gracefully express themselves with honesty and pride. They should be able to shift around on any part of the spectrum and be respected just the same. If you believe in souls, we're all developing, and we're all genderless anyway.
The validity of gender non-conformity at any age, but especially in childhood. Children should feel the most free to express themselves however they see fit. I feel that so many people on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum are forced to undergo the journey of identity through their teens and adulthood due to the suppression of their identity in their younger years. We should normalize these natural curiosities in loving and supportive ways.
My name is Cameron Lee Phan. I live in New York City by way of Texas. I am a queer, Vietnamese American and I explore and express my world through photography and writing.
www.cameronleephan.com / @cameronleephan
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I want to de-normalize preserving and perpetuating harmful traditions. You don’t always have to do to others what was once done to you. Abandon the “If I had to go through it then so do you” mentality. Break that cycle. Be better.
I want to normalize conversations about mental health and non-linear healing. We need to be more transparent about not being okay and more intentional about becoming okay.
Chioma Nwana (@whereschichi) is the president of SVGE magazine, a freelance photographer and music artist manager, and an advocate for mental health awareness.
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If I had the power to denormalize anything it would be the idea that men have to withhold their emotions. I feel like too many men compress how they feel on a daily basis to keep a hard exterior. To always look unbothered or moved. From work to relationships men tend to hold their griefs. Which can lead to a number of mental and even physical problems.
We should normalize that idea of women lead households. Even though most people grow up in a home where we see our mothers sacrificing a lot. In society, the status quo of the leader in a household is still giving to men. Women have been at the forefront statistically for a long time. I think this is the moment where society should give women the role of the leader without any judgment or malice.
I was born in Nigeria and raised in Brooklyn NY since the age of 4. I’ve grown very fond of the color orange. It’s become the leading note when people see me. Since about 16 I’ve been playing the guitar and piano. Also around that age, I began my path in photography also. I have two younger brothers. I’m the oldest of three. My passion right now is music. From producing to rapping. It’s something I truly enjoy. My favorite ice cream is cookies and cream and before the color orange, red was my favorite color. My goal in life is to use the skills I have to show the world a better place through music, images, and actions.
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