In Her Own Words: Traci Paige Johnson
Co-creator of a Preschool Phenomenon

JF: What kind of obstacles arose in your career?

TPJ: Unemployment. Being a freelancer has so many pros --- you meet a LOT of inspiring people, you get a LOT of different experiences and jobs, and, I think, it's easier to make upward jumps in title. The downside [is that] you have to always be thinking of the next gig and sometimes there can be more downtime than you'd like. The funniest thing is that a few months before I got the job at Nick, I was in my worst unemployment funk ever. It was going on five months . . . Ultimately, I conquered the uneasiness of unemployment by:

• Momentum; waking up and getting dressed (. . . not spending the day in your PJs). . .
• Volunteering; I knew I wanted to do children's stuff so I volunteered at chidlren's museums and kids' art workshops to know my audience.
• Networking; I hate that superficial feeling; for me it was about listening to people's stories and hearing their journeys of how they got to where they are. . . . I always left informational interviews with more names of people to contact.
• Correspondence; [I] always sent hand-written thank-you notes and sent little notes during the holidays just to check in.
• [Taking] comfort in clichés: It's feast or famine, it's always darkest before the dawn, be grateful for the good periods and graceful in the bad.
• Idea bank; [I] used the downtime to come up with ideas and feed my head with inspirations from movies, museums, life, etc."

JF: What kind of person should pursue the path that you did?

TPJ: I loved animation, but only doing my own ideas and visions. I consider myself a folk artist, not a traditional animator or illustrator, so I couldn't imagine getting a traditional job in animation; I wouldn't have that talent. Yes, I created my own animation style that served me well, but I knew my talent wasn't in drawing, it was more of an overall creative director approach. Doing ‘Blue's Clues,' I felt like Frank Zappa (was it him?) who said, ‘I could've never made the cut for my own band.'

JF: What plans lie ahead for you?

TPJ: After spending the last ten years educating millions of preschoolers, I'm loving concentrating directly on my two. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, so I'm taking this job very seriously --- and loving it.