Naly’s parents worked hard in blue collar jobs to attain their American Dream, and made higher education a main focus for all her siblings. This meant everyone in the family was expected to study, work, and be self sufficient from a young age.
Growing up, Naly read a variety of books and excelled at English and writing. She competed in spelling bees, writing contests, and won English awards.
She was part of a competitive traditional Hmong dance group called Starlight. She would attend dance practice after school, had a wide variety of sparkly performance outfits, and learned how to perform and compete in front of an audience in elementary and middle school.
In Junior High, she learned Adobe Photoshop 7.0 from an old college textbook her brother left behind with a companion disk. This sparked her creative interests and she learned basic HTML and CSS online. She designed her first website in AngelFire for fun.
She attended three high schools growing up due to her family moving to North Carolina. Naly was part of the Business Club and Technology Club.
She continued reading, writing, and learning graphic design before being old enough to waitress. She also worked with her mother at a paper factory after school. She learned how a warehouse worked, assembly line creation, paper types and finishes, and shipping palettes of books and products.
As a teenager, she posted her graphic design skills online and got her first client. She designed a flyer for a cosmetics company that was going to a trade show. They paid her $150 in cash at Panera and she sent them a designed flyer front and back.