From Interview Weekend to exploring hidden gems of LA to cofounding a company, Academy senior Nina Cragg takes a moment to reflect on her incredible journey at the Academy and share some lessons learned along the way.

Tell me a little bit about your journey to the Academy?

Junior year of high school I remember reading the spotlights of different IYA students. I just wanted to meet these people, like Danielle Boyce, who started her earring company Muchacha LA. I was so excited that there was this plethora of people with crazy ideas all jammed into a garage space working on projects together. That excitement is what pushed me to apply; I felt like my interests in synthetic biology, future technology, and fashion would not only be contained within this program, but complemented and expanded by the array of students within the cohort. I can confidently say that has definitely come to fruition.

Do you have a role model? Why do you look up to them?

Nataliya Kos’myna. She is the post-doc I work for at the MIT Lab Fluid Interfaces group. She sees the world 10-20 years in the future. She has a vision for how brain-computer interfaces will shape the world and she has gone in every possible direction to move the needle forward with that. She has been working in this field before it was cool and she’s taught me that you can bring your crazy vision of the world to life through exploration, grit, and guiding people to join that vision with you.

Describe one thing most people don’t know about you?

This may be slightly alarming to the people who really know me, but I take meticulous notes on each day to be able to evaluate my decisions over time, interpersonal relationships, and to capture small moments. 

What’s one thing your parents taught you that you’d like to share?

They taught me not to look at success as the culmination of standard achievements, but to embrace opportunities to push my comfort zone and adventure into the world with curiosity, open-heartedness (sorry cheesy, I know), and the assumption that there is always something new to learn or someone interesting to meet.

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what others say you cannot do." -Walter Bagehot 

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end." John Lennon

As a note, I have very wonderful parents. I can confidently say that there has never been a dull moment living among my five siblings, four parents, three dogs, two cats, and lovely grandmothers. And from this I’ve learned to embrace chaos and have fun.

Left: Cragg demonstrates her original bra-fitting sparkAR filter; Right: Cragg and Lillian Zeng

What is the biggest risk you have taken, and was the result what you wished for?

It wasn’t a risk in the traditional sense, but I took this year off because I was very injured and could not work with my right hand (unfortunate). How I approached this situation felt like a risk because I reached a point where I had to let go of what initially tied me to my core sense of self – being able to express myself visually with code and technical skills. It felt like I was losing something in the moment, but it challenged me to accept my situation and pivot. Instead of using the skills I normally fell back on, I developed new ways of communicating my ideas and thoughts with people. I honed in on what mattered to me and I put the little available energy into what felt most important to me: Froot (my Gx project)! 

What would you say is your defining achievement thus far?

Developing our project Froot, a new way of finding bras that fit. It’s defining because of the team that we formed as a result of the project – all dedicated to solving the problem of the discomfort and pain that womxn go through daily, merely as a result of poorly fitting bras.

Winning IYA Prize has been a significant achievement within this because of the validation in finding a problem, and more importantly, finding a team around that. I say that finding the team itself has been the most important because we are at the very beginning of our project journey, and finding a team of people whose strengths and growth areas complement each other is the most exciting part of this.

And a cute anecdote about our founding team ⁠— I explicitly remember nervously sitting in the lobby before my IYA interview. Next to me sat a very put together girl who was holding a 3D printed app, talking passionately about how she loved the movie Black Panther. She was very charismatic and not worried at all about being interviewed by ten people at once. I remember this distinctly because I thought to myself, this is exactly this kind of person I want to work with. Fast forward three years, and I feel very lucky to say that she is now the co-founder of the Froot team, and as she (Ivy Tsang) describes it, I am the Amos Tversky to her Daniel Kahneman. 

I mention this anecdote because this project started as an exploration into making better fitting bras, and snowballed into my product design project. Ivy joined as the second member of our team to turn this into our Gx project, and to push it into its own venture. 

Reach out to anyone you are remotely interested in working with or learning from. Professors, experts, etc. want to share their knowledge and be a mentor to people. Most of my mentors have come as a result of emailing them about getting coffee; or treating them like I would a friend (respectfully) and being completely transparent about my passion about what they do. I got my current internship at the MIT Media Lab, exactly where I wanted to work, by emailing the person and asking about her work. 

How have you evolved over the past four years?

Freshman year I looked at projects as a way to prove my skills because I felt a lot of imposter syndrome (classic IYA kid feeling because no one here is the same). I shifted my mindset to instead ask myself, "What can I do to move this project forward? What needs to happen and how can I be an asset in doing that?" I became a better teammate and was 10x more excited to work with people as a result.

Los Angeles. Anant (great guy, cohort friend) and I drove on Vermont Ave from USC to Long Beach. We witnessed a bunch of microcosms just through that late night drive. It’s inspiring that there’s always something or someone curious around every corner, such as a glowing wig store owner, or meeting a chandelier fixing expert. 

Libby, a free audiobook app that basically feels like long form podcasts. I’m really obsessed with the brain and there are a bunch of phenomenal books that do deep dives into it such as "Moonwalking with Einstein" and "The Molecule of More."

Disruptive Innovation with Steve Barth. 

Every class at IYA is special so I can’t choose one, so I’ll go with Intro to Electrical Engineering with Armand Tanguay. There was a problem on our last test that I always go back to because it reminds me of looking at the why of using technology to solve problems.   

Secret staircases of LA (guide book) - I have been pulled on numerous adventures through following the walks in this book. I saw LA in a completely different light that shed a lot of beauty on it.

Counterpoint records - great collection of used unique art books/records; my favorite find there so far was “Time, Doubt, Magic” a series that I have yet to track down on the internet.

Stuart Ng Books - comic book art (not comics themselves).

If you had to get a tattoo what would you get and why?

Something small and cute and drawn by my wonderful friend Teresa who consistently inspires me to think differently. Her whole world is drawn around pop-surrealism; or a four leaf clover tattoo inspired by this dress we made:

Academy senior Nina Cragg can still remember her admissions interview, sitting next to a charismatic woman enthusing about Black Panther. Now, the two are co-founders together! Learn more about how Nina has combined her interests in technology, synthetic biology, and fashion.

Senior Spotlight: Nina Cragg

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