At the social media and tech giant Meta, there's a group of engineers, researchers, and executives working to write the future of virtual reality. One of those people is Amy Seidenwurm.
She's the executive producer of VR for Good at Meta, the company's branch that seeks to ensure VR is used not only for entertainment and work but also to raise awareness on social causes like trans rights and racial justice.
"We're telling stories to help people understand what somebody else's reality is in life to inform them or change their mind about a cause or get them involved," Seidenwurm, 55, told Insider. "This technology is really, really useful for creating empathy and putting yourself in somebody else's shoes."
A former record label owner turned VR producer, Seidenwurm joined Meta six years ago after she made a VR version of a Los Angeles Philharmonic show to share the experience with people from low-income backgrounds. She fell in love with the process of creating content for augmented reality and realized how the technology could be used to tell important stories.
The Meta exec, who is in charge of telling VR stories centered on human rights and social justice, lives in Los Angeles with her husband. Seidenwurm shared with Insider how she spends a typical day and ensures she doesn't get lost in the metaverse and how she grounds herself in reality with beekeeping and crossword puzzles.
Seidenwurm's workday is filled with hours in the virtual world via headsets, Zoom meetings with her team, and project-planning.