Probably the best day of my life. What just so happens to be my 20th birthday.
We headed to Facebook beach in the morning only to find out it no longer exists. The only beaches open today are CNN, Google, and Cannes Lions. That was very disappointing because we love FBbeach. Google beach doesn’t open until noon so we just had to wait until then. Google was having pride day and was open for 12 hours.
Google beach was such a fun atmosphere! All the workers were wearing pride shirts, and there was a giant pride sign and fun floaties everywhere. There was rainbow everything. They always have yummy smoothies, but they also had gelato. They had girls there to glitter, and we all got that done right away. (Did I mention we were the first ones in line to get in?) It was so nice just chilling with everyone on beanbags.
At 2:00 I went to see a talk on “redefining femininity with creativity”. It was with covergirl and droga5. I loved this talk, and am obsessed with covergirls new campaign. I would love to work with a makeup company. The whole idea behind the talk was that it’s good to embrace femininity and you don’t have to get more masculine in the job. I think it’s a common misconception that feminists want women to be treated like men, but I believe it is about a happy medium.
After the talk I went back to Google beach. There was a talk going on about YouTube and the LGBTQ community. YouTube has always been good about being a welcoming place to everyone. It has allowed LGBTQ people and others to share content and feel understood by connecting with people who aren’t judgmental and can relate to whatever it may be.
After the talk was over a dj came out and my friends and I just hung out on the bean bags listening and talking. There was than a performance from a British woman rapper I wasn’t familiar with. They than cleared the bean bags for the night to make room for a dance floor. They had a drag show and it was SO FUN! After the show they were coming around with all sorts of food, and fun drinks. The dj came back out, and we just walked around and talked for a while. There was then a live band that was really good. I think we enjoyed it a little too much because we were dancing and singing and hyping up the band the whole set.
Later in the night they performed the same set, and we were equally or even more excited. I was overcome with happiness because it was so surreal. I was at this festival with such amazing people. The most creative, and successful people in the Industry. I was so in the moment I had no stress on my mind. It started raining, and we just started dancing more. After the set the most incredible fireworks started going off down the beach.
I don’t think that my birthday could have been any more magical. It felt like the happiest place on earth. Disney doesn’t even compare. We ended up staying until 1:30am because I just didn’t want the night to end. The festival was more incredible than I could have imagined. It made me so inspired, and work hard to come back one day. It just reassured me that I love what I’m studying and gets me excited for the future.