Your whole life you have been told that you:

1. Have an unusual voice.
2. Sound like Donald Duck/Homer Simpson/A Powerpuff Girl.
3. Should get paid for doing all the annoying things you do with your voice.
4. Any or all of the above.

Congratulations! It sounds like you are perfect for the voice-over industry!

Ever since I was seven years old, people told me that I had an unusual voice. When I think about it now that just seems like an incredibly personal if not “judgmental” thing to say to a child. I suppose I could have just stopped doing whatever it was that fascinated people. After all, “unusual” can have a somewhat condescending hint to it.

For whatever reason, I never took offensively. In fact, I started to “use” my voice, manipulating it, squeezing it, dropping it, tightening it, doing whatever I could whenever I told a joke or a story, and it worked. They laughed. So, I did it some more. I found what worked for me, and I continued to entertain my friends and adults alike with my unusual voice, simply because it made them laugh, which made me feel good about myself, by the way.

We lived in suburbia America — station wagons, Catholic school, kick-the-can at dusk and drive-in movies. As a young girl, I had very short hair. My mom had this idea that short hair was easier to care for, so about every six months or so, coincidentally about the same time we went to the dentist, my sister and I would go with my mom into downtown Dayton, Ohio, to get our “pixie” haircuts. We looked forward to taking the bus, and at the ripe old age of seven, riding the bus into downtown Dayton was an adventure in itself. The only thing that I did not like was when the blade was not new. That would hurt. Other than that, oh wait; there was one more thing. Everyone thought I was a boy!

Okay, so here we have a seven-year-old girl with an unusual voice, who everyone thinks is a boy! No problem! I decided to make lemonade. That’s right. It never bothered me that the old man at the butcher shop called me “sonny.” It never bothered me that the woman who worked at the post office said to me, “What can I get you, son?” I just thought everyone in my hometown needed glasses.

As I continued to “find my voice,” I chose activities that made me happy. I found that this was a very smart thing to do. My parents were supportive and that is something that I never took for granted. Having six kids in eight years proved to be a very active household, yet somehow we all managed and were encouraged by our parents to find our own skills, hobbies and interests. From acting, painting, music and sports, the Cartwright kids did it all. I was never labeled as a “geek,” a “jock” or a “thessssssssssssssspian” because I got myself involved in as many activities as I could handle and I did what I loved.

When I was young, I did not really know where I was headed, I just knew I wanted to have fun getting there. So, I competed in gymnastics, played the trumpet, French horn, baritone and acted in community theater and the class plays at school. I know it sounds like I am tooting my horn, (no pun intended) but by the time I was 16, I finally latched on to a group I could call my own. It was one that I admired from afar for some time. It was the speech team.

I had heard that high school had a cool speech team; and because I loved the idea of telling stories and jokes that made folks laugh, well that was it for me. I joined the forensics team and eventually went on to win the national district competition two years in a row at Ohio University, giving me a scholarship where I competed on the university’s team. I was in heaven. After competitions, the judges would often say things to me like, “Kid, you’ve got an unusual voice! You should do cartoons!” Ha! The seed was planted was planted in my mind, and I was off and running with it!

My point? Find your niche. In the voice-over industry, there are many avenues to choose from broadcast news, commercials, sports reporting, animation, public speaking, narration, CDs, loop groups, merchandise and audio books. The key question here is, Where do personally you fit in? Ask yourself, what actions really get my passion? When you can ask yourself that, you have taken the first step to loving your career, and ultimately loving yourself for the choices you make.