What's the Goal Here? 🥅
Plus: Studio Powder Blue opens its doors
blog.twenty-six // I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but we officially have a studio space here in Chicago.
Let me take a quick step back. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge some of the negative forces currently wielding their powers in an unsavory fashion (see here, here, and here).
It’s a strange time, therefore, to acknowledge a win as small as ours. But a win is a win is a win, no matter how you slice it. And in this case, the Powder Blue studio has been a long time coming.
I’ve gravitated towards physical spaces for as long as I can remember. In high school, I skipped my lunch periods in order to screen-print t-shirts in the Graphics Room; I signed up to be a teacher’s assistant senior year just so I could spend even more time in there. In college, I’d write blogs and record podcasts late into the night at The Garage, our on-campus startup incubator.* And at Colin and Samir’s office in Los Angeles, I saw how spontaneous creativity can be when you collect a group of talented individuals under one roof.
Which brings us back to our new studio. It took a while to find something that checks all the boxes, and sure, it’s not the fanciest. The elevator in the building looks (and sounds) like it’s stuck in the nineteenth century. But it’s ours. And we can’t wait to open up the doors as we continue on our quest to Make the Internet Feel Smaller.
Shua and I have been building out the space this week, and we’re hosting a small housewarming this Saturday. It’s a group of roughly a dozen artists, filmmakers, writers, and creatives from around the city. If you’d like to attend, RSVP here.**
Alright—on to our latest conversation from “Twenty-Five Calls for 2025,” which sees Shua chat with Bibi-Jane Angelica.
—NGL
P.S. Last blog, we talked with commentary creator Jordy McNeill. We dished on the two-sided coin of external recognition and defining our own meaning. You can read it here.
Bibi-Jane Angelica is a creator based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She shares short films and observations on trying to make sense of her twenties.
The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Shua Buhangin: Hi Bibi-Jane! What was your biggest win in 2024?
Bibi-Jane Angelica: I think it was me not being afraid to try new things. It comes with questions: Am I good at it? Are people gonna like it? But if I look back, doing this opened so many doors for me.
When creativity is a part of your job (or your income), it's sometimes scary to try new things because it comes with a risk. I'm glad I followed my instincts, cause there've been creative passions of mine in the past that have died. That's natural, I think, as you grow up. Yet those passions also died because I didn't allow myself to try new things. Something worked, and I stuck to that.
I've been doing this since I was 12, and I remember my friend was asking me recently, Why are you trying this new format? I responded, Because it's fun. And they looked at me so weirdly.
If I didn't do things I thought were fun—or because they challenged me creatively—then this wouldn't be fun, and I wouldn't be doing it anymore.
SB: Yeah. Last year, I went full-time, and I didn't really make a lot of money in doing so. I took on so many risks, and probably spent more money than I made. But the experiences have just been worth more than anything tangible—especially finding myself in places where I'm surrounded by other people who are doing what I'm doing, like, successfully.
It makes me think I’m on the right path.
BA: Yeah, it's interesting that you also mentioned money. In early 2022, I started working with an accountant. And I was filing my taxes with them for this last quarter, and I'm like, God, this is the least amount of money I've made since I started.
But it's also the happiest that I've been while doing this. It's funny how…I thought there would be more of a correlation between money and happiness. Yet I'm still just so happy right now. I really ignored that number until I had to file my taxes.
I spent way too much time last year focusing on the results of my work rather than the quality of my work. I am proud of what I made in 2024. Yet I think if I wasn't so deep in my own head, I could have made something that I was really, really proud of. I want to bring more self-trust in my work—in my abilities—into 2025.
What about you? What are some of the things that you want to lean into this year?
Knowing that I don't need to do it alone. And I don't mean that, like, I need to hold my camera together with someone, or that I need someone to film me. Even if it's just sharing an idea with someone or showing them my video or even just catching up with other creative people…I've been doing this alone for a long time.
I feel like the biggest thing is simply staying connected.
Yeah. One thing I also wanna keep telling myself is that you are the only person that limits yourself. If you don't allow yourself to dream big, no one's gonna do it for you.
That's something that we need to keep asking ourselves. What is the goal? Where are we going with all of this? Because we can get so easily lost.
Right? Someone was asking me the other day what my goal was, or if I wanted to create a movie eventually. And I'm like, I think I wanna do exactly what I'm currently doing, just bigger and better.
And not be financially stressed. That'd be great.
But I do wanna do this. I wanna keep creating on the internet. I'm not saying it's not gonna change—dreams change—yet it's so underrated to have your goal be to continue doing what you're doing now.
A creator I look at who has worked hard and is now reaping the benefits is Casey Neistat. Where, ya know, for three years, he made a new video every day.
The cons were mainly that his family stress was at an all-time high—though since COVID, he's been prioritizing family time, making maybe one or two videos a year. And that's one extreme example.
But I do feel like there's a way to enjoy and reap the benefits of your creations while you're still in your period of creating, instead of diving head-first into the fire, so to speak.
Do you feel like everyone needs to have a certain time in their life where they grind and they really give something their all?
Yeah, I think so.
Do you think you’re in that right now?
2024 was more of a mental grind of figuring out what I want, how I want to go about it, and learning that I don't want to be a solo creator the rest of my life. I want to be surrounded by other people. But now, as I'm starting 2025, I have several projects that I'm part of. There’s gonna be a lot of work here, and I'm kind of excited.
Yeah, I crave looking back and saying I gave it my all. I don't know what that looks like, because I don't want to burn out.
That’s why I'm also excited for this year. I feel like I want to do whatever I can to say I gave it my all.
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
* The Garage is connected to the university’s athletic facilities. I’ll never forget the time I stayed there until five in the morning, and the football players were driving in for their morning team lifts.
** We’ll be hosting regular events like film premieres, co-working sessions, and “block parties.” If you can’t make this first one, don’t worry—there’s more to come!
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