MY STORY

It all started when my mom met my dad and they fell in love and they had me.

Hi, I’m Isabella, and my life is kinda crazy.

My parents taught me to dream big. My dad is a helicopter test pilot from Texas. I have been moving around the world for his career, my entire childhood. My Finnish mom created a marketing career from our living room, as one of the first social media entrepreneurs. And now we have a marketing agency together.

I, my sister and my brother were all born in different countries. I was born in Finland, learned to walk in Germany, and started pre-school in upstate New York. Thanks to our nomadic life I became really good at being the new girl. In every place, I enthusiastically tried something different. I learned to swim at Virginia Beach, and to ski in Durango, Colorado.

When I was 12, I started making videos after moving to Sweden. I found my dream and knew that videography was for me. I followed the steps of other female YouTubers and made lifestyle videos. My first videos sucked, so I committed to learning everything about editing and video production before graduating high school. 

Which is a little challenging when you attend high school in three countries. I started high school in New York. I joined my high school’s broadcast team in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where I also produced my first short film. In Finland, I graduated from high school and got my International Baccalaureate degree.

In 2018, I was one of 15 students accepted into the Fine Arts path at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. There I made a few short films, helped create the university’s Virtual Event Services team, and wrote a 100+ page Bachelor’s thesis about women in the film and video industries. In June 2022, I graduated with a Bachelor of Culture and Arts.

My personal favorite career moments;

I met and interviewed one of my idols, Casey Neistat, and - still to my shock - was able to post a sneak peek of his Helsinki video on my channel.

I was all teary-eyed when I saw my work on a movie theater big screen for the first time, partially because, duh, it was the big screen and partially because it was bad. But that just made me work harder, and now I love seeing my work on the big screen.

Being hired as an editor for commercial work was an amazing milestone. I have been doing commercial work since 2016.

When I started out I never thought I’d be laying on my stomach filming someone put on an astronaut suit, or editing interviews with NASA astronauts.

My work has taken me to large-scale events, like producing a behind-the-scenes video of the Finnish Film Awards show, documenting a week-long children’s event, SuomiAreena children’s park, by YLE and C More TV, and capturing content from Arctic15.

I participated in the Moment Invitational Film Festival 2019, which was an amazing opportunity and I developed lasting friendships with other creators. 

It was cool to see a video I made showcased in a store window on Helsinki’s major shopping street. 

Become a virtual event specialist who consulted with companies like Tampereen Messut and YLE, and produced nearly 20 virtual events at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

Wrote, directed, filmed, and edited a documentary about women in the film and video industries questioning why we use the label “female filmmakers” and how it affects women trying to break into these industries.

I walked my first runway shows for Ukrainian brands Chereshnivska and Kris Marán during the 2022 Helsinki Fashion Week.

To be continued…