From writing to music video editing, Jessica Gao is following her north star of creative fulfillment when making music.

Gao, a recent UCLA graduate with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science, has been releasing music since last September. Her recent single “Star Streaks” explores the uncertainty that comes with growing up. Gao’s origins in songwriting stem from high school journal entries, but she said she has also learned to play guitar and has taken the lead in creating, producing and directing her own music videos. Beyond music, Gao said she has always been involved in creative endeavors, from starting a magazine to directing sketch comedy videos.

“In fifth grade, I was in this art class,” Gao said. “I just wrote on the paper, ‘I want to make stuff forever,’ and I don’t know what that means yet or what that looks like, but I think that’s really carried through.”

While her first official single release was last September, Gao said she had experimented with music since she was young, singing melodies into her iPod touch and eventually teaching herself guitar in middle school after finding her sister’s guitar. She said she then began covering songs and making videos without posting them. When she started journaling in high school, her own songs began to take form, inspiring her to learn how to use GarageBand to record and produce. With few connections to the music industry, Gao said these self-taught efforts helped forge her path.

“I started experimenting,” Gao said. “I had so much fun with it. I love doing it all the time, and I didn’t really have rules with how I produced either – it was free flow and see what happens.”

After many produced drafts, Gao said she created her first single, “Monterey,” a queer story about unconfessed love, shifting relationships and making peace with change amid moving away to college. Along with her self-taught musicianship and producing, Gao said she also edited, storyboarded and even starred in the music video for “Monterey” with her friend. In her third release “Phone Line” – a continuation of the storyline of “Monterey” – Gao added that she instructed her friends to take on production roles, and she even sourced members from the student group Bruin Bladers & Rollerskaters to help her vision come to life.

Gao said her latest release, “Star Streaks,” centers on the lack of certainty and identity exploration encountered when getting older, being away from family and accepting the difficulty of that uncertain journey. The single’s video, filmed in Gao’s sister’s apartment, features three dancers in a free-flowing accompaniment for the flow-of-consciousness style song as Gao said she envisioned. For the dancers, Gao said she reached out to her close friend Eva Spaid, a recent musical theater graduate from Syracuse University, who brought in two of her friends to choreograph and dance.

“I remember having so much fun being able to collaborate with other artists who were so, so talented and making this piece together,” Gao said. “I was like, ‘This is what it’s all about.’”

While Gao has worked largely independently and is self-taught in many avenues, she said she has enjoyed finding other artists to collaborate or connect with at UCLA. Gao said she has found community in the school’s arts scene, especially after taking music classes in her senior year once she had finished her major requirements. She said she is looking to collaborate more with others in the future.

Spaid said she has worked with Gao in many ways, like co-directing a musical in high school, jam sessions, dancing in “Star Streaks” and hopes to continue their professional relationship by choreographing a video or even contributing Spaid’s banjo skills to a song. Spaid said Gao’s ability to orchestrate all aspects of her work and self-reliance are impressive and often overlooked qualities of musical artists. Spaid also highlighted Gao’s natural talent for writing, adding that her distinct voice carries over into her songwriting.

“She’s very witty, very creative and very moving,” Spaid said. “If you have a conversation with her, even how she texts or how she writes a card is very beautifully presented – and silly – and she has a beautiful way of writing and that really comes across in music.”

Jenny Gao, the musician’s older sister, identified Jessica Gao’s unapologetic pursuit of her artistry as another notable trait. Jenny Gao said the extent her sister goes to execute her creative visions is admirable, describing her attendance at a Bruin Bladers & Rollerskaters’ event with the intention of finding people organically for the “Phone Line” video, which featured people in roller skates. Further, while Jenny Gao said her sister takes some inspiration from indie artists and aesthetics, she said she ultimately retains her own unique voice and avoids trying to conform to any curated image.

“She makes an effort to be 100% herself,” Jenny Gao said. “Everything from her lyrics, to her music video, to how she promotes it is very much her.”

Jessica Gao said that since graduating, she has been writing more songs and hopes to put out an EP for her next release. In August, she will move to Seattle for a job in marketing but said she hopes to continue enjoying music outside of the nine-to-five life and do live gigs in the area. Jessica Gao said she plans to keep doing what she loves and being open to where it takes her. She said she finds viewing her music as a source of income, as opposed to something that is purely creatively driven, can increase the pressure to succeed commercially and take away from what she enjoys about the artistic process.

“My favorite part of creating – whether that’s in music or film – is the pure joy that you feel making it,” Jessica Gao said. “Being in that flow, and seeing what I come up with, and feeling free in that process is a feeling that I always want to have when I make things.”