I am a 15-year old high school student living in Los Angeles. Ever since I was little, I have been creating movies with whatever technology was available. I loved creating iMovies with my friends and creating slideshows for different occasions, but, it wasn’t until 8th grade, when I made a documentary for school about women in the film industry, that I started to see myself as a filmmaker. The topic of my documentary was inspired by the fact that there are so few women in crew roles on big budget films. Of the 100 top-grossing films in 2018, women accounted for only 4% of the directors, 3% cinematographers, 14% editors, 15% writers, and 18% producers. I decided to make a documentary to find out why the numbers are so low and figure out what, if anything, could be done to address this gender gap. My movie was the first middle school film to be shown at my school’s film festival, and it was also an official selection of the Boston International Kids Film Festival. Interviewing so many smart, successful women in the process of making this film really inspired me to pursue filmmaking and to use my voice to shine a light on underrepresented people or topics. This year, I am taking a Film Production class in school, where I am learning a lot more about the technical aspects, collaboration, and planning involved in the movie-making process.