Michaela Ternasky-Holland, XR Creative Strategist & Impact Producer at Games for Change, joins ChedHER to discuss how women are shaping the metaverse, and advice for women seeking careers in the virtual reality industry.

chedHER

How Women are Shaping the Metaverse

So joining us now is Mikaela Tarnasky, Holland, VR creative strategist and impact producer at meta Mikaela glad to have you on this morning metaverse recently launched the metaverse culture series. Can you just talk a little bit about what the goal of this initiative is? Sure, thank you for having me. So this is Mattias first of a kind initiative um that is dedicated to creating more accessible entry points for people who have historically been excluded from technology and making sure that these communities that people are actually a part of shaping and building the future of technology. So why, why is it critical that women in particular get involved in the metaverse right now in these early stages, I think the reality is we look at a lot of different industries like video filmmaking, we look at video games and what we see is at the beginning of these industries, women were often not welcomed in the spaces and women were not often valued in those places and we find out that a lot of those industries are backtracking to do a lot of reconciliation when in reality this new industry of digital reality making or metaverse creating or metaverse in general has just started. And so if we can get women in now, if we can get women in at the beginning stages of this industry, we might be able to set a really incredible precedent moving forward with technology, storytelling world building itself from a more feminine perspective and a more equitable perspective at leadership level, creative level. Technology level for now and into the future. You touched on this a little bit, but I am curious if we can dig a little bit more, what are some of the ways that women around the world can shape the metaverse? Oh, it's endless. You know, when we think about the physical reality, women can shape the physical reality in so many ways, when they get involved in healthcare, when they get involved in architecture, when they get involved with teaching and education, those same sort of widespread opportunities and the physical reality are the same in the digital reality. And when we talk about the metaverse, we're talking about one very clear part of the digital reality which is where people socialize where people exchange money and where people get to get familiar with each other's points of views and understand each other better. So if women can get involved in sort of the marketplace of the digital reality now, and women can really help shape where the economy goes, how the economy gets marketed to the audience, how the economy gets told and represented to the audience, women can actually impact this industry in such an incredibly life changing way that changes the way that we think about not only our day to day lives here in the physical reality, but also how we're immersed in our day to day lives in the digital reality. I'm curious for the women that this initiative is trying to reach pretty broadly here. What advice do you have for women to claim their space in the metaverse, a place that right now for so many feel so far out or not fully understood totally. So I actually don't even have a technology background, I don't have a development background, I don't have an engineer background, I did not study, stem from the time I was in high school, I was not very good at math or science or computer science. I actually have a storytelling background and a creative background. So I would say that the metaverse is wide open, very similar to what I said before, we're in the physical reality. It takes all types of people to make the physical reality function. It takes all types of people to make the metaverse also function, the digital reality function. So whether you are a storyteller, whether you are a graphic designer, whether you are someone in executive leadership or if you are someone with a stem technology, health education background, there is a place for you and so you do not need to be at all intimidated by the metaverse. You don't need to be intimidated by the idea of working in technology be fearless come in, it's a warm, welcoming open space and there is a place for you and I imagine if there's any time to figure it out, it's right now in the early stages when everyone else is trying to figure out kind of what this this metaverse space is and what it's going to be and being a part of kind of shaping that reality. You mentioned a moment ago, you have a creative background, you're an award winning VR director. How did you get involved in this industry? And what kind of stories are you looking to tell here? That's a great question. So, I actually got involved in the VR industry through my dance and performance background. Um I was a dancer and a performer all through college while I was studying journalism and while I danced and performed, I got to work with organizations like Disney, Seaworld, Legoland, a lot of immersive theme parks and what I realized was that, you know, journalism and nonfiction storytelling, we're missing this immersive interactive factor that I think most people today are really engaged with. People want active styles of storytelling. People want to feel like they have the ability to make their own decisions when they are exploring a story. It's not just about passive sort of engagement, it's not about passive saturation. Um right now we're being told to always question what we're being given in our news feeds and in the same way, I think that we are also meant to be human when it comes to exploring storytelling. And so when I realized virtual reality was a way to do immersive interactive storytelling without having to actually use the environment without actually having to pay for property, without actually having to put a stake in the ground and get involved with everything that there is to get involved with with building in the physical reality. I realized this was something I could easily see myself working in and being a part of. And so I love to tell stories about people who look and sound like me. I'm a woman of filipino descent, I have a queer identity when it comes to my sexuality. And so I really love to be the bridge between communities of people who might not always think of themselves as a community that can be seen in the media Skeletor Nancy, Holland, VR, creative strategist and impact producer Ed Meta.