How did you get your start in animation?
I went to CalArts from 2012 to 2016, and upon graduation I didn’t have any job offers. I went back to my retail job at the mall in my hometown that I had been commuting to on weekends all throughout college. While working that job, I redid my entire story portfolio, applied and either interviewed or tested for 12 projects, and got rejected from all of them. The lucky 13th project—my friend who I knew through Twitter passed my portfolio along to people who were hiring, and three days later I was interviewed and hired at Disney TVA!
As your career grew, what challenges did you face?
Navigating spaces where you understand that because you are the way you are and [because of] how you present yourself, you won’t always be openly accepted and [it] might be held against you. Although we exist in a world a few years post the Me Too movement, being a woman can still be seen as a disadvantage when it comes to forward career momentum. This isn’t a new realization, and it doesn’t happen with everyone, but when it does, the hardest thing is taking it with grace and learning to not let it bother you. That your path is destined to be traced elsewhere.
What is your favorite achievement so far of your career?
I never thought that I would do work on musical sequences to Alan Menken’s music, having been a fan of his Disney songs my entire life. My first show was Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, and not only was my first assignment in my animation career on an Alan Menken song, but I worked on around ten songs the entire show! Teenage me would be so proud!!
How has the animation industry helped give you representation?
As a lesbian, seeing stories with wlw (women loving women) relationships grow more and more common, where characters who look and act like me, who are allowed to love the way that I and my queer peers love, and live the way that we live, has been a wonderful experience. We have a very long way to go to fight the stigmatization of LGBTQIA+ rep in the entertainment industry, but the strides I’ve seen in only five years are truly incredible.
What improvements do you hope to see in the animation industry for its LGBTQIA+ members?
More pushes for inclusivity and safe spaces for my LGBTQIA+ siblings. Normalizing cisgendered coworkers using their pronouns in emails and in professional settings to make workplace environments more welcoming to nonbinary, transgender, and all others who don’t fit the gender binary. I think my biggest hope is that there will be more trust given to LGBTQIA+ creators and less pushback that their ideas can’t sell, whether that comes internally or from other areas; our ideas are valuable, and our perspectives are needed.
What words of wisdom would you give to people in your community who would like to get into animation?
Animation evolves at such a fast pace. Within five years you’ll get shows that five years before, you wouldn’t ever have dreamed of seeing. Seeing shows like She-Ra, The Owl House, Steven Universe, and all the ones coming up should give you the inspiration and confirmation that your ideas are worth hearing, and your shows are worth seeing. There’s no one way to get into animation, and there’s no one way to get an education in animation, but your passion and knowing that you’ll find your people and your support system in like-minded individuals is one of the best reminders that following a creative path is absolutely worth it.
What do you hope to achieve as an artist in the animation industry?
I would love to reach an executive position, either creative executive or higher. I’d love to be in a position to foster talent and provide the industry and the world with diverse stories. We haven’t seen what’s coming, and I can’t wait to be a part of it ♡.
Follow Vucinich on Instagram at mbrleigh.
.png)