Rising Stars: Meet Natalie Rameth of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Rameth.

Hi Natalie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Okay so I was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and while it feels a bit silly starting at the very beginning, it’s undeniably a huge part of who I am. I was adopted into an American family so an overarching theme in my life for the longest has been discovering who I am regardless of the environment I’m in— finding myself drawn to the arts, both traditional and performing, and being provided the opportunity to enjoy them recreationally growing up unlocked a whole new world of curiosity. My parents were divorced, yet still coordinated together to let me pursue all types of lessons : various styles of dance, guitar, oil painting, etc. Truly, I’m so thankful. The passion for multidisciplinary arts grew so exponentially that in high school, I would take next year’s Social Studies courses over the summer just so there would be room in my school schedule for three elective classes— I just craved learning more disciplines so I’d have band, dance, and music technology classes all in one school day. Back then I was given the opportunity to audition for Georgia’s Governor’s Honors Program (GHP) for dance. This was at the time where most of my peers were absorbed in proactive college prep while I was still contemplating what path I wanted to follow… because in hindsight I didn’t know I could create my own lol. My body yearned to learn and express itself through the arts, but I also had been forewarned about the starving artist narrative so I was curious what other “practical” pursuits would be sustainable for me. I shuffled from Special Education to Psychology to Forensic Psychology to Forensic Linguistics to Psycholinguistics to International Business so I could study foreign languages and also build other professional skills. I really just kept trying to negotiate with my creativity. At a crossroads, I internally declared that if I passed auditions to GHP for dance, I was talented enough to pursue the arts as a career and if I didn’t pass, another path in linguistics still laid before me. I didn’t pass lol, and I wandered through college with this ache— grieving the loss of believing I was talented enough. I treated it as a sign that creativity should remain a passion instead of a career. When COVID hit in 2020, I dropped out and nestled myself into the service industry and fine dining for years. Just by my luck or perhaps cosmic intervention lol, the restaurant I was bartending at the time hit a slow afternoon and of my three guests, two were business partners. Our chitchat was casual but at the end, both offered me a job at their respective companies— one worked in the medical laboratory field and the other in media and entertainment. Curious, I accepted both lol and have stayed in my role as a creative consultant for the photography and production studio to this day. Looking back, it’s almost humorous that despite all of those detours, I somehow unexpectedly found my way back to creativity anyways.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A double edged sword— while there’s countless joys and in learning about yourself, I believe a majority of people learn the most through their struggles or hardships. To be blunt, I’ve navigated a lot from identity with being adopted into a different-race family with a large age gap and exploring my queerness to both the strengths and weaknesses I have being neurodivergent with ADHD and Autism. I’ve never not had questions about myself and how to maneuver in the world around me. So reflective of that, because I’ve not known a lot about myself, I’ve also not had a lot of confidence prior. Specifically with my late-diagnosed autism, social cues and societal norms were mind boggling and I learned to mask my neurodivergent traits… questionably well lol, but I’d always wonder, “Is this okay for me to do… is this okay for me to say?” with essentially everything which also translated into my creative work. Take singing for example— I’ve always loved it and for context, my dad was an amazing singer. I asked to sing for him one day to see if I was a naturally capable singer as well. He said I wasn’t, but I was young, untrained, and chose to sing the Star Spangled Banner of all songs lol. I don’t fault him at all and respect honesty very greatly, but that experience led me to hermit-up with this creative passion. To paint the picture, I would wait until my family was asleep, lock my bedroom door with the lights off, go into my closet with a flashlight, close that door, and sit on the ground with a flashlight to write lyrics and practice singing ever so quietly. It used to be such a challenge for me that my throat would choke up if I ever tried singing publicly or just talking about singing, even during casual interest discussions or a car ride jam session with friends. It wasn’t until 2017 and I became a fan of the musical group BTS, that I read about one of the members, Suga, in an interview where he spoke about his trainee days and having to choose between buying meals and investing in his music career. Seeing the sacrifices he made to invest in his dreams made me reflect on my similar situation at the time— being a broke college drop out that’s still finishing my college apartment lease, working a part time job, and just trying to figure out what I’m doing today and what kind of future I’m doing it for. I decided to invest in my passions as well and worked meticulously to figure out how I could afford singing lessons. I became vegetarian, picked up all the work shifts I could, and it all worked out. Confiding in my voice instructor, Sharmayne Thomas, with my fear of being seen and heard, her compassion and professionalism grounded me and boosted my confidence exponentially over the years I learned from her. Even my dear friend Kimberly helped me learn to be comfortable voicing myself because they knew how much I struggled with this. One day when we ventured to Piedmont Park just to casually hang out, they convinced me to participate in an exercise with them where I just had to yell. I can be very shy, but I knew they were trying to support me in opening up my throat and being heard and seen so we started small and built up yelling about how much fun we were having in the middle of park. And guess what ? No one cared because everyone was having fun and making their own memories that day. It was groundbreaking for me lol and I’m just extremely grateful for all the supportive people in my life. Now I’m at the point where I post occasional singing videos online and that’s just another form of exposure therapy that’s been aiding me with these deeply rooted fears.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
While I’m building a path towards being a Creative Director, my current role is Creative Consultant for KissWorks Studios. I started with them under their My Creative House branch which was a multipurpose creative studio offering photography, productions, podcasts, workshops, and event space rentals amongst other creative services. Aside from that, I do freelance work specializing in Visual Identity Design and my background played a key role in leaning into this creative discipline. Being Autistic and struggling with communication my whole life, creativity was definitely a form of catharsis and expression. Aside from the creative arts, I took a deep fascination in learning about communication, specifically language which made me consider linguistics so seriously, both psychologically speaking and from a foreign-language perspective. Being often misunderstood or unable to communicate my thoughts and feelings cohesively, I’ve studied various communication styles; languages such as English, Khmer, Korean, Japanese; and I’ve learned about storytelling through a plethora of autobiographies. Because of this background and my experience in the arts, I’ve curated a skillset strongly specialized in storytelling through visual design. My work takes a brand’s story and alchemizes it into experiences rooted in a cohesive foundational identity system. I specialize in helping artists, creative businesses, and brands transform ideas into cohesive visual experiences. Essentially, my work spans visual campaign designs, brand identity, web design, and other client experience assets. Because of this, I’m known as a Creative Alchemist— taking bits and pieces of an identity through metamorphosis so it comes out as a confident, distinctive brand. I’m proud of the meticulous work I’ve done on myself to learn, tinker, and transmute aspects of myself so that I have my own distinctive personal branding that truly emulates my persona. Now, I look forward to every time I can assist others with this process for their own brands.

How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happiest is learning who people are and how they came to be that way. I’m deeply fascinated by hearing people’s stories, learning about different cultures, studying languages, and collaborating with artists because everyone experiences the world differently. Whether I’m reading an autobiography, learning a new language, or helping a client develop their brand identity, I’m ultimately doing the same thing: trying to better understand people and how they express themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.natalieramethstudios@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalierameth/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-rameth-147a23336?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@natalierameth
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@natalierameth