To my knowledge, it depends on the state but in most states, unpaid internships are illegal. If your working for a small start-up company or a single person, and they don’t plan on paying you, chances are they won’t file you as an actual employee or declare having an intern on any official documents but you can still put it down as an internship on your resume since no one will dig that deep into it. Working for a large financial firm though like Bank of America, they will hire an intern the proper and legal way and they will pay their interns. Since they are paying their interns, they tend to want people with more experience. For you to find an internship, it might be beneficial to reach out to family and friends who work in the field you want to pursue and see if they are willing to mentor you and take you in for some extra help.