Jerlyn Thomas, one of the members featured in our subway ad campaign, is a NYC-based web designer and developer. You can read her thoughts on design, food, and nerdy stuff on her blog. She’s very excited to have the internet in her pocket. I’m more of a permalancer. I have a permanent 10-6 job. I work at an agency, mostly working on flash-related accounts. I like the regular hours, and I get to go home and work on my own projects. It’s a good balance with my day-to-day work and my regular hours.  I love that I can have the balance between what I work on during the day and still get to work on my projects. My advice to new freelancers is to create a balance. If you don’t find work doing what you want to do, make up projects to keep up your skills. Just make something up while you look for jobs. Or volunteer somewhere to do work. There are always people who are looking for help. I love the freedom I have as a freelancer. I’m about to take a vacation. It’ll be my first time back to the Commonwealth of Dominica—where I’m from—and I wouldn’t get to visit for as long if I weren’t a freelancer. See Jerlyn in our subway poster after the jump. Every project I work on I try to take something forward. I worked on the interface for the nook 2. It was a new platform. Now I’m starting to focus on iphone apps. Now there are things like the ipad. Currently, everyone is using mobile. We have to look at things in different ways than just websites. When you do mobile, you have to know that people are carrying the internet in their hands. I get my health insurance through Freelancers Union. I looked around at different websites, and liked what I found. Getting insurance was kind of a process. I got stuff sent back a number of times. But I’m a really active person, and I want to make sure I’m protected. The cost is worth it. It’s part of the sacrifice of being a freelancer. Insurance is important, especially for freelancers. - Jerlyn