Aaliyah Raghnal

I took the Squarespace Design Course. This course was genuinely healing work. Going to be so real, there were moments where I wanted to give up, give in, and toss off my little fantasy web design top hat. However, I did not. I learned first that I was not alone; I had a whole community of people on the Discord channel who had either figured it out or were willing to help. There were also times when I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could figure it out on my own. Spoiler alert: I did! Let me tell you, those breakthrough moments boosted my self-confidence. My mindset has shifted from “looks like I can’t figure it out; I guess I’m stuck” to "okay, let’s try this, and if it doesn’t work, let’s try something else.” My little fantasy web design top hat has become me being a confident web designer who can figure things out!

My favorite thing about the course was honestly how engaging it was! The gamification really kept me invested. Puno also had me cracking up; she’s got jokes in there and makes it so fun!

My advice for anyone thinking about taking the course is to go ahead and do it! I'd recommend to give yourself deadlines and try to stick with them as best as you can and to be forgiving if you fall behind. The great thing is that the course is self-paced, and there’s even resources on how to jump back in!

I’m a creative multi-hyphenate with a lot of interests and hobbies. I’m an actor, event programmer, writer, and also enjoy video editing. I made my first Squarespace website 5 years ago for my acting site, but I was frustrated that it didn’t look the way I wanted it to. I tried again with Canva and was again disappointed. Now, not only can I make websites for others, including my creative friends, but I can create sites that fully showcase what it is I do. There is something so empowering about that, especially as a creative.