Making the jump from HTML & CSS to JavaScript can be intimidating. For many JS beginners, this will be the first programming language they encounter. And if that wasn't challenging enough, there's also immense cultural pressure to live up to unrealistic standards of what it means to be a successful JS developer today. In this talk, we'll debunk the myth of the “real JavaScript developer” - a magical creature who knows it all, writing perfect code in the hottest new framework without ever needed to stop and take a break. We'll look at simple strategies to help beginners on their journey learning JavaScript and also come up with a more realistic definition of what it means to be a successful JavaScript developer today.