Millennials That Slay Their Careers-Jasmyn Lawson

To continue my #WerqueLikeABoss series, I’m highlighting millennials that slay their careers, while also inspiring and giving back to their communities. These millennial women are nothing short of amazing, simply because they aren’t afraid to use their passions to help them live their best lives. Throughout this series, you’ll learn about a diverse group of women who took the initiative to jumpstart their careers.  

MEET JASMYN LAWSON-CULTURE EDITOR AT GIPHY

1. Share your career journey. How did you land at Giphy? What do you currently do there? Speak about your role as Culture Editor and the special projects that you spearheaded.

So I began my career in media while at Spelman College. I had a few internships throughout college but my biggest opportunity came my Junior year when I got the chance to work for Cartoon Networks digital team at their headquarters in Atlanta. That's when I first realized that I had a passion for both television and digital media. After graduation in 2013, I moved to New York to start the NBC Page Program, a post grad program for those wishing to pursue a career in media. I then left NBC in 2014 and moved over to Showtime where I had the chance to help manage their e-commerce site for fans of their shows and their internal sales teams. 

My next move was to a digital agency in NYC called GLOW, there I was a project manager where I helped oversee several of our accounts including HBO, Cinemax, Hulu, TBS, and WE tv. During my time at GLOW, I had the opportunity to learn more about GIPHY as a company and was completely blown away by what they did. I was looking to grow in new ways and GIPHY seemed like the perfect company to help me do that while still fulfilling my love for digital media and pop culture. Since being at GIPHY I've taken a key interest in working on projects that focus on the identity of our users which in return has helped build diverse representation within our library of content. These projects included content for Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month and PRIDE. This work has been very special to me because I've been able to help play a part in providing better representation in the media while still doing fun work. 

2. Give your best career advice for the millennial girl who is trying to navigate within corporate.

Well, I don't work in Corporate America anymore and I probably never will. I've grown to really like start-up life and or companies that were once start-ups. 

Though every type of workplace has its challenges, especially if you're a woman and especially if you're a woman of color. My best advice is to go into any job, corporate or not, with a mindset that you are worthy of being there, that your ideas, voice, and work matters. Make sure you own that and that the people around you can see that. Don't ever feel afraid to shake things up or pitch an idea. There will be challenges no doubt and often times you might not have the answers and you'll just have to live through the experiences, but as long as you remain loyal to yourself and know that you have a purpose you will prosper. 

3. Where do you hope to be professionally in 3 years? 

I've been asked this question a lot lately and I'm honestly okay with saying I don't know and I think other women and young people, in particular, should be okay with that. I've been learning to focus more on the things I like and enjoy and the type of work I want to do and less about titles, positions, or status. It would be great to be at a director level overseeing content but I still want to make sure that I'm still helping to create great content that people enjoy and need. That's what brings me the most joy and that's what I hope to be doing 3 years from now, 5 years from now, and prayerfully 10 years from now.