Amplifying Women’s Stories in Architecture with Jadyn Anderson

A Welcome to Practice Disrupted, a podcast where we find ways to create new solutions to current challenges while elevating the value of architects.

B I'm your host, Evelyn Li, an architect who spans tech as

A an angel investor, startup advisor, and founder of Practice of Architecture. Whether you're a seasoned architect or just starting in the field, this podcast podcast is your gateway to think differently about the role architects play within our global community.

B Hello, disruptors. Welcome to this week's episode of Practice Disrupted. What happens when personal experience sparks a movement? Today, we're sitting down with Jaden Anderson, a master of architecture student at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, president of women and design students at UWM, a junior designer at Zimmerman Architectural Studios, and recipient of the twenty twenty three three AIAS Advocacy and Impact Honor Award. Jaden is the creator of When in Doubt, a self published zine amplifying women's experiences in architecture through storytelling, interviews and artwork. Inspired by a pivotal moment in her own journey, she transformed doubt into action using design as a tool for advocacy and connection. In this conversation, we'll explore how her projects came to life, the impact it's having on architectural education and practice, and what's next as she prepares for graduation. This episode is about resilience, representation, and the power of sharing our stories. Let's explore her journey.

B Jaden, thank you for taking time out of your student schedule to be with us here today and talk with me on Practice Disrupted. How are you doing?

C Of course. Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing great. Finals actually are finished going into my last semester of school, so it all feels good.

B Is there anything outside of graduation you're looking forward to in 2025?

C Oh, my goodness. I mean, graduation is ruling my life in the best way. So I am excited to do a volume two of When in Doubt, specifically. It's coming, so we're gonna have a volume two. So that's also a really big exciting thing in my 2025.

B I think that's a great place to to kick it off. I was wondering around the Women's Leadership Summit, and there were a number of women that were coming up to me saying, have you seen Jaden's? And are you referring to it as a zine, essentially?

C Yeah. I I refer to it as a zine. It's so fluid, though. It's a book. It's a zine. It's a magazine. I feel like it's the easiest thing is just, like, whatever. It's kinda like to the speaker.

C Like, to my mom, I'll say a book because the zine is not in her in her repertoire. But for architects, zines. We'll do zines.

B So, anyways, they're like, have you seen Jaiden's when in doubt zine? It was sparked by a personal experience that she has. It's really interesting. I was like, no. But I need to track Jaden down. And, unfortunately, I caught you towards the end of women's leadership summit when you had given out all of your your zines, but I knew enough about it to want to bring you on practice disrupted. So thank you for sending me one. Would you care telling our guests a little bit about When in Doubt is?

C Of course. Of course. I was so glad to just share them with as many people as possible. So When in Doubt is a self made zine that's a collection of stories, artwork, and interviews that I conducted last spring that focuses on women's experiences in architecture. It weaves the stories of three women together that I interviewed, along with the artwork that some young students who were just learning. They were like five and seven year olds. We did a little girls design workshop, and the artwork throughout the entire zine is theirs. So we've got a little bit of a dichotomy of these young girls and their hopes and dreams on each page with our architects that were interviewed who are a bit more established in their career, sharing their experiences.

C And I really wanted to create the zine. It's called When in Doubt for anybody, not just women, not just architects, to pick up when they're feeling that pull, that pull maybe to quit, that pull of doubt that can wash over you when you've maybe had an experience that really shakes your self confidence. And that can be different for every single person, and it is different for every single person. But you're it might just happen. So what do you do when that happens to not feel alone? And I physically needed to just create something to get that out, to share it, to share the message. And it, like you said, it had kind of came from an experience that I had, and I have been in undergrad and was really high highs and then had a really low low professionally that definitely shook me in who I was in architecture. I hadn't considered what being a woman in architecture was before the experience. So, all of my classmates were women.

C I had women in leadership at my school. I had women professors. It just was not really something that even tracked with me until I had the experience that put me apart because of my gender and I was like, oh, okay, I guess I have to care about this now. I guess this is this is real. I had kind of gone through my teen years in the Me Too movement, so I thought we were over that. I guess we're not. And having that experience so young in my career kind of made me feel like I was standing still, trying to let everybody know that this is still a thing. But nobody was talking.

C And I was really full of doubt. I just moved to Milwaukee. I was supposed to be starting my master's and really excited. And instead, I was like, should I even be an architect? And I was questioning, questioning. And then I went to my first Women in Design Milwaukee event, which I had had really no exposure to an organization just for women in Phoenix when I lived there. And I walk into this event, which is at a bindery, a book bindery, that the architect was speaking at, and then someone was showing art books. And I walk in, and the room is full of women who are confident and happy and smiling and beautiful and blonde. I'd been told I was only ever gonna be the girl in the office the blonde girl in the office that gets coffee for people.

C So when I walked in and I saw smiling blonde women, I just started crying. It was all of a sudden the emotions from that from that experience hit me, and I realized it wasn't my fault. And it all I had to take a walk around the block. But when I went and let it out, but then I went back into the room, I sat for two hours, and I learned about bookmaking. And I learned about I heard this architect speak as well. And in that two hours, the fire totally was lit, and I was processing that it wasn't my fault, and that I'm also not alone, and that I physically needed to make something to process these emotions, or it was gonna burn me up from the inside because I was not processing it right. And I hadn't I hadn't really processed it or thought of it until that moment. So that's where the idea was born.

C I emailed Women in Design Milwaukee to say, Hey, What you do matters. I'm a huge proponent of letting people know if they're doing something that is meaningful, they should know it. Because you put in so much effort and volunteering so much time to know if it's even helpful. I wanted to let them know it was helpful. So I sent a little email, and they kicked back with, hey. Do you wanna speak at our event in a month about the zine that you're kind of talking about but kind of not? And I was like, sure. I don't really have a real idea of what it is. I just know I need to do something.

C Mhmm. And I spoke at this event. I shared some of my emotions, and that was the final nail in the coffin of, okay, I have to make this thing.

B You spoke it out into the world publicly.

C I kinda did. I was because I spoke it out, and the return back was women coming to me at the end and saying, I had the same experience. I why is nobody talking about it? It felt so good to hear someone say it. So I was like, Okay, I'm sold. Let me make a zine. And I got the school to let me do one as an independent study, so I kinda had time during my semester, and the rest was history. I just started going for it.

B That's amazing. Equally amazing that you went ahead and then filed for an independent study to actually be able to focus on on bringing this forward.

C I knew I wouldn't be able to with school. You know school. It's just it eats away at everything and your creativity. And I also kind of wanted to take take advantage of being in a master's degree that you really can shape that to be what you wanna be. You're paying so much. Make get out of it what you want out of it. So I kind of just said, let me do this. And they said, okay.

C And now we'll do another one.

B I understand why you're very inspired to take this on. But talk about the the format and then ultimately how you identified the three people that you wanted to include in volume one.

C Well, I really had zero idea what I was doing. I knew that I loved books. I loved reading them. I loved consuming them. Had I made one? No. Am I an interviewer? No. Photographer? No. Artist? No.

C But for some reason, I was like, I it's still gonna be a book. And I was really lucky at the time that this idea was forming. It was also really inspiring, so I wanted to find out how to do it. So through various connections of, oh, this classmate knows how to rhizograph print. So that's how I was able to get the format of knowing it's just gonna be one color. Okay. He knows all about the paper. I'll get that.

C And then at the same time, I was meeting Taruna, who's a feature in the zine, who's in charge, who co founded Women in Design Milwaukee ten years ago. So instantly, I was going to all these Women in Design events that were showcasing women right at the forefront who I was massively inspired by. I heard Marian speak at an event, and I selfishly was like, I want to learn from her. I want a one on one conversation with Marion because she can fill a room with her presence. She's just the most amazing human on the planet, and I needed to hear more from her. So I just was like, please please be in my student zine. You can play the student card a lot to get a lot of people to talk to you, and that was kind of the case for all three. So Lisa opened the second woman owned architecture practice in Wisconsin and also was the first AIA Golden Award member in Wisconsin.

C So all of that was a presence that I needed to dive into and tap into and understand from her experiences of not even getting to take the classes that were offered to students because they weren't offered to women when she was starting contrasted with my experience right now in school felt really important to give the context of what we're all situated in.

B And I read, you know, I read a little bit of Lisa's story and how her mom, her her tiny mom, all of five feet and a hundred pounds, dragged her down to to the boys' wing that had drafting and shop away from the home economics class just because she was interested in in doing something different. So you talked a little bit about the three women who, I mean, obviously they're in your sphere geographically, but it's so also so great to hear that you kind of again want, like, leverage your power as a student and said, like, I wanna learn from these individuals too. But the other thing and we hopefully will be able to post pictures of the book itself in show notes. The book itself is very well like, it's it's a craft. Right? I don't know all the different terminology of things that you use, but I I know it's bound. It's hand bound. Right? Like you said, it's, a single color print. It's a mixture of arts and, storytelling.

B You have pages that that fold out. Right? So why was it so important to you also the, like, the care and craft that went into the compiling of this volume?

C That was a hard thing because I knew that I that craft would be important in processing my emotions, and I wanted to create something that I was very proud of at the same time, and that required a physicality. I've always been better at drawing and working with things physically. And at the same time that I'm meeting all of these wonderful people, I also met the person who is the only reason I was able to bind this stuff, which was Robin Leenhoutz, who is she wouldn't mind. She's my old lady friend, who is just the sweetest human whose parents were actually two very prominent architects in Milwaukee in the thirties and were a big part of the modernist movement. And her house was also the seat of their architectural practice, and she was born and raised there since then and has lived there her whole life and was an artist her whole life and now, in retirement, finds and makes little handcrafted books. And she lives in my neighborhood. I just started getting tea and coffee with her because I love old people, and she wouldn't mind me saying that. I love them, and I want to learn from your stories and I want to sit and be with you.

C So we started talking books and then this summer she showed me how to handcraft all of it and let me some of her tools. But I did. In the in the spine, you put three you punch three holes in. And I will say I put about a million holes in my coffee table in my living room. But, yeah, physically, I wanted it to also be a work of art in itself. And I luckily got funded from the Wisconsin Architects Foundation to make about 60 copies with the funding I had. So that is the only reason there's a physical version. Otherwise, there there wouldn't have been any way to do it.

C So very grateful for that.

B I understand. Like, I I and I and I imagine if, like, multiple listeners can understand the need for for craft kind of in processing emotions being that a lot of us have a background in architecture and are architects. But can you be honest with me? By, like, number 60, were you kind of over yourself?

C I was over it, like, after two this summer, really. I was like, oh my gosh. But then I kept adding things. I did not need to laser cut the cover, but I knew it would look cool. And I didn't need to do I really, truly did not need to do these foldouts, which were the most tedious part, but it just I needed it to be special. Yeah. I guess this is truthfully, I really needed it to be special because I felt like the message was so important that to me that if it wasn't fantastic at the end and it wasn't worth sharing. If you weren't sold on the message, maybe you were sold on the craft so I could inadvertently give you support or get it shared with the world because it the message to me is the biggest thing, and how to share it with as many people as possible is the whole reason it exists.

C It's for when you're in doubt. Pick it up. Feel those things.

B No. The last time I've seen something actually very similar when it comes to the coloring and the paper and the binding was something that a nonprofit that I used to work for years ago, Public Architecture, put out. And they got funding of that through a national through a grant through the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as some other source. So make sure to remind me to follow-up with you about where they got that funding from. You have some really great storytelling coming from the interview of these three women. Are there moments in those interviews that either during the interview or in your recreating or retelling of the interview that really stand out? Do you have some favorite quotes?

C Yes. Very much so. What especially Marian was hitting impact effort impact with I'd asked her the question, The title of first Black female architect in Wisconsin, do you feel the impact of that? Because that was the context of Marian. Marian was the first licensed Black female architect in the state of Wisconsin. Not that far back either. And it's incredible that I'm speaking to someone who holds that title. And I asked her because she's so humble. She starts off after I ask her the question.

C She's like, First, you could be the first of anything and still be a proper jerk. So I think that explains clearly how Marian feels about a title doesn't just mean you're a good person automatically, but at first she didn't really she didn't let it hold a lot of weight in her life. She didn't share it out a lot. Nobody was really lifting it up around her until she did it. And she said, You know what? If no one's gonna recognize this, I don't care. She said, You know what? I'm taking it. If it's mine, I'm gonna own it. And if it inspires someone else, so be it.

C And I thought that was incredible and very true. Just just own it. Whether you're the first of anything or third or fourth or fifth, own who you are in that space. And I know we talk a lot about I don't want to be like a woman in architecture. I don't need that title. But if they're gonna put that on us, I'm gonna lift myself up in that, and I'm gonna find empowerment in being a woman in architecture. But, yes, Marianne's conversation was hugely impactful, especially with that statement. She left a good mark.

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B What impact have you seen the zine having on others? I mean, clearly you've seen enough to be inspired to pursue volume two, but also, and I think you went through a second round of production, or I don't know if I was around a second production, but you you may have gone above and beyond the the 60 now to continue to to get it out. So there must be some impact and and some feedback that you're hearing from volume one.

C As I was putting it out there in that last spring semester, I also got to showcase it at the AIA Wisconsin twenty twenty four state conference. So I started getting professional feedback there, but at the same time, people were recognizing that I obviously cared about women's issues in architecture. I was being pretty loud in the school, and I recognized that our Women in Design Students organization was all but dead, completely inactive. We had no presence in the school, And the past the person who was kind of supposed to pass the torch was like, Hey, you like women's rights. Please take over Women in Design students. And I had not had a leadership role in, student org in a really long time, so I didn't know what that meant. It was dead. There was nothing.

C But because of the feedback from the zine and the positive momentum that was being built within the school just by this one thing, I wanted to keep it going and maybe leave something at the school after I'm gone after another year. So I took on the presidency, and just after this first semester, I had a freshman come up to me who basically said what I said to Women in Design Milwaukee a year before. It was it was that thank you for giving this space. I didn't know that this existed. I didn't know we could have this, so thank you for bringing this to the school. I feel seen. I feel comfortable. And I was like, that is all I wanted.

B I thought that comment was going to go the other way as to why they needed to be there. But this Yeah.

C It was it was kind of like allowing students to recognize that they might need the support before knowing. Because I have noticed in school, as much as I was doing with women's issues and empowered by it, the support I was getting was a lot from my male classmates and not as much from my some of my female classmates, which we have

B That's an interesting and unexpected

C Unexpected. Until Yeah. You know, I and that was that was right away, and something I noticed initially. And that was another reason I wanted to bring women and design students back up and make the zine more present at the school. So we're talking. So we're learning from each other. And we're knowing maybe you haven't had that experience yet. Like, I didn't know in undergrad that we should be talking about women's issues because you don't know until it's too late.

C So if I could make us care before the bad and provide resiliency within these young students and empower them early and give them that confidence early that if something does happen, it doesn't shake them like it shook me. So that's kind of the impact the zine's having within my school, but I'm ready for it to fly even more.

B At the top of the show, you started talking about volume two. But are there plans to get volume one out that don't involve as much as much craft and care necessarily and and more more holes in your coffee table?

C I mean, not physically. I scanned because all that costs money. Right? Which I can continue I can do it after I graduate, maybe refocus on, like, a maybe pursuing someone to publish this and print it. But I have focused now on scanning it and making it into a digital resource because that is just where way more equitable to everyone, way more reach, which is also kind of at your suggestion. You'd mentioned having it digitally somewhere, and so I've been working to scan it. So I I think it'll have a digital life from here on out unless I can get it published. But in regards to volume two, that also because the momentum's great, I was like, why not another independent study? I loved it. I already had one interview already conducted in the Southwest that didn't quite make the first scene, so it already had a little bit of a base.

C But I didn't know if I had enough inspiration until I was having coffee with Miss Robin Leenhouts the other day, and she kind of came to me and was like, You know, I've been in a rut design wise and artistically, so what if, like, I help you with the zine and we, like, really artistically work a little bit more in playing with the medium? Because I will admit this first zine was it was all, like, trial run, trial by fire, throwing it together, and I'm super proud of the result. But obviously, Volume Two, I could do even more. I could maybe do two colors. I it's just so so malleable still and fun. So volume two is happening, but I don't quite know what it looks like either yet. But it's all working towards the goal of empowering young women or women of all ages in architecture or gender identities even to pick it up when you're feeling that doubt.

B You've alluded to it a lot throughout the conversation about what you hope the zine continues to do and how you hope the conversation continues. What is your advice, one, or what do you often say, one, to the allied members, the male supporters that have come up and and talked to you about how to pay it forward?

C Yeah. So I often have a lot of my male students who are like, can I come to this event? Are you sure? And I I love that they're respecting the space I've created for women on campus, but I'm always like, the more the merrier. So many of our events are not just about women. It's still professional development. We're doing portfolio reviews. Everyone is invited to everything we do because even if we're you're supporting women in leadership. You're supporting women's initiatives. You're supporting our next event just by being there.

C So I'm totally open to any allied members, men included, who just wanna support because some of those people can be your biggest supporters on the outside. And if I can get young men who are just at the start of their career to recognize that, one, we're not really gonna put up with it anymore, FYI, so get it straight. Two, that we can work together really well, and you can trust us, and we can be allies for the rest of our careers. So if I can make that impact on young men now too, I think they'll grow into the people that you want leading alongside of, not people that are more adversarial.

B So obviously, you've created a group that's very geographically based in your school. So what would you say to our young female listeners more broadly in practice disrupted about what they should do when they're having similar feelings that you were having that inspired When In Doubt?

C Well, first, if you're having one of those experiences, I think the main the main advice that it is so not your fault, is so not something you did. So take take that inside of your heart so that you instead of letting that bad experience tear you down or burn you up, let it light your fire instead. Don't let it extinguish. For me, it lit the fire so that I could create this zine, and now I'm talking to you. And now I'm sharing it with everyone, and I could not be happier. And it was because I had that experience. And so many times you can let it either knock you down and women will leave the profession, or let it bring you up. That's that's all I want.

C That's all I want is don't leave. Please don't leave. Just grow.

A Hi, disruptors. Thank you for joining us today on an episode of Practice Disrupted. If you like the content for today's show, you can find all of our past episodes over on practiceofarchitecture.com/podcast. Be a part of the conversation by joining me, our speakers, and other disruptors in our community at practiceofarchitecture.com/community. Our social media handle is practice of arch. That's practice of a r c h. We'd love to hear from you, so feel free to drop us a DM and say hello. Tune in next week for a new conversation on change in the profession.