“He was an influencer” Belu said, while entering to the third floor of the Whitney Museum while appreciating “Andy Warhol: from A to B and back again” and in that instant, like a lightening shock, all these crazy ideas and reflections about advertising, pop culture and influencers came to mind.

Less than a week later, Burger King and someone at an advertising agency were making millions after the scene “Andy Warhol eating a burger”, originally featured in Jørgen Leth’ s 66 Scenes of America, was used as the 53rd Superbowl commercial for this iconic brand. …

…or how moving to New York City as a Creative Director changed my life.

“After 147 days, 4 continents, 7 houses, 110 kg of packing and a total of 28.622kms TODAY is the first day I officially finish my moving: the longest, hardest, most challenging and at the same time one of the most rewarding choices I’ve made in my life. I’m excited about the enormity of what’s possible. NYC, it’s you and me now.” — Daniela Varela (Storyteller & Creative Director from Uruguay)

When people talk about New York, they refer to it as “Concrete Jungle”, the “City That…

People say that, right now, the Industry has taken the women’s movement as a trend; that by putting us in the spotlight we are performing an opposite discrimination against man. People are classifying it as a viral, momentary issue to raise some subjects such as wage gap, representation, discrimination and harassment forward.

I am part of that Industry.
In fact, regardless of whatever people say, I love that Industry.
I have faced some of those, if not all of those issues.
So, trust me when I tell you is not just a trend or an engaging media hook.

But, this…

Amazing. Inspiring. Sensational. Mind-blowing.

Those are some of the words to describe the learnings and findings shared at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). This annual conference is held around the world and this time was celebrated in Montreal. The AoIR is an Academic Association dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet studies.

I got a very fun spoiler alert here for you: even during Internet conferences we still have connection and/or technology failures, so, as a nice take away, don’t be frustrated in case this happens to you somewhere else!

I thought it was gonna be…

I was always the different one. I was the girl who was not behaving “like a lady”, the outspoken one, the loud one, the one who liked the crazy colorful clothes, the one who got her first period at 11. Then, when I was in high school, I was the rebel one, the one that didn't fit the mold, the slut who kissed a boy during recess time and who was bullied because of that. During University, things got better since everyone was different. Diversity was encouraged. But then it came the advertising world, specifically the Creative Department and, damn……

“Aw, jeez, I’m fuc**d”.

That was the first thing I thought when stepping foot in the plane on my way to Vietnam — the first out of many foreign destinations in which I had the pleasure to work at as a writer. And that was exactly the problem: How was I supposed to be a freaking writer without speaking Vietnamese at all!?

Thankfully, I met two great mentors: Niki Marold & Mervyn Cheo. Neither of them Vietnamese, both of them genius. While hiring me, Mervyn told me that obviously I wouldn't be able to be a copywriter, but I could…

That random question, back in the days, had a really weird answer. When I was 6 years old, there was this activity we did at school where, for a week, you were supposed to present yourself to your classmates. It was quite fun: your parents would come and do an activity, people would make you drawings and little gifts; for a week, you were a rockstar. It was pretty cool. …

Creativity is not merely reserved for the talented or gifted ones. It’s actually the one thing that makes us more human and that all of us have in common. It’s the closest thing we have to a superpower or a divine gift. By being creative, we bring people together, we overcome obstacles, we narrow down distances and differences, we earn power, we achieve goals and we laugh harder and better.

For the past 7 years I’ve been working in advertising, and for the past 5, I’ve been hopping around the globe, helping some of the world biggest brands achieve their…