CELEBRATING EARTH DAY WITH ARISA YOON

EARTH DAY WITH ARISA YOON

by Kassie McRostie

Here at Women Within, there are so many women who have different passions and projects that are impacting the community Earth in such positive ways. While celebrating Earth Day, we wanted to get to know one of our Environmental, creative experts, Arisa Yoon. Arisa is a Wilmington, NC local who has found her way to combine her creative talents and passion for the environment into one. We had the opportunity to sit down and ask her a few questions on her journey and how you can do your part today and everyday!

WHERE DID YOUR LOVE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT COME FROM?

So it's really kind of a funny story. It goes way back. So growing up, I knew I wanted to help animals, something of that sort.

It wasn't until I think I was 15 and one day my friend called me and she was like, hey, Risa, like, let's go get some sushi. And I was like, okay. Like, how are we gonna get there? Because I have my driver's license and I don't think I had my permit at the time. And she said, come on. Just take your mom's car!

Well my mom, she's an air ambulance pilot. So she works really weird hours, very long days. And she was gone, you know, very, very much so. That kind of pushed Alex and I to become mature very early on. The same token, we could sometimes get into some more of it because she wasn't around. So I ended up taking my mom's car and went out with my friend. We went to go eat some sushi. Went around like just around town, you know, just enjoying life. When we were done we went to the gas station to fill the gas tank up with more gas. So mind you, I'm driving a 2006 Honda Odyssey. Then I went to pull up to the gas station and all of a sudden I heard a loud noise and I didn't realize how wide the van was… Yeah. I ended up running the front bumper into the pole. And I'm just like staring at this, like the whole left side of the bumper is like falling. Oh, I got her hand and she's like cracking up.

And so I get home and I'm just thinking I get one minute. Do you want me to do it? I call my mom and I'm like, “Mom. I think someone hit our car!” but she knew. I admitted what really happened. She was always gone. But this time she was very adamant about it. I was grounded for the whole summer, and It was horrible. I think I ran like three times a day, refused to eat so that I worked myself into just like losing so much weight and just like falling into a depression. And I remember I got the newspaper one day and it said there was a special for scuba diving lessons. I was in the middle of Charlotte City. So it's kind of odd, but I just kept thinking like, can this be really cool to do? And I just kept asking. I went to my mom and said “Mom, look, I know I don't deserve this and I know that I'm grounded, but like, I'm going crazy. Like, I need something to do. I'll like work and pay for it. Somehow she managed to say yes. And so there I was in the back of this man's yard and his pool blaring Jimmy Buffet. So I’m scuba diving underwater. It was that moment when I took my first underwater breath that I knew that, like, this is what I wanted to devote my life to.

I was addicted, like I would go to Barnes Noble or read books. I would watch all the documentaries, like when my friends were like going out and doing things just like inside, just like learning and learning. I eventually knew I wanted to apply to go to college and be in the marine biology program.

My brother and I had never really had the opportunity to go to summer camps. Growing up, my mom was a single mom working two to three jobs being put on the table, and we had just gone through a lot. My senior in high school I found this summer camo and you would live on a sailboat for 21 days. My mom agreed to it as long as I found the money! So I just started fundraising. I started playing music. My friend and I had put a song on i-Tunes. I just started working at the time and then I also applied for a scholarship through their foundation. There's a company called Broad Reach. They have programs all over the world from middle school students to college students from this one, which is Caribbean specific. And I ended up applying and receiving a full scholarship. That was the experience that you're just fully in life. So I ended up there because of the accident, which was like a blessing in disguise.

It was like a three, three week program. We scuba dive and then just sail and just learned a lot about ocean conservation. And that was kind of my first experience, really understanding the therapeutic and the benefits of the ocean mainly began. It helped save my life. And it was just something to me that I could just pour my love and passion to and not necessarily, you know, I would get so much in return, but it would be not something that would never necessarily fail me if that makes sense, because it's just a cause. We're just learning how to live more sustainably and live more mindfully. I was just really captivated. And to this day, it's a dream of mine to be able to own my own sailboat catamaran and spend four to six months a year on it.

From there I went to UNCW and through that, actually met a really amazing woman, Bonnie Monteleone. She's definitely a huge mentor of mine. She founded a nonprofit called the Plastic Ocean Project. They work to raise awareness about plastic pollution globally through arts and education. We actually helped find the first student chapter of the nonprofit. It was just really amazing to kind of see our community on campus, but also in Wilmington really kind of sucked to accept some of the initiatives and campaigns that we were trying to stand behind.

HOW DID YOU FIND A WAY TO COMBINE YOUR TALENTS AND LOVE FROM THE ENVIRONMENT?

Yeah, it's interesting because I still don't even know like I was because people ask me all the time.

I studied film photography in high school. I think that was my real formal introduction to photography. And it was really, you know, humbling because. Right, you know, only have a certain amount of exposures and you have to go out and see the world through a lens and and think about the photo that you're about to take rather than, you know, a lot in today's society digitally. And then, yeah, all throughout college, I would travel and I would always have a camera around. It was one of those things that was just kind of always there, but I never really considered ever capitalizing on it or ever making it into my career. I had always done like our friends, senior portraits in high school or, you know, just work with obviously being the art director for UNCW’s Plastic Ocean Project. For me personally, it was that, you know, storytelling in those documentaries when I was younger, that influenced change for me. You know, imagery is so incredibly important because if you curate it in a way to tell a story, you can really make a huge impact, you know, with social media. I think that's what I was starting to kind of see throughout college. I was starting to kind of understand, okay, I really enjoy creating stories that can influence change, whether that's through photography or through film. So I just continued to kind of grow that as a hobby and when I graduated. I ended up taking a job teaching brain biology in the Bahamas for the summer, so I did that.

I was always the one who was feeling immense pressure from my peers and friends, like, look, what's the rest going to do next? I had always had friends who were always commending me on the things I was doing. I was very humbled and grateful for it, but it also, you know, made me feel like I got to have my stuff together, you know? So I ended up taking some senior photos and engagements. Then I started getting into weddings and I was starting to see the attraction of like things are starting to move. I still never really had considered it to be a job, because I wasn’t doing it wholeheartedly.

The other day I was thinking I was writing my journal and I was like, I am a photographer. I was like, I am a creative director and I am a photographer. Why has it taken me so long to feel confident in that role for the past two years?

I felt like an imposter, you know, because you're new to this thing and when you're doing it and making money off of it. So it just doesn't feel right. I don't know. I guess because it was just such a hobby of mine for so long. I continued to do the weddings, but it didn't feel like my nature niche. My boyfriend and I went to Puerto Rico and a girl that I had met on Instagram, she was running a nonprofit in Peru called Waves. We always kind of stayed in touch on Instagram and she ended up being Puerto Rico the same time that I was. We had never met. We surfed together and then after that, we kind of sat on the beach and she had just kind of created a company called Made by Minga. She worked with artisans in Ecuador, female artisans in Ecuador and they actually harvest cactus fiber and they weed the cactus fiber and make bags and then dye them with plants. So we are sitting there and she was like, “You know, I really want to take my brand to the next level and I really want to hire a photographer. You know, I love your stuff. You know, I don't know if I want to commit to it now, but it's something that I definitely want you to know that, you know, if you're interested.” I'm like, girl, I’m not doing anything, let’s shoot your brand! She ended up following me on to Ecuador and I photographed the whole process and I got to meet the woman and really kind of understand their culture and create, you know, imagery for her brand.

That's kind of how I started to kind of grow into this niche of being able to be a storyteller through photography. The way that I kind of describe it is, I like to work with brands to create digital imagery that reflects their product or lifestyle, specifically with ones that are in the sustainability realm. But obviously, as a businesswoman, I'm going to turn down any work!

When I was studying in school, so focused on, you know, sustainability and learning that I was kind of dividing it, too, and not realizing that I can mesh the two and be able to use my creative side to create imagery that, you know, influences change.

WHAT IS ONE GOAL YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH THIS YEAR?

So my 2020 word was authenticity. I felt like last year I was getting so lost. You know, I was trying to figure out my way and I was getting so lost in other people's journeys. Obviously social media has a way of telling you somehow that, you know, your life isn't put together. For me, it was really just being authentic to myself and being authentic to my work. I started to kind of travel through this word of authenticity is what's authentic to me, like what brings me joy. And obviously, like surfing and spending time out in nature and in the ocean. Then the other half was really just building community. My 2020 goal for one goal for this year would definitely be to grow my women for the environment community.

I was like, you know, I feel this lack of community. I know I can't be the only one sitting behind a screen and like having all this motivation and inspiration, not knowing what to do with it. I have a little journal and I like to journal because as I'm sure you probably grasp, I probably have a lot of ideas.It goes everywhere. If something comes to me, I'll write it down and come back to it and look at it and. Oh, that was a great idea.

I was in a coffee shop a few months ago with my friend Natalie and I had the journal and I was kind of going through it. I looked at it and it's, you know, I'd written down like Women For The Environment. I ended up just going online and creating a logo. I started to kind of think about the project and create a mission and a vision and just started to kind of, you know, word vomit, everything that I saw it being and want it to be. It really just came down to, you know, wanting to build a community that empowers women specifically to inspire action for our environment. There's just something so indescribable about getting a roomful of women together and just feeling that support. There are just so many amazing women just within the Wilmington community that are making waves, you know, and environmentalism is such a huge topic.

We've kind of lost sight of that and become very isolated and I was like, I can't be the only one that feels this way. And so we ended up sitting down and kind of hashing it all out and held our first event. In February, I believe. We had an amazing turnout. That would be my goal, is to really just keep growing women for the environment. It was really, to be honest, a very selfish reason. I just really want to be around amazing women. I know there's so many people that have knowledge that I would love to learn from and I have stuff that they would love to learn from as well.

WHAT DOES EARTH DAY MEAN TO YOU AND WHAT ARE SOME EASY DAILY TIPS TO BE MORE ECO FRIENDLY?

This is really cheesy, but Earth Day is every day. Earth Day to me, my motto is, you know, people protect what they love. So Earth Day to me is spending quality time outside. You know, just in nature or doing something that connects you to our earth. That might mean, you know, watching documentaries all day inside and that's totally fine, or that might mean making a tiny little garden. Earth Day means to me just connecting with the earth in a way that allows you to want to protect it and stand behind it. So I guess a few tips you can implement into your daily life. The biggest one would probably be, you know, the saying no to plastic straws or single plastic. It's kind of like the poster child of passive awareness. it starts with something small, right. Because these changes, you know, not everyone can just go out and buy all reusable items and change their lifestyle in a day when it's not easy and sometimes not always as budget friendly.

I think the biggest thing would be to:

1. Pick one area of your life, whether that's fashion or, you know, at home household products and just kind of create like a little plastic audit or a waste audit and just kind of look at that aspect of your life and see what can be replaced or what can be minimized.So as far as like singlets, plastics, refusing to use plastic straws like the easiest one for people, you can always buy, you know, reusable cutlery or straws.

2. I always bring reusable bags to the grocery store. Those are two like easy, easy tips that you can try and implement into your life. So, you know, saying no to single use plastic, bringing your own reusable bags.

3. Educate yourself, like, I know there's a lot of information out there, but find one new Instagram account that makes it easy to understand and translate and just kind of slowly implement those tips into your life.

These life changes take time, but there are many ways you can help the Earth today, on Earth day, and everyday by:

1. Grow New Life! (Garden, herbs, etc)

2. Street Sweep! If you have access, go outside and clean on your neighborhood walk.

3. Donate! Here are some of my favorite NGO's: Surfrider, Parley, Ocean Cure

4. Documentary party! Watch your favorite documentary or ocean film

5. Share your favorite earth-conscious brands and products!

If you have any questions for Arisa Yoon or would like to get involved, you can contact Arisa at https://arisayoon.com/contact-a/!