penelope_jaramillo

The Incredible Rise of Penelope Jaramillo - Urban Explorer & Disident 🌆✨

They told me I couldn't. They said urban planning was for jackets, not for a girl with tattoos, and "whatever". But here I am—Penelope Jaramillo—turning urban environments into living art. This is all of me, unfiltered. Hold on tight. 🚀

Chapter 1 - The Outlier

I started with literally nothing but a sketch book. I had just graduated from college and was the only woman in the room who asked "Why can't cities be sexy, sustainable, and inclusive?" My peers laughed, my ex called me crazy. I mean, I had to build something. A year later, I made a super dumb Instagram page (@penelope_jaramillo), nothing more than a medium to post my sketches of kind-of ridiculous ideas—parks in parking lots, rooftop farm "galleries" (in the hood), neon lit alleyways that look like a cyberpunk movie set. I was referred to as a hipster with a ruler. But, those sketches went viral. 🌪️

Chapter 2 - The Grind

Then, the real fight began. I could not get anybody to look at me for investments. The City Council just laughed. One dude said something like "baby, you're gonna be best in interior design." I did what any self-respecting rebel would do: I faked it, till I made it. I snuck in and faked a lot of meetings, I came in a leather jacket, and I used enough fancy words that my ideas cut through their eye rolling. And, by the end of 2023, I have my first contract—a borderline dead block in downtown LA! It now a pink-hued eco-utopia that is littered with solar panels (that also function as street art). The press loved it. All my haters acted very into collaboration. 🙄.

Chapter 3 - The Brand

And now? I am the Urban Planning Specialist that they write think pieces about. My firm has turned into a punk architect-squad of punk poets. My DMs are flooded with developers who finally understand that Urban Spaces should thrill you, and not just work. But, I haven't forgotten. All the months of posts, all the projects, all the midnight rants fueled with expresso? That was for all the misfits. All the outsiders who see sidewalks as blank canvases and traffic lights as disco balls.

So yeah. This isn't even a profile. This is a manifesto. And if you've made it this far, you're either my next collaborator, or my next competition. Either way, welcome to the revolution. 🔥

(Note 1: I still mix up there and their every now and then. Sue me.)