#1 New York Times bestselling author and the 2024 College of Humanities Honored Alumni Ally Condie spoke about the power and pain of creativity.
As a child, author Ally Condie loved two things: stories and unicorns. She would often come up with stories about unicorns in her mind, which she would then dictate to her babysitter. As she grew up and started to write her own novels—such has her 2010 bestselling young adult book Matched—she realized how her childhood fascination with creating new worlds and characters laid the groundwork for her trajectory into a career as an author.
In her Honored Alumni Lecture titled “Created to Create: Your Divine Birthright,” given on October 10, 2024, Condie shared how she’s realized her creative potential, how creativity helped her face her challenges, and how hope has helped her bring her creations to life.
The Joys—and Challenges—of Creation
As humans, we have a natural instinct to create, though what we create varies from person to person. As an author, Condie has made a career out of creating books, but she also described the pride she has in creating her family and engaging in numerous hobbies such as making freezer jam or going on hikes. Whatever you create, she described participating in creative pursuits as one of the “biggest, best joys you can have.”
According to Condie, creativity first blooms in childhood. Quoting Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Condie said, “‘The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.’” In addition to sharing about her own creative childhood, Condie shared some poems and artwork created by young children, demonstrating how that instinct thrives in us when we’re young but wears off as we get older—eventually becoming something we must continually work at. She said, “There’s a moment where we realize, ‘Oh, maybe this is harder than I thought,’ but we're born with [that creative instinct]. We're born thinking we can make stuff.”
The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.
As adults, nurturing that creative instinct in ourselves not only requires work but also hope. Inspired by the famous Emily Dickinson poem “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” Condie explained how “hope is something scary to have.” She said, “There have been times when hope has been something I've chosen not to have because it was too painful. And there have been times when it felt like the only answer, like living without it would be pain.” In those moments of uncertainty, hope allows us to create even when we don’t know if our creation will hold any value.
In the Company of Creators
Citing a metaphor from author Ann Patchett, Condie likened creative ideas to butterflies. “We have all these ideas, and they're like these butterflies,” Condie said. “They're beautiful. And they can remain that way in our head forever.” Unfortunately, as Condie explained, taking those butterflies out of our heads and trying to make them real will inevitably cause pain; we’ll never be able to make them as beautiful as they were in our heads. But that shouldn’t stop us from creating. The creative process, though painful, not only allows us to share our creations and contribute to the ongoing conversation of human experience, but it also allows us to reach our potential as divine beings with a divine gift of creation.
To foster creativity, Condie suggested finding communities where creativity can thrive. “Creating is springs and wells,” Condie said. “I’ve learned that sometimes you have something that’s bubbling up. . . and sometimes it’s. . . a reservoir that you’re drawing on that someone else has created near.” As Condie has followed her own creative path, she's found her own communities: her friendships with fellow authors, her relationships with her children, and the audiences she writes her books for.
She illustrated how even small acts of kindness and consideration—such as receiving a bouquet of flowers from a friend or finding pretty murals made in nature—can create a sense of connection and shared humanity. Most of all, she emphasized that creation is not solely an individual pursuit but an opportunity to connect with others, offer support, and find solace in shared experiences.
By embracing the joys and challenges of creation, we honor our divine potential. As she concluded her lecture, Condie quoted author Susan Cain to illustrate her thoughts on the pain and beauty of creation: “Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering.”
View past Honored Alumni lectures here.