The heart of our mission at VoyageATL is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of the Atlanta’s finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool. Check out Midtowns’s rising stars below.
Shawneé Owens
The company quickly realized my value and milked it. While it provided me with exposure and experience, the commitment as a whole was extremely draining mentally, physically, and financially to say the least! I’ll spare the details for another interview, but that is why I am now an advocate for quarter recaps – where every 3 months, you check in with yourself on your goals, re-evaluate the people around you, and make sure the things you are committed to/involved in are still serving you just as much as you are serving them! Read More>>
Sharita Lang
Initially, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in sociology, and I eventually became a psychologist. When I was about to register for graduate school, I no longer felt the desire to be a psychologist, but I knew I wanted to help people who face mental health challenges. After some research and soul-searching, I decided to get my Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Read More>>
Caroline Scott
My name is Caroline Scott; I’m a 24-year-old lingerie designer from Atlanta and a 2023 SCAD fashion design grad. There’s definitely a part of me that’s always known I wanted to be a designer; from the time I was little, there were signs. I didn’t just play dress up; I lived in dress up. As you can imagine, this made getting dressed in the morning a whole production, as I was very opinionated. I only ever wanted to wear princess dresses, I hated turtlenecks, and refused to wear things that didn’t “twirl.” Read More>>
Claire Zou
I have always been the kid who is always drawing. I once stayed up till 3 am painting a mural on my bedroom wall with acrylics, and my parents gasped at it when they saw. Despite my passion, I didn’t attend art school due to the stereotype surrounding it in China back then. Instead, I explored various outlets to express my creativity. Over the years, my passion for a creative career led me to advertising, where illustrations are a crucial part of both my professional work and side projects. Read More>>
Revati Damle
I have always been into art since my childhood. I learned Kathak (An Indian classical dance form) and excelled in it for about 12 years. When it came to choosing my career, it was a no-brainer. I wanted to do something in design. I did my BFA from Mumbai, India, in Applied/commercial Arts. After graduating, I started working as a graphic designer before moving to Atlanta to do my MFA in graphic design and visual experience from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Read More>>
Wendy Julien
My journey into the world of health and wellness was born from personal hardship and a deep-seated desire for change. Growing up in a family where education and resources were scarce, we were never truly aware of what it meant to live a healthy life. My mother’s lack of formal education and access to health knowledge meant that we were all uninformed about the essentials of proper wellness. In the environment I was exposed to, combined with our financial struggles and the lack of a stable home, pushed me toward finding solace in physical activities. Read More>>
Mark Stewart
My name is Mark Isaac Stewart Jr. I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. I’ve always had artistic and creative abilities since an early age. My career actually did not start out in interior design and remodeling. In 2007, I started my first business, Elite Designs by Mark, which consisted of graphic designs. It began during my time at Southern University A&M College. I was taking on simple projects such as party flyers and invitations for baby showers and graduations. Read More>>
Adrienne Barr
As a product of an era where mental health was an extremely taboo topic, especially in the POC community, I wanted to create a children’s book to destigmatize mental health conversations with a simple grounding exercise. Children have big feelings and grow to adulthood with bigger feelings. Learning to have the open conversations with our trusted people while being geared with the tools to self-soothe is very important. Read More>>
Adam New
I originally studied architecture at Clemson all the way back in the mid-2000s. When I graduated in 2008, I had an opportunity to go work in Shanghai. It was exciting and a great learning experience, but after 2 years, I was ready to return to the US and pursue a graduate degree at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. I was about halfway through when I had the jarring realization that architecture was actually not what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. I still completed my graduate degree, spending the remainder of my time exploring as many other avenues as possible to see what direction I might want to move in. Read More>>
Amaris Gamez
Yes, of course! The first time I ever touched a camera was when I was 10, making stop-motion videos of my Barbie dolls and teaching my invisible viewers how to make chocolate milk. By age 13, my family and I relocated to Illinois from Georgia. There, I taught myself video editing and explored my creativity through campy music videos and fan edits using an app called Video Star. I saw this as a hobby, not particularly a career. Read More>>
Evelyn Charley
As I matured, I became increasingly aware of the alarming rise in maternal mortality rates, particularly among Black women. These sobering statistics hit close to home as I witnessed family members struggle with conception, endure the heartbreak of infertility, and tragically lose their lives after childbirth. Being a Black woman myself, I felt a deep calling to specialize in nursing, not only to advocate for patients but also to educate and empower those around me. Read More>>
Dr. Kanchan Chhabria
I started my career as a dentist after completing my BDS in my home country, India. I truly enjoyed helping patients and making a difference in their lives, but deep down, I always lived in a world of my own imagination. After practicing dentistry for a year, I finally decided to pursue my true passion: creativity. I embarked on a new journey and earned my undergraduate degree in product design from Milano. Read More>>
Joanne Jian
My journey into motion design goes way back to high school, where I made a gutsy move from mathematics to the arts. That’s where I found my love for graphic design, which became my major in college. College was a period of exploration for me – from delving into typography to experimenting with package design. It was during this time that I stumbled upon motion design tucked away within a web design program. Despite it not being a formal course initially, it lit a fire in me. Read More>>
Surabhi Khare
Since I was a kid, I always knew I wanted to be in the creative field. I never wanted to pursue any traditional career choices like every Indian kid. My parents were very supportive about it. They always told me to be the best in whatever interests you the most. It also came with me not being the brightest student academically haha. Drawing was the best thing I could do, and I embraced that in every possible way. Read More>>
Mae Dixon
I was raised by a single parent with 7 other brothers and sisters. I was the oldest of my last 4 siblings and became caretaker in my mom’s absence, so I learned discipline and responsibility very early and at the cost of my own childhood. As a means of escape due to a traumatic childhood, I used reading, music, and writing as a balm. Read More>>
Brittinie Love
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest has afforded me access to highly-rated restaurants that have and continue to enrich my palate with gourmet specialty foods. In the Spring of 2020, the norm of patronizing the hospitality industry came to a reaching halt. As the Pandemic extended into the year, I began to miss the experience of consuming great food that not only satisfied the tastes, but there’s was a cultural lag in representation of chefs that was now manifested in my search for good food. Read More>>
Justin Phommasith
I’ve worked in restaurants and professional kitchens for over 15 years. My family history has a long line of restaurant entrepreneurs and a passion for cooking. Out of high school, I attended The Illinois Institute of Art Chicago, which started the base of my culinary education. After graduating in 2011, I moved to Carrollton, GA, to work under my father- Tano Phommasith, owner of Little Hawaiian and Venue on Cedar. Read More>>
Crystal Sims
I sometimes hate admitting this, but I absolutely loved the pandemic. It gave me so much time to actually sit down and breathe. I loved being outside in open parks and trying new things. One day, as my sister and her friend were out at Piedmont Park, they saw a group having a picnic, and it caught their eye. They immediately called me and said they knew I’d be great at hosting lux picnics. I couldn’t disagree, and I thought it was such a cute idea. Read More>>
Rae Holliday
My digital entrepreneur journey started in Brooklyn, New York (my birthplace), when I co-created a blog called Stuff Fly People Like. The year was 2008, and it was during the birth of what is now known as “The Blog Era.” At the time, I was fresh out of college, employed at a Fortune 500 company, and yearning for something more than a 9-5. My business partner and I decided to embark on a digital world we knew nothing about; with passion, we felt from the heart, and things really took off. Read More>>
Nia Richardson
My name is Nia Paul Richardson; I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina, and moved to Georgia in high school. Growing up, I hated my middle name (hate might be a strong word, but I struggled to feel confident saying it was mine). Now that I’m 19 and 20 years old, I’ve been in Atlanta for about 7 years, and I have grown to love it. I love it so much that it’s all I go by. People rarely call me just “Nia.” It’s Nia Paul, Nia P, NP, etc., and those are all nicknames given to me by peers. Read More>>
Alex Oliver
Every song I create and share is an opportunity for feedback and growth. Maybe my verses needed better flow. Maybe I should include more wordplay or punchlines. Maybe I needed catchier choruses. Maybe I needed a better beat. Maybe the whole thing was flawless, or maybe there wasn’t any constructive criticism. Either way, above all, I am driven by my love for progression. Read More>>
