You have been a role model/idol of mine for quite a while now! And though this isn't exactly your field, I was hoping for some words of advice/inspiration. I've been an aspiring video game developer/designer for over 10 years now. But sometimes it's a bit

SISTERHOOD.

Find the women in game developing who are really good at what they do and really driven and BOND WITH THEM.  

And listen — I’m going to sound like I’m wearing a tin foil hat here, but this is the truth: 

The system will try to turn you against each other. That’s how it keeps you down.  

I know, I know, but it’s the God’s honest truth.  Well-intentioned assholes* will try to set you against each other to be Queen of Shit Mountain. They will tell you that she’s jealous of you, that she wants your job/seat/man/lipstick/whatthefuckeverbullshit, they’ll tell you she’s crazy and that you can’t trust her. 

Don’t fall for it.  

I’m not saying you can’t compete with women — you can and will — but you do it like Helen and Carol, like Maverick and Goose, YOU MAKE EACH OTHER BETTER and you gain respect for each other in that competition.  (And I’m not saying every woman is your friend, either.  If she tells you she’s “one of the boys” or that “she doesn’t like working for women” because they’re “catty,” CROSS THE FUCKING STREET TO GET AWAY. Don’t wish her ill and don’t hasten her demise, but give her wide berth because she is poison and she will implode and you don’t want to be caught up in it.) 

You give your sister a hand and you have her back EVERY CHANCE YOU GET.  

I have male allies and mentors to whom I am intensely grateful and without whom I would not be where I am today.  But none of them get it like Sana, Gail, Jeanine, Kathryn, Marjorie, Blair, Emma, Jordie, Lauren, Willow, Judy… the list goes on and on.  

Sana and I FIGHT on occasion — we are not afraid to get into it if we both feel it will make the book better, but on a personal level, where the rubber this the road, as they say, she is MUH GIRL.  

…You understand? 

Job one: find your girls.

Job two: find the biggest guy in the yard, kick his ass and steal his cigarettes.

Job three: … 

Wait.  

Forget that last part.  

But the rest of it is true.  

* Some day I will do a post about the  well-intensioned asshole and how he thinks, but not today.