When I was in theatre school, I was taught that acting was a selfless job. You are becoming someone else in order to portray a story. Your self is no longer in the picture.

The world of social media and the political sphere is making art become something that is just a mere form of self-validation, and this is just wrong. As artists, we are not supposed to teach you right from wrong. As artists, we are not supposed to make you feel a certain way. And as artists, it certainly isn’t our job to indicate what is acceptable in this day and age.

Now more than ever, artists are needed. It’s not a political agenda, and it most certainly isn’t to show you that we are diverse creatures- because WE ARE ALL DIVERSE CREATURES. We do not need your validation.

I will never forget the time that I auditioned for an agency in New York. After my performance I was told, “See, the thing is- pretty just isn’t in anymore.”

“What about the piece I just did?” I asked, particularly puzzled about the response.

“It was really good. I don’t have any suggestions.”

I walked out of the room feeling sad and defeated. All of my hard work had paid off to be told that because of my looks I would never make it?

And to that I say- Fuck your validation.

Now more than ever, we need to be heard. As artists, we need to show the world that it’s not about what’s popular, what we look like, our age, or our personal story- it is about the art.

Please cut your political shit out of the art world. We became artists to digress from this in the first place. We chose this path because it wasn’t safe and it wasn’t normal. Stop trying to normalize art.

Art became a way for me to eradicate myself from those feelings of self-doubt, not a thing that made me feel more self-doubt.

I encourage you to never stop doing what you are doing because it’s no longer in. Art should never follow the trend.

Don’t give up because you feel that someone told you it’s not your time to shine, because now more than ever it is your time. And it’s not about whether or not you shine, it’s not about the mere validation from the audience, it is about the substance.

Art is not dead and will never be dead as long as we are alive to keep creating it.