I love to make it known that the innovated and entrepreneurial mind of the modern day youth is my absolute favourite topic to discuss. A fresh mind with endless new ideas is something that isn't always seen from a first glance and is hardly evident in a world so crowded, busy; some may even argue a world so "colourless" or even "unoriginal". In this generation, sets of grandparents and even parents, like to bring up the fact that their kids and grand kids spend an excessive amount online instead of doing anything beneficial. They claim that we will never experience what real creativity is because of the digital age. But how could real creativity be defined by something that is never understood?

When the idea of 'Innovation Day' was pitched, I, just like many of these young people, knew exactly what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. Since the thought had already crossed by mind many times before, I knew that this was my chance to learn more about the youth in the community with an in-depth opportunity. I travelled around to various groups to observe their innovative ideas and the different ways they chose to put it into action.



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"Just go for it, you know?" Molly says and throws her arms out in a carefree motion.

I didn't know what exactly she was talking about, but it was a line that really stuck out to me as I spent time reflecting on Innovation Day. Walking through the building, I found myself stumbled upon a group of girls with piles and piles of fabric and a clicking sewing machine. One station was making scrunchies; pulled together and sewn by hand (with a little help of the machine!), while the other was formulating measurements to create a kimono with help via Youtube tutorial.

Carefully using a tape measure against Jesse's arms and torso, Molly marks down the areas needed to hem and re-cut for the floral kimono. I bring up the question about their inspiration for making accessories and and the two girls tell me affirmatively, "Pintrest." I nodded my head, even though I truthfully have never dabbled on the DIY-type website other than watching my mom "pin" photos onto her virtual board. "We collected ideas from Pintrest and decided that we could collaborate by all bringing some fabric," Molly says as she points to the high mound of different patterned fabrics laying on the table next to us. What stuck out to me in the moment was the amount of team effort being placed into the project. It was pretty much an "everybody helps everybody" work station. I hear a call from the table over, "How's the kimono going?" one girl says with an unfinished scrunchie in hand. "Good!" the two girls reply with smiles on their faces, as the kimono visibly is coming into shape.

"It's mainly the aspect that it's handmade and it's also hard work. I want to be the inspiration for others to see that goodthings can come out of hard work," Jesse replies, talking about what they want others to take from their work. As for advice... "Don't sew your fingers off," she says from personal experience and turns to Molly, who shares a similar grin.

With the leftover scrap fabric cut from the kimono, Jesse comes across the idea to make an infinity scarf and tells me that I have to wear it."Of course it's for you," she says as I give her a confused expression and she hands me the unfinished fabric to touch, "you can feature it on your blog." I smiled at her thoughtfulness and knowledge of my blog. It actually was quite humbling.

I leave the girls with their work to finish, but promise to come back every-so-often to check up on their progress. Of course, Jesse wouldn't let me forget about the scarf. "You better come back!"






As I walk to my supervisor's office to let him know my whereabouts, the walk there lead me to a trio of girls with hair tied back, draped in plastic garbage bags, and used paint brushes in hand. They used a pre-made template to place over a blank canvas so that they could splatter paint over it, remove it, and have an artistic silhouette. When asked their motive behind their creative project, one responded speaking on behalf of her group - the two others continued to paint away. "We wanted to do something that all three of us could do. We love art and we love painting." I pondered on the thought. Love. This is what they love.

"It was her idea though. It was all her." one girl points her paintbrush to her friend, whipping a little yellow paint onto my arm. Her friend wipes the hair out of her face with her paint splattered hands, remaining humble over her friend's comment. She gives a quiet smile, almost acting like a grateful "thank you". My supervisor comes walking towards us before I could even make it to his office, my original destination before stumbling upon the group. The girls let him take a little hit with their brushes as they stand back and have a little laugh. "It's all in the art form, isn't it?" he raises an eyebrow and I get the sense he's pretending to be some sort of 20th century-Vincent Van Gogh-type artist, moving his arms as precisely as a true art master would. But obviously all in humor.

After standing back and watching the girls create their masterpiece for a good five minutes, I ask how they want people to perceive their project. "It's really just a carefree thing. It's a fun way to express ourselves. It's something so easy to do, but we want people to see that something so simple can also be beautiful." It was almost like they knew exactly what they wanted to portray within their image - no hesitations or questions about it.

They leave me with their final thoughts and their own advice for other the youth out there: "You don't have to be good at everything. You also don't have to be professional to create something beautiful."



Being innovative by creating an entirely new idea isn't too far from being innovative by building on a pre-existing idea and making it your own.

When I found out that a couple of my good friends were inspired to pick up an instrument and use their vocal abilities to spend the day doing covers, I knew I had to stop by and give it a listen. I walked into the room and saw that the girls were all doing different things - one going into the next room, one was playing the piano, and the other was fiddling with a capo on her guitar. Yanna stopped strumming as I walked up beside her. She looked at her hands and turned to me asking if it ever happens to me. "Calluses! I don't want to play anymore. I'm so frustrated!" I told her that she would be alright if she just took a second.

The idea stemmed out of the group's passion for music. "No matter how good or bad you are, or think you are..." Yanna paused, "do what you want to do."

I received my first real dose of frustration from any group when I walked into theirs. "We haven't really done anything. We've covered one song,", being Sam Smith's 'Stay With Me'. With the many ideas and different perspectives I could sense radiating within the room, I knew that this was as real as it got. A group getting fed up in the middle of their innovative process.

After leaving to check out more groups, I came back nearing the end of the day. They had figured a couple things out, recorded some videos, and were finally where they wanted to be in the creative process. I was proud to see that a group showed a sign of struggle, like real humans do, and overcame it by the end. I had a great gut feeling about it and I was right. It just needed some time.





One of the more interesting innovation day ideas I came across was a group of guys making handmade soccer balls. "Dude, this is literally my flooring." I let out a little laugh to myself when one of them showed the foam that he took apart from the floor in his house. I sat around and kicked back with the boys for awhile and listened to their banter while watching them strategically build these soccer balls - each doing something different; one fixing the time lapsed camera, a couple taping and cutting material, and the other drawing Emma Watson. "She's beautiful!", he adds.

I seized the opportunity to pull one of them aside to talk on a more serious level about about what the concept of being innovated actually means. "It's a chance to really just express yourself, whether it's artistic or whatever it is,", Brendan tells me about words that stuck in his head given by his drama teacher. "It's just another opportunity to spend time with your friends and be productive by making something innovative. Otherwise it would just be a waste of time." I nod my head and am truly taken aback by the level of intellectual thought put into his answer. I couldn't agree more. Seeing the guys work together and work diligently over something they all were interested in made me feel at ease and gave me the thought that hard work can be fun too.

"My dad always says, "don't waste your time"," Brendan starts to add a bit of personal advice given to him by his father, "and it truly would be a waste to just sit around."

Fiddling with the yarn covered soccer ball, he begins to wrap tape around it for security, while still managing to make eye contact and carry a proper conversation.

"Just do it." He laughs as I ask him what his own advice would be for the inspired youth. "Have a plan for yourself, act on it and you'll be able to have a good outcome." 







Sharing one half of a drama studio are two guys with a huge bin full of little almost lego-like pieces sprawled out on the floor in front of them. Carefully assembling little pieces together, I took a seat on the floor snapping a few shots of the thousands of stray pieces laid out in front of me. To think that so many pieces little pieces could add up to build anything you wanted it to was something that I couldn't comprehend at the moment.

When asked for the inspiration behind their project - the guys took their eyes off of what they were building and looked blankly at each other for a good 10 seconds until Justin decided to speak up. He started by telling me that he began to build his collection based on his interest in dragons and took it from there. "I never really had time so we decided to do it today." Time always seems to be an issue when it comes to putting an innovative idea into action. Many of us can agree on the fact that there aren't nearly enough hours in a day to accomplish everything we want to.

And if there was anything they'd want someone to take away from their work, they said in unison: "CREATIVITY." Some may believe it to be cliche, but there definitely still holds a big amount of truth in the simple answer of "creativity."

The last thing I asked before I went on my way was for their advice for people who are motivated to do something good. Justin took charge on this one, "If you have an idea... Just do it. It doesn't matter what other people say.", Brodie nodded and continued to build away.

"If you've got the idea and you have the motivation it doesn't matter what it is. You can. You can achieve it."







Unlike the previous painting group I came across, Claire and Bronwyn had a more structured, planned out piece they were looking to achieve; a scene out of a cafe-ridden French street. I observed them hit the canvas and mix colours, while also listening to some of their art jokes and conversations. "I don't have much free time to paint," Bronwyn says, as she paints the cafe front on the canvas. Once again, time shows to be a factor of not being able to reach our innovative peak as kids of this generation. Days like these make allowance for being able to use our talents for good. We feed off of each others' inspiration.

"Practice, practice, practice." Claire responds when asked to give a word for people who feel inspired to act on their talents. Watching the girls paint, they taught me that not everything comes easy. People are skilled in different aspects and they can all be appreciated in some sort of way. As Claire said, it does take an insane amount of practice to get to the expertise level you want, but only with the effort and time you are willing to put in. "Just believe in your talent."



As I sat and admired the girls paint their collaborative work, Jesse comes into the art room with the finished kimono made by her and Molly. I was in pure awe of how great it looked and how their efforts had truly paid off.





This group of girls really struck a chord when they told me they were partnering up with the organization, Because I Am A Girl, to raise money from a bake sale. Because I Am A Girl has always been a charitable organization closest to my heart and I spent a heap load of time researching/reading/spreading the news about it a few years back. To see the ladies having so much fun while packing up little treat bags beforehand and interacting with the kids they were selling it to really warmed my heart. I love seeing a generation of girls take a stand for those who are less fortunate and don't have much of a choice - given circumstances.

Apart from all the hilarious and collaborative dance routines, my favourite part about hanging around the girls was hearing what they had to say about being innovated. When asked about what they want people to take away from buying their pink themed treats, they all responded "GIRL POWER" and smiled at each other.

"Just do it. We thought we were only going to make $20 but we made $70-ish?", she turns to Gabby on her left side, who was counting the money they earned, "So just go for it." Takara is the first to respond and eager to share advice on what to do with inspiration. (She was later on corrected that '$70-ish' was in fact $170)