When Jillian Carney Howell was seven years old, Santa Claus brought her a Barbie video camera and thus her love of filmmaking was sparked.

However, there weren't a lot of entertainment opportunities growing up in suburban West Virginia, so she learned how to create her own.

By 8th grade, she had started her own school banquets slideshow company, kickstarted a YouTube channel with friends, created all of the content for the middle school morning broadcast, read college level film history textbooks, and won two national video contests. This self-starting curiosity, passion, enthusiasm, and tenacity has stuck with her today.