a reveal of a corporate millennial's perspective on Pride & more
Lady Reignicorn blog author interviews young corporate millennial, located in Northeast USA. She has earned the title of Emerging Technologies Lead in her career at the age of 33.
Life is too short and too awful to be anything but joyous and live your best life!
What is a message that you like to convey to the world? Kindness! Be kind to others but especially be kind to yourself. Self love is so important. Go out and chase your dreams. Life is too short and too awful to be anything but joyous and live your best life!
I grew up in a small-town in Northeast USA, and I went to a state university in NH. I earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology. I now work for a global company in IT, as our Emerging Technologies Lead, building software robots and working with Machine Learning and AI technology. Never in my life did I think I would end up in IT and it was quite the meandering path to get here, but I LOVE it and can’t imagine doing anything else. Music has always been a huge part of my life. I am currently learning to play piano. I love paddle boarding and podcasts. I try to read when I can and am trying to get back into drawing and painting.
Name: Anonymous, "Corporate Millenial"
Age: 33 Location: Northeast USA
In our conversations, we often touch on unlearning years of taught poor self-body image. What is your message that you'd like to share about the body positivity movement? YASSS I’m here for it! I struggled with eating disorders in high school and college. I feel so sad for that girl now. I am sooo so grateful to be in my 30’s with all the wisdom, knowledge, and experience that comes with our wiser years. As hard as it is sometimes, I try my best to be confident in my body and remind myself of what I have to offer to both myself and to others.
For the interviews conducted during the month of June, we took time to make space for some reflection on Pride.
Let's talk Pride! What would you like to share about your personal journey? I knew I was attracted to both men and women as soon as I hit puberty. In high school, my friends knew but I don’t remember a specific big coming-out moment although it was definitely something we talked about. As an adult, it is so challenging constantly confronting cis gendered heteronormative culture and non-inclusive language. Part of me makes a conscious effort not to come out in the traditional sense because I want to normalize a culture where no one has to come out. I can introduce my partner no matter who they are and I can love who I love without it being something that I have to declare or explain to cis-gendered heterosexual people and to normalize the entire spectrum of gender identities and sexualities.
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual/Spectrasexual
What does Pride Month mean to you? Time to celebrate and stand up for our rights and what we believe in! Love who we love and honors those whose shoulders we stand on that fought so hard for our rights.
It makes me proud to work for a company that is trailblazing our way to inclusivity.
What has negatively or positively impacted your experiences of Pride? At my work, we celebrate PRIDE all month long. June is also DEI month for us (Diversity Equity and Inclusion). We have a raising of the PRIDE flag ceremony at all our offices in North America. We have PRIDE events to celebrate our diversity and share our stories. We indicate our pronouns in our email signatures. It makes me proud to work for a company that is trailblazing our way to inclusivity.
An important starting point to understand what DEI is:
Diversity is all the ways we are human
Equity is the fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for us all regardless of our differences
When we belong and thrive for all the ways we are different, that is Inclusion
Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models? Sara Ramirez. Sarah portrayed Dr. Callie Torres, the longest-running LGBT character in US television history, appearing in 11 seasons and 239 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. In October 2016, Ramírez described themselves as queer and bisexual at the True Colors Fund's 40 To None Summit. In an email to the Huffington Post, they wrote that their decision to come out publicly was a "very organic and natural" one. In August 2020, Ramirez said they have recently determined they identify as nonbinary and used she/they pronouns, but changed it to they/them sometime in 2021. Ramirez also starred in the reboot of Sex in the City called “And Just Like That.” In the show, they play a non-binary character named Che. The show gets a lot of criticism for being woke for the sake of being woke. I could not disagree more. It has to be like that to make a point, to move the needle even a little bit, and to show that this is the way that the world could be if only we let it and what a wonderful and beautiful thing that would be.
