My 2 cents here: This isn't a problem relegated to junior designers. This problem exists no matter how much experience you have. While you might qualify for more jobs when you have more experience, you also will have more demands then you do right now (because you're older and possibly have more responsibilities to consider) and finding a match with an employer is still a problem.

My advise here piggybacks on what others have said:

• Keep gaining experience.
• Continue to pushing yourself personally.
• Don't be limited by a job title. If the job description sounds interesting, APPLY! The worst they can say is "no!".
• And speaking of "No's", you'll get a lot of them. But a no isn't always because of you. It's because for one reason or another, the people on that team didn't feel you were a good fit for them at that time. Personal fact: the last time I was looking for a job, I applied to almost 100 jobs. You feel you're overwhelmingly getting rejections all the time. Only about 15-20 places reached out to interview me. And they all were interesting and exciting companies, but for one reason or another, most of those said no in the end. Yet all I needed was one to say yes.