I grew up in a Swedish ski resort called Lofsdalen with 159 inhabitants. A smashed mosquito on the map, more or less. But I soon fled the village that god forgot to pursue a career in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. After attending Berghs School of Communication for about two years, I was soon recruited by Åkestam Holst, one of Swedens biggest advertising agencies. In April 2016, I became the ”young creative of the year” in Sweden, and I hadn’t finished ad school yet. The following two years at Åkestam Holst I won numerous accolades, both personal and for my work, finishing off with winning my first Grand Prix and golden lions, pencils, cubes and statues for the IKEA Pee Ad this June. My biggest personal achievement is when I became the youngest Swede to ever judge the Cannes Lions last year, or when I was promoted partner in the agency in 2017. In March 2018, I decided to move on to Forsman & Bodenfors for the chance to work on a global scale - the agency just opened their first office outside Sweden and holds several global accounts like H&M and Volvo Cars.

Above is a typical advertising career. Except I’m a woman. I’m 26 years old, and I’m a part of the LGBT community. The only thing that separates me from the women who can’t live their dreams is luck. I’m lucky I was born in Sweden. I’m lucky I was born in the 90’s. Acknowledging and confronting my own privilege was my awakening towards fighting injustices.

Universe isn’t fair and striving to make it fair is just naive. But trying to make this world a place worth living in is every creative’s job. I’m doing so by fighting conformity and mediocrity of ideas. That’s actually my one and only mission in adland: praising diversity of thought, of action, of speech, of expression – because to a creative, the real danger lies in the sameness. We need new ways of thinking and doing and being.

Having always felt like an outsider, it has influenced my way of thinking. I’m obsessed with challenging the boring and the ordinary. May it be smashing gender stereotypes in advertising, questioning the culture within my own agency, making silenced voices heard, opening narrow minds, or just making people laugh. In the end, that’s my way of promoting equality – by being a woman who refuses to act or work in a certain way because someone said so.

Of course I’m a member of female leadership programmes, networks, groups and so on. But I mean… everyone can participate in equality initiatives. I don’t believe that’s where real change happens. The main part of the work is being done outside discussion groups, by brave women who acts with a purpose greater than themselves. Hopefully I’m one of them.