MIU MIU dress, sock, and shoes. — **MIU MIU** dress, sock, and shoes.

Take a story and strip it down. you’re left with just two points and a vast nothing cradled in the middle. Twenty-four-year-old Myha’la Herrold can relate, as she finds herself wedged between the vast points of beginning and resolution. As she lays on the bedroom floor of her New York apartment, Herrold surrounds herself in the sea of film photographs she has taken this year, one every day since the lockdown in early March. She adorns the edges of her compiling photo album with handwritten ponderings of the moment. Instead of being absorbed by the tide of the unknown, Herrold fills the nihility with what she does know. She knows that this time is adaptable. She knows that we don’t need policing in the way that it has existed. And she knows that it’s not common to graduate and nine months later star in an HBO series where the pilot episode is directed by the great Lena Dunham.

Herrold’s affinity for acting first began at the mere age of six, starting in community theatre in her hometown of San Jose, California. The recent Carnegie Mellon graduate played Nabulungi in The Book of Mormon’s national tour in 2017, and had a stint on Amazon Prime’s Modern Love before landing the lead role on HBO’s newest drama, Industry. From first-time creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, comes an eight-episode series that follows a group of young graduates who compete for a limited number of roles at a leading international bank in London. At the center of the ensemble cast is Harper Stern, an ambitious and sharp-witted twenty-three-year-old, with a knack for crafting undeniably risky trades. Fueled by nothing but her ambition and determination, Harper must navigate through the treacherous reality of the gruelingly competitve industry, which is clouded by greed, sex, drugs, and impossible expectations.

While much of the financial jargon might be lost on the layperson, at the heart of Industry is not just an inside look at ‘high finance’, but an authentic coming-of-age drama featuring five young people trying to figure it all out. Laced with the anxiety that inevitably follows life after graduation, along with the intimacies and intricacies of being young, each episode renders the occasional agony of self-formation and the turmoil of what the future will hold.

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN suit and shoes. — **ALEXANDER MCQUEEN** suit and shoes.

Herrold shares, “I know who this person is. I can tell you who this person is.” And for many of us twenty-somethings, we do know this person. We are this person. She confides, “Harper has a line: ‘ I never want to be judged on anything but by the strength of my abilities,’ and I absolutely feel that way.” Like most young people starting in a new industry, both Harper and Herrold hold themselves to incredibly high standards, met with the constant pressure of becoming indispensable. She adds, “Because you’re young and everything is riding on this, you have to be perfect, or so you feel.” This might be why young people have been succumbing to what Herrold can only describe as ‘Imposter Syndrome’, acting as though we can progress faster than the natural tempo of time and experience it takes to learn and change for ourselves.

And authentic experience anchors Industry. When you think of high banking society, the words ‘white’ and ‘male’ might come to mind, but amongst the shades of grey suits at Pierpoint and Co. is an effortless portrayal of the diverse population that makes up the finance industry. Portraying a young Black woman in the space, Herrold affirms the importance of this series for those with whom her character resonates. Transcending a mimetic approach where art mirrors life, she shares that the creators Down and Kay created a space where “humanity looks at humanity.” Herrold adds, “What they did was say, ‘Here is a world we are a part of and this is what it looks like’.”

It has been more than a year since Herrold wrapped her time with Harper and returned to her home in New York. Since then, she has spent a lot of time reflecting. At the age of fourteen, she remembers wishing to explore outside of what she knew, announcing in a faux British accent, “I belong with the artists in London.” Ten years later, it’s as though her trajectory was indeed wished upon. As we all traverse through each of our furies during this time of in-between, Myha’la Herrold shares the importance of keeping our kindreds close. Because that is what the term ‘growing up’ consists of: events, moments, and people whose presence lingers in every aspect of who we are. For Herrold, this resonance of experience most recently features her beloved cast and forever has held close her mother. She wishes, “I know this is going to happen at some point, but I wish that my mom and I lived in the same city.”