Intelligent, clever, humble and modest is the personality of Amanda Wu that came across to me, when I first met her. While interviewing her, I found her very open and she freely spoke about her personal and social life. With a straight face, she answered all my questions with confidence and poise.

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Amanda moved to Basking Bridge when she was three. Her brother was born in Warren, New Jersey where she grew up. The family grew so they moved to a bigger house in a suburban area. This place had a lot of high class people and the houses were spread out.

Amanda told me that her childhood was good but there were family issues and some social anxiety. She has strict parents which is good as it has made her a better person and enhanced her personality. Her Dad is originally from Taiwan and her Mom is from Philippines, and is half Spanish. Her Dad travelled a lot as her grandfather worked in the Taiwan embassy. Today both her parents own an ecommerce site and they work together. She said, “My dad tended to be the stronger personality in the family and my Mom is the more lenient one”. She has a younger brother, Nick, whom she is closest to.

When Amanda was young, she was a lot happier and carefree, but in high school more work pressure came her way. She says softly with a smile, “I was a typical happy girl”. While growing up certain issues about her social and personal life would make her depressed. She would mostly discuss these issues with her Dad. Life became tougher and stressful when she had to apply to colleges.

Amanda likes to listen to music and has a lot of favorite bands like ‘Panic at the Disco’, ‘Twenty One Pilots’, ‘Hasley’ and ‘Marianas Trench’. She used to play tennis in school but could not keep up with it, as sophomore year was all about studies. In school she had a group of close friends out of which she had known four of them since the beginning. She is still close to a few of them but being in college they are not in touch that often.

Amanda feels that she is understanding but complains a lot. She tries to be generous and kind, but things don’t always turn out the way she wants them to. She is also opinionated sometimes. When I asked Amanda about her accomplishments in life, she jokingly says, “I have 5K followers on Tumbler!”. Her posts on Tumblr include paintings, sketches, photography and her work process. Her work is exceptional and special which makes it worth seeing. She spends her day by sleeping, eating and working.

Amanda’s interest in art grew when she took it up in high school. She wasn’t really into it until grade twelve, which was last year. She had an art teacher, Mrs. Isusi, who really helped her develop her artwork. She says, “She helped me create a lot of art from observation, and had me play around with different mediums like charcoal and oil paints.”. Her Mom comes from an art background and her Dad’s father is fond of collecting art pieces. She had always wanted to do something related to business, marketing or ecommerce. Now she feels that she might do something in the field of design and creativity. Amanda enjoys working with mixed media and tries to incorporate as many things as possible. She likes minimalistic things and her work is straightforward. Her work is mainly about her life and feeling. I really like the first piece as it shows her dream city blended on her clothes and the word possibilities written on top. This shows that anything is possible in life, as long as you dream and work hard to conquer it. Something that I noticed in her artwork, is that, it revolves around a word. There is typography and graphics that symbolize the word and have a significance.  I can see that she tries something new each time and comes up with great and unique ideas. She has got her own style of painting with minimal colors, yet making it so effective.

Parsons was the only art school that she applied to, while the rest were business colleges. She chose Parsons the New School for Design, as she always wanted to live in New York City and had heard a lot about the college when she was young. Her interest in art grew so much, that it made her choose art over business. Amanda wants to start her own business after college as her Dad doesn’t want her to work for another company all her life. “I want to work for myself and do my own thing.”, she says with confidence. She might want to start off working with a company, at a creative spot involving design.

Her family is what keeps her motivated. She has had a hard family life which she wants to change. She would like to become more independent and not rely on her family completely. Her Mom has supported her throughout and her Dad has helped her get to where she is today. Her Mom inspires her greatly, as she has gone through a lot of struggles in life which Amanda would not like to talk about.

The one quote that Amanda lives by is, “Never, never, never give up”. This shows in her artwork as she works hard on each piece and gives in her best. Tumblr is proof that she’s already got fans out there who appreciate her work. I’m sure that she will not give up and her talent will take her to the next level.