Why making money feels like a rebellion

Personal notes on money, art, and being a woman

In a recent conversation with a close friend, I admitted something that younger me would have found almost disgusting to say out loud:

One of my biggest motivators is money.

illustration by Adriana Danaila

I know. As a younger version of myself—someone who was exploring art—I felt like even thinking about money was a betrayal of everything I was taught to believe. Because aren’t we supposed to be above that? Isn’t art supposed to be about passion and meaning, not profit?

But lately, I’ve been reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, and it’s reinforced something I always instinctively knew:

Money isn’t about greed. Money is about freedom and safety.

Especially as an artist. Especially as a woman.

One story in particular stuck with me. It’s about Fanny Hensel, who was a child prodigy in music. Her father told her:

“Music will perhaps become his [her brother Felix Mendelssohn’s] career, whilst for you it can and must only be an ornament.”

An ornament.

All those stories I read in high school—about women who had no say in who they’d marry or where they’d live—stuck with me. I wanted more than that. I didn’t want to be an ornament, something extra in someone else’s story. I wanted to stand on my own two feet, make my own choices, and create my own life.

And that’s why, for me, making money feels like a quiet rebellion. It’s not about chasing the next paycheck. It’s about saying: I get to choose. I get to decide who I am and what I do with my life.

That, I believe, is the purpose of artists and women in our times: to change the narrative, to shift the mindset, to make money so we can decide where that money goes—what causes and businesses it supports. That, to me, is the path to a more equal and better-built world.

In upcoming posts, I’ll share more about how I’m building a creative offscreen life through lucrative onscreen work—and how you might do the same. I’ll talk about the money side of art and freelancing, what I’ve learned, and the mistakes I’ve made—maybe they’ll help you, too.