“As a woman from a low-income family trying to escape generational poverty, and as a
first-generation college student, I was barely able to enter this industry. I took internships in the beginning that didn’t allow me enough money to eat some days. I would spend my last pocket change getting home on the subway, and get home to an empty fridge. I went without health insurance for years while trying to work my way up. The amount of hours required of an intern, of a salaried employee, of an hourly worker – all are discriminatory and made to elevate people who can afford to work these hours.”“At my age (nearly 40), these kinds of hours have caught up with me. I have back problems, I have aches from on- the-job injuries that were entirely preventable if we didn’t have this culture of “do it faster and better” and “prove yourself.” If I had not been relatively healthy and able-bodied at the beginning of my career, I could not have taken the risks that I did back then.”