Listen Now
At 21, Keith Kurson uses many titles to describe himself: developer, CEO, professional procrastinator. He spends most of his time working at Agoge Incorporated, a company which created the social networking game and community, Subeta, or hanging out with the WIFI at Starbucks drinking Ice Chai Lattes (three pumps of vanilla and non-fat milk, please!).
He’s spent six long years building Subeta, an online community where members adopt virtual pets then fight to the death with them against other players, or just dress their avatar up in pretty outfits and socialize that way. There are auctions, trades, shops, cults, and even journals the members can access to enhance their online experience, building a world around them and their virtual pets. With over 100,000 members, and growing, adding approximately 150 new members daily, it’s entertaining, fun, and an incredibly social atmosphere for people of all ages, but especially for the younger female crowd.
It takes a creative spirit and free thinker to create such social groups on the web, helping young people build communities and interact with each other through inanimate and virtual pets that many become very passionate about. The community sites break down barriers, helping members develop self esteem and confidence through competitive interaction.
Kurson also created Valenth, a fantasy adoptable site where the virtual pets are feed different foods which influences their adoption results and stages, and Squiby, similar to Valenth with more than 22,000 species and over 2.5 million adopted.Kruson knew the pain of isolation through high school. In this rare interview, he opens up about how he was victimized and brutalized by bullies, and how the teachers didn’t actively interfere, leaving him not just feeling victimized but even more isolated and lost. He tells of how his conservative, low-income family couldn’t cope with his non-traditional beliefs and homosexuality, even though he fought hard to live up to “normal” expectations and stereotypes.
He talks of the pain of finally leaving high school, and without support from his family, how he filed for emancipation from his family and moved away from home, giving himself the freedom and time to concentrate on his Internet startup.
When the administration won’t listen, when your guidance counselor tells you, listen, this is how high school is. Everyone gets bullied. You’ll be fine. Just keep going to class. You don’t have someone to turn to. That’s why so many kids turn to suicide, drugs, or drop out. It’s a sad state of affairs when dropping out of high school and taking a job at Burger King has a better light on it than going to school every day.
In time, he found his community through Twitter, covering entertainment, trends, and world news events such as what Britney Spears is wearing, and through his online community startups, connecting with other lost kids and helping them find their own supportive communities. His friends and fans adore his quirky sense of humor and political satire.
Once he found his sense of self and started living as openly gay, he began reaching out to help with GLBT community projects including It Gets Better and The Trevor Project, helping teens find the support he lacked as a teenager.
Kurson’s story of hope and confidence against social rejection and victimization is one we are honored to share on Stories of Our Journeys.
Links
Written by Kym Huynh, published on February 25, 2011
Tags: bullying, confidence, courage, emancipation, gay, homosexuality, inspiration, internet startups, sexual abuse, startup, victim
© 2008-2012
1 Comments
Great interview here – legal emaciation at 16… Keith had to grow up very quick.