Much like fem exposure, Sarah Knight set out to create a place to highlight incredible women in the arts. After starting her graphic design business, she looked for an online platform that recognized female artists + entrepreneurs in her area… once she discovered it didn’t exist, she decided to start her own.
Roc Girl Gang’s tag line is “Featuring, supporting & connecting with fellow creatives, makers & entrepreneurs of Rochester, New York.” Sarah was determined to create a space that allows motivated and hard working women to inspire and encourage eachother as well as others. Since launching in May, Roc Girl Gang has posted over 25 blog posts on their website and gained over 6,000 followers on instagram.
We had the chance to talk to Sarah about her background and what led to the launch of her site:
fem exposure: When was Roc Girl Gang started?
Sarah Knight: We launched our first interview the first week in May. It started with Danielle Raymo of Rochester Brainery. Everyone loved it! I knew I was on to something… Since then, the IG feed has had 100-200 new followers every week, it has not slowed down. The women that I feature gain anywhere from 50-200 new followers depending on the subject interest.
fe: What job opportunities allowed you to figure out what you wanted to do?
SK: I’m a small town girl. Grew up in Adams Center, NY. Studied communications and business at Houghton College. Had NO IDEA what I wanted to do so I just got the first job offered to me as a part time administrative assistant and I nannied, too…. I HATED being an administrative assistant (I’m not very organized + I was sitting at a desk doing things no one else wanted to do–I was low man on the totem pole) BUT it was a good thing. I learned what I didn’t want to be doing for the rest of my life, so it was a good thing to rule out.
Sarah also had some really great advice to give:
I tell younger people just starting out: for Pete’s sake! Just get a job doing something–then figure out the rest as you go along. Experience is experience and you need to start somewhere. You’ll find there are things you enjoy and what you’re good at and things you don’t enjoy and are not good at–then go from there! But you’ve got to start somewhere! What I ended up enjoying is making reminder postcards and flyers about different events. I spent WAY too much time designing these little things–it made my whole day and energized me. I LOVED being creative but I didn’t even know it. So that’s how I discovered it. From then, I learned graphic design through online tutorials and even took some classes on Graphic Design & Art at MCC. I LOVED every minute of those classes and it was the first time in my life that I liked school. I had found my passion!
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all images supplied by Sarah Knight.
fem exposure 