About Elizabeth Phillips

Elizabeth Phillips was born in Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1977 to a chilled out American Vietnam War veteran and a Korean-born badass. I grew up in Stafford, Virginia, a small rural town where there weren’t too many minorities. I can’t even tell you the number of times I was asked if I knew any “Karate Kid” moves.

When I was four, my dad had a heart attack and died. (Smoking unfiltered Camels will do that to you. It sucks the Truth campaign didn’t exist at the time.) He was 41. So my Korean mother was left raising 3 children on her own. She spoke such horrible broken English back then. “ootball” was football. “Oodbridge” was Woodbridge and so forth. God forbid you try and correct her. She’d snap, “Do you speak two languages? Then keep hush.”

In kindergarten, I was diagnosed with being gifted in creativity. So until I got to high school, I took “special” creativity classes. By the time I entered high school, they retested me and said I was also gifted in being introspective. Basically, I can walk in people’s shoes. Cool, I know.

In high school, I worked on the yearbook as a copywriter. I remember wanting to do something with English and the guidance counselor gave me an English career book. I remember seeing the description for copywriter. “Work in an ad agency and create magazine ads, television commercials and billboards. Must be creative.” I was sold.

Enter Virginia Commonwealth University aka VCU. While I was an undergrad, they opened the VCU Adcenter—now known as the VCU Brandcenter. Here, I was taught by some seriously incredible people. While building my portfolio here, I worked at Circle Center Adult Day Care. I took care of seniors with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. I did everything from wiping their asses (I’m not joking) to feeding them. I even figured out a way to get a Parkinson’s participant to paint–something he really wanted to do, but couldn’t for years. It was absolutely the most rewarding job I ever had.

After graduation (are you still with me?), there was a stinkin’ recession. My timing was perfect. There were absolutely no jobs. So I took whatever I could get. I worked at a little start-up called Job.com as an Account Manager. After a short time, I realized it was sink or swim. I needed to get a job in advertising. I took a copywriting gig at Hammer Communications, a small real estate shop in DC. I was the only copywriter for over a year. It was tough. Especially since it was during the real estate boom.

After a little over two years, I saw an ad on Craigslist of all places that Arnold Worldwide was looking for an interactive copywriter. I had done a ton of interactive freelance work, mainly websites and search engine optimization. After nearly 6 years working on almost every account–including Amtrak, The Bahamas, BlueCross BlueShield, McDonald’s, JEA, and Colonial Williamsburg–and almost every kind of digital project you can think of as well as traditional projects like print and radio, I left to pursue my passion: digital. I am currently looking for new career opportunities.

I live in Gainesville, Virginia with my husband, son, two daughters, cockapoo and 8 fish.

The reason I started this blog is because I was sick of not pulling up on Google and Yahoo. Elizabeth Phillips is like the most common name on the planet so I decided to take matters into my own hands and create my own digital footprint.

See my YouTube videos.