🔨What project are you working on that you’re most excited about?
I wouldn’t call it a “project” necessarily, but I am by trade an Inclusive Design Manager and I love what I do. As an Inclusive Design Manager, I advocate for accessible experiences online, and do so by leveraging my UI/UX Design and Front-End Development background to train teams and develop strategies to continue these processes in all of their work.
My goal (and the goal of any digital accessibility specialist) is to reduce the barrier to entry and ensure there is equal access to all content available online in web2 spaces. I want to focus on bringing that web2 strategy to accessibility into web3, and I’ve been passively exploring the web3 space to analyze where I can bridge that gap. So, the project right now is more research and development, but nonetheless it has my full passion and attention, and I’m very excited to be able to see where this transitions into web3 for me!
👀What makes you feel visible?
This seems like it would be a difficult and detailed answer, but the easiest way for me to feel visible is simple: conversation. Ask me for help and I’ll go to the ends of earth until we’re both satisfied. I feel most seen when I am acknowledged for the level of effort or attention to detail that I bring to the table in every aspect of my life. The unsolicited praises, both public and in private, will always make my heart skip a beat.
I will say that I think it is so easy to feel invisible but having just one person to relate to can really go a long way. If there is effort made to go out of one’s way to talk to or shout out something about me, those conversations are invaluable. And I do my very best to return that mentality to those I interact with, because if it makes me feel good, it probably makes others feel good too.
🤝If you could connect with one woman, who would that be and what would you say?
This might not be a typical answer, but I’d absolutely love to connect with my grandmother when she was a young adult, so my answer requires some time travel. I never had the opportunity to get close to her or ask her about her life outside of being my grandmother. Not because she wasn’t around, but because I didn’t realize that I needed to drive and lead those conversations with her. I think it would be incredible to go back and experience pieces of her life with her and really truly understand who she was as a person. I feel embarrassed that I know so little about her identity beyond being a grandmother. I’d love to see and hear about what made her the woman she is today, and the snowball effect that it had on the rest of our family.
🌱What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
This is weirdly a question that I get asked a lot. It boils down to one thing for me, and I’d tell myself this: “You don’t have an attitude problem. Continue to show your passion and drive in the way that allows you to fully express your true self. When others think it is too much, just know that it isn’t because you’re doing something wrong. It is a product of a culture that doesn’t accept women, and those who identify as women, can be strong and forward individuals in those situations.”
Throughout my childhood and through most of my professional career, I would get a lot of feedback around being too “bossy” or too “forward”. It got me punished (thanks mom), it got me held back from raises and promotions, and it would cause a lot of tension in my life between who the real me is and who the “Lindsey for the public eye” is.
It took me a lot longer than I want to admit to be comfortable and confident with my words, but once I did it changed a lot for me. I just want to reassure past Lindsey and tell her not take it personally. Tell her to turn those initial angry and defensive reactions to those situations into opportunities that foster bigger and better areas of growth for myself. But hey, I’m also a firm believer in it all happens for a reason, so I would not be who I am or in the position I am today without those experiences. I just want her to know it’s going to be okay.
❤️ Connect with Lindsey
Twitter: sourorchidnft
Instagram: sourorchidnft
Website: creativa11y.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lindseygemmill < oh hey, it’s the web2 me! 🙂
Loved your passion for what you do and your need to connect to others. Your Grandmother lives in you