Maddie opened her laptop, connected to the dorm Wi-Fi, and responded to a couple of emails from clients. She’d been balancing her freelance work with school for the past year, and though she wasn’t valedictorian or anything, she had held her own among the over-scheduled, overindulged, over, over, over kids in her high school and expected to do the same while at ValleyStart. Though if something had to give, it would be the program. She had no interest in Pulse or an unpaid internship or living three thousand miles away from her brother. This incubator was a box to check, one that would open doors not just to remote clients but to the host of tech startups and companies needing design work on-site in Cambridge, keeping her close to Danny.

Maddie was about to shut her laptop when a notification popped up for the private graphic design forum she’d practically lived on up until a couple of months ago. Taking care of her brother had narrowed Maddie’s world, leaving little time for friends or extracurriculars, and that was okay. Most of the time. But when Maddie realized she could share her love of design with people and they’d actually get it, everything changed.

Their stories of successful freelance businesses sparked her own. First with chalk and crayon and then with graphite and colored pencils, Maddie had always loved to draw. She’d bring to life the characters in the books her parents would read to her at night. She’d re-create and eventually reimagine the covers—the wrappers, as she used to call the dust jackets. But it was the entertainment and literary agency her parents founded that brought graphic design into Maddie’s world. She’d sat at the kitchen table with her mom and dad, listening as they spoke with a freelance designer, sharing their vision of the agency. Maddie drew as they talked, not fully realizing that she was translating their words into reality. The logo she’d doodled that day inspired the whole look and feel of their site. Her parents had sent Maddie’s sketches to the designer. She could still picture the mix of pride and mischief on her parents’ faces when they showed her the website for the first time and presented her with a brand-new drawing tablet. And that was it, Maddie was hooked.

But she didn’t have a community to share it with until she found the forum. She liked the camaraderie and support, with everyone cheering one another’s wins and commiserating over losses. She had one friend, a guy, who she relied on most. She valued his advice. So she’d thought nothing of him probing deeper and deeper into the request for proposal she was submitting to an about-to-blow-up virtual reality game startup. In their private chats, she’d written volumes about her ideas for the site and app, and he’d read every line, encouraging her.