Kiera Fairchild: The Bioplastics Engineer with a Creative Heart 🌿✨

“I shape polymers like clay, and my lab coat is my canvas.” 🎨🔬

Once upon a time, in a world suffocated by plastic waste, a girl with paint-covered hands and her mind engaged in equations dreamed differently. That girl is me—Kiera Fairchild—a Bioplastics Engineer 9 to 5, a mad artist 5 to midnight, and a wild dreamer every second in between. This is my story, untethered and unfiltered, from the fluorescent lighting of corporate hell to the vibrant sun of science and soul meeting in the laboratory.

The Grind: From Zero to (Almost) Hero

I didn’t start as the “Eco-Innovator” or “Queen of Green Polymers.” No. I started as one more anonymous intern, getting coffee for men in suits who didn’t know PLA from PET. My first job? Sorting garbage. Literally. Eight hours a day sorting recycling, while my art degree gathered dust. And here’s the thing about the bottom; when you lose everything, you either break or dig for diamonds. 💎

I dug.

I spent my nights hunched over my kitchen table mixing DIY bioplastics made from potato starch and vinegar (it smelled like a science fair disaster in my cramped apartment). My days were spent enduring the incredulous side-eyes from my colleagues who thought I was “too emotional” for STEM. Joke's on them; emotion is the site of invention. Tears, rage, and a stupid amount of caffeine were my rocket fuel. 🚀

The Breakthrough: Art and Science Collide

Then came the moment. A failed experiment (number 47 of the month) left me with a glob of gelatinous goo. Instead of tossing it in the trash, I shaped it. That glob became a biodegradable vase—ugly as sin, but alive. That’s when I realized: sustainability is about beauty, as much as it is function. 🌸

Here I am today; I create materials that break down like rose petals, and hold up like steel. My lab is a chaotic mashup of 3D printers, oil paints, and half-full matcha lattes. My goal is to show that science doesn’t have to be sterile—science can bleed, bruise, and dance.

Souls in the Science

I’m not here to “disrupt the industry” (yikes). I’m here to make you feel something. I want to show you that every plastic fork you’ve ever thrown away, had the potential to be art. That your job doesn’t have to dampen your creativity—it can ignite it.

So anyways, I’m Kiera Fairchild—part engineer, part poet, all chaos. Follow along if you dare. 🔥

P.S. I can still never spell "biodegradable" right on the first try. Sue me. 🙃