Caroline Smith, 34

Caroline Smith and her husband and business partner, Evan, were part of the filmmaking team responsible for “St. Pete Unfiltered,” a documentary about the city of St. Petersburg’s much-maligned approach to sewage treatment that has resulted in millions of gallons of untreated waste dumped into the waters of Tampa Bay and the surrounding waters.

Smith says she went “full throttle,” on the film, putting in 12- to 14-hour days as its executive producer, director and writer. The film won an award in January at the Gasparilla International Film Festivaly, and will be screened early next year at the Dunedin International Film Festival.

When she’s not out holding local politicians’ feet to the fire, however, Smith runs a successful photography business, Smith Creative LLC. It specializes in boutique, highly personalized wedding photo services. Running her own business suits Smith fine. 

“When I worked for other people, I was always the person saying, ‘Well, what if we did it this way?’ Sometimes companies don't like to hear that when they've been doing something a certain way for so long," she says. "But if I'm in charge, I can easily just say, ‘OK, well let's try it this way for a while. Even if it's just a couple of weeks, let's just see what happens and experiment.’”

Don’t try to pigeonhole her, though. “By the time I'm 40, I plan on being in a completely different career,” Smith says. “Honestly, I'm one of those people who will probably have three more careers by the time I retire. I'm just into so many different things.”