Where you grew up and your background can often have surprising effects on our lives and careers. We’ve asked folks from the community to tell us about how their background has affected them.

Rachel Weeks | Copywriter & Multidisciplinary Creative

I’m a San Diegan – not born, but raised – and it wasn’t until I lived elsewhere that I realized there really is a distinctive Southern California ethos that guides my decision-making in life and business. Southern California is pretty vast, of course, and San Diego takes on its own texture compared to its more prominent neighbors, Orange County and Los Angeles. Read more>>

Laura Varona-Headley Claudia Soto | Small Business Owner and Creator

We are from Cali, Colombia and we moved to Miami in 1999. Laura’s Answer: I think my upbringing has a lot to do with my work ethic today. For as long as I can remember my mom, Claudia, and Grandmother, Rosalba, working hard. My mom started her clothing business when we were back in Cali, Colombia. Once she got back from studying fashion design in Milan, she started designing workout clothes as a hobby for her friends, never thinking it would still be a business today. Read more>>

Mathilda Christoffersen | Product Photographer & Visual Storyteller

I grew up in a nice suburbia, nick-named the Whiskey Belt, just north of Copenhagen in Denmark. Both my parents were architects so design and interiors have always played a huge role in my life. My father designed theme parks around the world and we always had odd and quirky elements in our house from his work. I remember we had a bunch of slot machines in our basement. Read more>>

Margaret Innerhofer | Artist and Musician. Margaret Innerhofer is expressing her creative thoughts in numerous artistic media: Photography based Art & Sound Installations, curating art shows and co-producing movies, are her current focus.

Margaret Innerhofer is an Italian-born, US-based artist, with studios in New York City, and at the KuBe Art Center, in Beacon, New York. Having grown up singing Gregorian chants, yodeling, and playing guitar and drums on TV, while a student at a convent school in the Tyrolian Alps, it would be noteworthy if Margaret Innerhofer had not become a multidisciplinary artist. Read more>>

Jo-Anne Bowie Alvarez | Business Owner & Massage Therapist

I was born in Johannesburg South Africa and adopted as a baby by a loving family. My father passed away when I was 2 years old from renal failure so my mother Harriet raised me, she was my best friend and always supported me in everything I wanted to do. My mother was definitely my role model. She had a daycare for 36 years, fostered over 48 children and adopted 6 of us, so my love and compassion for others came from seeing my mother care for my father and so many others. Read more>>