Meet Mili Patel | Digital Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mili Patel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mili, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The biggest risk-taker in my life is my mom, Meena Patel, who created a chain reaction in our family lineage through immigrating from Mumbai, India to America. She began her journey in Morbi, Gujarat, a small village town where women were not encouraged to pursue careers outside of the home. In this town, she became a learner of everything, especially the things she was discouraged from—whether that be wearing clothing that wasn’t always modest, creating her own business in embroidery, and eventually leaving to move to Mumbai, a city filled with ambition, alongside my father. From there, she realized that my father’s job as a mechanical engineer would not allow them to have the financial freedom they desperately needed. My father, a man who does not like change, often discouraged the idea of moving to America because in his mind, “If we can survive like this for so long, why risk it for having nothing?” Eventually, they both concluded that America was the place to be, where they could finally have the opportunity and level of success they often dreamed of.

I learned from these small steps in her life that staying comfortable is not part of my genetics and that my measure of success can never be attained by striving for a “stable life.” My parent’s immigrant journey has shaped my perspective of risk, and it has proved that there will always be lows and highs when you continue on the road less traveled. Some of my parent’s lows included a constant struggle with their immigration status, a comparison to the luxurious lives they were surrounded by when they were working night shifts and living through gunshots that rang in the night, and the setbacks of wondering if they were able to provide food on the table. But the highs, they were what we as a family lived for—the day that their green cards arrived, owning not just one but 3 hotels in my city, and granting their children education that they never had the privilege of pursuing.

I am continually inspired by the risks that have led me to live the life I have today. It has led me to be a photography student at Parsons School of Design, ranked number one in the nation, and pursuing a career in digital content creation. I went outside the norm of my high school and the Indian- American kids I grew up with, and I became more passionate about art than academics. In my own business, I am learning to reach out to companies, brands, and people that I feel wouldn’t give me their time of day, but I would never know unless I simply try. I moved to New York City and have noticed I am constantly at risk of never achieving my dreams, as I see far too often here. But my goal in life and my career is to never remain static. I want to push every boundary of my capabilities even when it is more comfortable not to; this is the only way to grow.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a lover of moments and I have a passion for creating digital art to document stories- whether that be through photography, graphic design, or videography. I do (almost) all the things- working with individuals, brands, creatives, and entrepreneurs to help transform an idea into a tangible product. I am most proud of my current brand redesign, in which I showcase work I have made in college, the hundreds of editorial portraits from Augusta, Georgia and New York City, and “Bittersweet Magazine,” a Gen-Z inspired collection of art, poetry, and photographs.

I have always been a creative visionary, but I never pursued it because I thought “It was just a hobby.” Like most Indian kids, I was encouraged to have a “stable career.” It all changed when I signed up for a photo class in high school, and I fell in love with capturing and creating anything and everything. Thanks to the help of some creative teachers, I gained experience in all sorts of art, and now I am the owner of Mili Manoj LLC, a digital content creation company.

But, I want to take my passion one step further. I’m a brown girl trying to break into the editorial fashion industry and make a name for herself without previous connections; something not many Indian women have been able to do. I want to be able to say that this is “my stable career.”

Some of the experiences that have led up to me being an official business woman is networking and the power of social media. I reached out to whoever I wanted to make art with and started off with a lot of unpaid projects that took several hours, and tears. It created a body of work that led me to opportunities in which I was able to not only do work that I love, but gave me recognition that this was my job, not just a hobby. Another lesson learned was that I still had so much to learn, and not only learning but failing. I became obsessive in watching tutorials, consuming information from people I looked up to, and most importantly, creating work I hated. Only by failing in art, even when you desperately want it to work, can you learn what went wrong and how can I do better.

My hopes for the future include being a creative director, working with brands and individuals to create visual stories that will perform years from now and leave behind a legacy. I still have so much to learn about running a business and mastering my craft, however my final goal is being able to make people feel confident, as if they are a work of art. To me, the key to any kind of art is to capture that moment, journey, or memory while still providing quality and content that is essential to the client.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Even though I am still exploring New York myself, my favorite so far is the neighborhood of Nolita. I would take my best friend to the insane magazine stores that you can’t come across often, the art pop-ups, and end with a Little Italy staple, IL Cortile. After that I would take a trip to my neighborhood near Greenwich village, explore the Strand bookstore and eat the best bagel in the city at Ess-A-Bagel.

These are just some of my favorite places, but I think the key to having fun in the city is just the random occurrences that happen, whether that be the man who dresses up as a rat in the subway, live music and skateboarders in Washington Square Park at midnight, and all the crazy on the subway that you just have to be open to in order to make some memories.

I wouldn’t trade living here for anything on this earth; this city will make you laugh until you can’t breathe, experience a multitude of cultures and foods, introduce you to everyone from celebrities to your favorite barista, and most importantly, stare at the world from miles above, admiring that 8 million people are living a life as complex as your own.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My parents, they have shaped me to be the woman I am today and I owe them the world. The friends that pursue their careers wholeheartedly- Shweta Mistry, Aranya Nandi, Anu Pillai, Aakil Bodian, and so many more. Artistic mentors such as Caleb Garrard and Carol Simonds, whom I have learned a great deal from.

Website: milimanojpatel.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mili.m.patel/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milimpatel/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/milimanojpatel

Image Credits
Shots on Shweta