#but as a hobby stressing over quality and finished stuff and all that jazz only held me back honestly

[abel-draws]

If you want to start your dream project just start now!! Draw 10 pages, a chapter, whatever. Have fun and, if you see that it's not working, you will have learnt, you will have had fun, you will be able to go back to it later with even more knowledge. No effort is wasted.

But I've also realized that sometimes we are convinced that if we don't work on something with marketable quality, it's no good, that we should aspire to do industry-quality stuff. Nothing is as freeing as realizing that that's not true and that you can just draw whatever the hell you want and work on your stories and characters however it brings you the most fun.

[askauradonprep]

What jobs would the Descendants characters have?

Ooooh, fun! :D The good news is that Descendants takes place in the modern day, so a lot of jobs are still applicable to the Descendants verse. 

AKs

Ben - Probably runs to be head of state for whatever country it would be in the ‘real world’ AU, assuming the country was a democracy - he’s got a good family and money, so that would probably help. He probably went to the creme de la creme of universities and will study politics and law with minors in economics and public policy so he does well. He works himself to the bone and of course he goes to grad school, what is he, an amateur? Long story short, he doesn’t sleep for all his post secondary career. 

Audrey - I feel like Audrey’s very artistic and theatrical and would probably enjoy going in to the arts. But she’s supposed to carry on the family name and so she goes into politics, advocating for her ‘state’ or ‘province’ at the federal level. She probably studied politics and public policy and got involved in her school’s theatre department for fun, quietly musing it would be nice to be in the performing arts. 

Chad - Chad’s in politics, but on the sleazy side of politics where he takes bribes and treats people like they’re stepping stones - you know, the stereotypical politician. He’d probably manage to network his way into campaign positions. He went to grad school with Ben and Audrey but he didn’t take it seriously - he only took politics, no double majoring. His hobbies were sports and misogyny in school. 

Jane - Jane would make a super great event planner. She stresses herself out asking a million questions about decorations and food and what her employers want. She just wants their wedding or prom or party or whatever to be PERFECT! She went to college instead of university, for Special Events Planning and her phone rings off the hook. 

Doug - Doug wasn’t sure what he wanted to go into - accounting, computer programming, working in a chemistry lab somewhere, whichever. But as Evie’s business grew and grew, he became more and more invested in its success, and so now he’s become her brand manager with Evie as the CEO. With that in mind, he went to school for Business Administration with a focus in Marketing and a minor in Accounting. That way, if he and Evie break up and the job doesn’t work out, he can become a manager somewhere else. 

Lonnie - Lonnie’s a DJ who competes in kickboxing competitions. She has a bunch of medals and trophies on her mantle. She got started helping out her brother at his own DJing gigs but she’s since learned to solo. She started going to college for Musical Technology but she stopped after two years because she was booking more gigs and wanted to practice more for her kickboxing. So far it’s worked out, though her parents would feel more comfortable if she’d finished her degree. 

Jordan - Jordan became a professional blogger as her blog got more and more hits. She talks about fashion, makeup, lifestyle stuff, music, cooking, and basically whatever she wants to talk about. She didn’t bother with college and as long as the blog pays the bills, her dad’s cool with that. Her backup plan is to go into social media, organizing campaigns. 

Ally - Ally’s a travel writer with columns about the new and fun things, big and small, from different cultures in the places she visits. Whether it’s shrunken heads like the one Freddie gave her or an article about traditional food and its semblances, she’ll write about it. That said, she still has a tendency to run her mouth at first glance and so she’s written some fairly insensitive things, even though she means well. The good news is she DOES mean well and would probably change her writing style if she learned it was genuinely hurting people. She probably double majored in cultural anthropology and cultural geography. 

VKs

Mal - Mal’s probably an artist who’s got a bunch of stuff in galleries and things like that. Now granted, dating the President or whatever doesn’t hurt, but I think she’d submit her stuff under pseudonyms at first, just to make sure they like her stuff based on quality. She probably didn’t go to college with Ben - she probably attended an art college or something where she majored in Drawing and honed her craft. Yes, that’s a real degree you can get. I’ve seen it on a zillion college websites. 

Carlos - CARLOS IS A PRECIOUS BABY. He achieved his dream of running a shelter for abused animals and children. Sometimes he has to keep animals away from kids but he finds animal therapy helps both of them a lot of the time. He became a psychology major with an emphasis on crisis and abuse counselling and also got a degree in animal science with a bunch of animal welfare certificates. He lives with Jane over the top floor of the shelter with the kids. He likes to joke about having 20-30 children at any given time. 

Jay - Even in a world where tourney and ROAR don’t exist, he probably went into professional sports. It’s his biggest outlet. When he retires as he gets older, he’ll become a coach and teach the next generation - so he went into physical education to get his teaching credentials. 

Evie - …Is this a question? She’s still a fashion designer. Going to high school with some big names made it easy to get her name out there and she’s been rolling into her career since. She probably went to art school with Mal and majored in Fashion design and then went to grad school with Doug to major in business administration. She’s been considering branching out into makeup beauty products like lotions, jewellery design, accessories and hair care. …You know, in between chemistry papers that she publishes on the down low. 

Freddie - I’m thinking she’d still want to be a jazz singer. She probably skipped college so she could pound the pavement looking for opportunities. She started off singing in a club or a bar during daylight hours or maybe a hotel. Eventually she got noticed though and now she’s got a record deal and her smoky voice will be all over the radio. 

Zevon - He’d PROBABLY want to go into politics. I can see him absolutely scrambling and be willing to work as a staffer for decades. His issues with malapropisms make it tricky for some people to think he’s competent, but underestimating him is a mistake - he’s surprisingly good at planning and he thinks of unforeseen circumstances. Lack of post secondary on the Isle would make it harder though - so unless he gets off the Isle, he’ll probably be mixing up new medicines, products, etc. No magic doesn’t mean those skills are worthless.

CJ - Heck if I know. She’s one of those people who goes from place to place living off backpacking and taking odd jobs to pay her way. Most likely didn’t go to any kind of college ….which, tbf, she doesn’t seem to have finished high school so. There’s that. 

Dizzy - Probably a cosmetologist and hair dresser. She’s got her own hair and beauty salon where she supplements her favourite tricks with her mom’s old ones. She still gets SO EXCITED when she gets to do whatever she wants. She probably went to beauty school and got whatever licenses she needed and may have also gotten a certificate in jewellery design or something. She’s collabed with Evie before and would love to do so again. 

Uma - …….And now I’m mad because she, Harry and Gil probably just took over their parents shops or whatever, so she’s still stuck working the restaurant. At least now she might be a manager? Even so that bites. If she got off the Isle, those three are probably either sailors for hire (for like researchers or travellers or whatever), but I can see her as a lobbyist or activist for Isle issues. She’d be ready to kick in Ben’s door and yell at him for whatever he’s doing wrong. In which case she may have gone to school and majored in politics?

Harry - Hook owned a fishing shop, so he and Harriet worked out a deal. He does the actual fishing if she’ll run the shop. They also go around mugging people and taking money and things to survive so there’s that, but I presume you mean legal jobs. If he’s not on the Isle and Uma’s crew aren’t sailors for hire, I don’t know. I’ve only ever seen him as a sailor. A sword fighting teacher? Uma’s assistant? Oh, actually, he’s fairly theatrical. He might not make a half bad actor or dancer. I can see him vacillating a lot if he’s not a sailor, not getting tied down, just taking whatever classes for funsies while Uma’s there and then ditching as soon as she graduated if he doesn’t find anything in particular to strike his fancy.

Gil - Gil probably works at the hunting store with his brothers. If they won’t let him, he’ll go fishing with Harry. Outside the Isle, I’m not sure if they’re not sailors. A bodyguard would make a good job for him since he’s the crew’s muscle. Uma’s maybe? I can also see him going into sports like bodybuilding or maybe modelling. He’s a cutie who’s smile could make flowers grow, he’d do well.