“One of my biggest motivators is setting a pipeline for women, specifically minorities, letting them know that the tech field is booming and we need to be apart of it.”

Born and raised in Richmond, CA, Aurora Diaz grew up in a humble household where she would soon become the first person in her family to pursue a higher education. Growing up, she was very outspoken and outgoing which played towards her advantage as she spearheaded her marketing career. Guided by her personal interest in beauty, Aurora is currently the Marketing Development Specialist for Musely, a free beauty and lifestyle app which promotes healthy living.

What are your job responsibilities?

Specifically what I do is grant partnerships but since we are a startup we are very cross functional meaning I participate in range of activities at the company from helping brands to helping fight bugs on the app and testing new things/features. Everyday is something different.

How did your career story start? How did you get that first foot in the door?

I took a lot of internships in college, and I think that’s super important because you really get to see what you want to do. Initially I didn’t know what I wanted to do -- first I wanted major in psychology and quickly realized that was not for me. Someone asked me what my interest was, and I told her that ever since I was really young I would always subscribe to all these magazines...always reading Cosmo, Seventeen so I wanted to be in journalism.

I went into the journalism field and then I realized I was pretty business-savvy so then I decided to go into Public Relations. My first internship was with a fashion blog, and this was when blogs were first taking off. And I found it so interesting that you can interact with an audience through your computer. And since then I’ve been through numerous internships involving public relations or marketing which really shaped what I wanted to do.

I’m sure it’s really exciting to work for a startup, what do you love most about your job?

That I get to see how much the app has changed and grown so much. Who wouldn’t have joined Pinterest or Instagram when it first started? We started with nothing and now we have recruited over 150 brands.  Seeing all of these brands I have bought for years and seeing them selling on our marketplace, that is my favorite part about it.

What is your motivation? For you in you career and for you in life?

One of my biggest motivators right now is setting a pipeline for other women, specifically minorities, letting them know that the tech field is booming and we need to be apart of it. And it’s our duty and my role as somebody who is in tech, though there are few, to let others know they can pursue that. Growing up in Richmond, you don’t even has access to a computer sometimes so I think it is really important to let people know that there are other opportunities out there.

What advice do you have, whether it’s for Latinas or young students like us, who want to branch off and be successful?

Definitely get involved and just think about what you like to do, whether it be reading, math, or playing sports. Mold your career around what you like doing because that will ultimately make you happy when you go out to work everyday.  

A very big thank you to Aurora Diaz for taking the time for this interview. If you would like to learn more about Musely, visit https://www.musely.com/ or download the free app on Google Play or the App Store.