Who is your career inspiration?
Nobody. There weren’t many women out there doing political fashion blogs. But then I discovered Hoda Kotebi about six months ago and what she’s doing really resonated with me. I saw a lot of similarities in our work and how we view the world.
Who is your favorite author?
Can I name three?
Mohsin Hamid. Celeste Ng. Elaine Castillo.
What is your favorite book of all time?
World War Z by Max Brooks. It’s incredible. The movie was an absolute atrocity. AN ATROCITY, I TELL YOU. The only similarity between the book and the movie is the title. That’s it!! Do not watch that movie. You’ve been warned.
It’s also my ultimate desert island book because I can read it over and over again and never get sick of it. So many different perspectives and narratives. If you prefer audio books, it’s fantastic because of all the different celebrity voices. If you haven’t read it, please do so we can talk about it!
What is your favorite thing to wear? Least favorite thing to wear?
I love wearing bright colors, edgy silhouettes and looking like a Prince or Salt N Pepa video from the 80s. So leather jackets, bike shorts, bustiers, military hats, that sort of thing. My least favorite thing to wear is high heels. Can’t stand them. They feel like hell. Also anything super tight. It’s too stressful to have to flex your stomach muscles all night long in order to wear something.
Who is your favorite superhero? Male, female, or any in between.
I guess Mystique but Jennifer Lawrence ruined that character for me. I don’t know, I don’t really have one.
What’s your favorite holiday?
Philippine Independence Day. And Filipino American History Month — all of October.
If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
A totally pampered indoor dog like a French Bulldog or a Pug. I follow a lot of Frenchies and Pugs on Instagram and their lives look so luxurious and relaxing.
How can I make Asians FROM Asia understand that Asian Americans are not overreacting or whining when they want better representations of us in the media? (ex. protesting against casting a white actor for Son Goku for Dragon Ball) This is something I struggle to convince my own people as someone born in Asia but raised in Canada & US for the latter half of my life. If you have any useful tips, please help me out ;) Always love how honest and on point you are of Asian issues. Especially the way you tackled Asian men who think white women who date them are automatically woke or Asian women who criticise yellow fever yet only date white men, and the colourism of our communities...oh, don't I hate that crap.
When it comes to Asians living in Asia, I feel like they’re super lucky that they get to live amongst people who look like them. So they don’t need to worry about what kind of representation Asians in America get in the media. Their opinion doesn’t invalidate the struggle that we Asian Americans experience though. What they should worry about is media representation in their own countries. For example, the Philippines shouldn’t give all their roles to mestizos (half-Filipinos) and light skinned or white-passing Filipino people. They need to get rid of that colonial mentality when casting their own films, commercials and TV shows. The same goes for broadcast journalism.
What is your dream fashion gig?
Styling music videos like Kollin Carter (he styled Bruno Mars’ “Finesse” video).
Hey! My IG is getting pretty stale and I'm sick of the whole Minimalism/everything washed in white look that everyone is into. I love how colorful your feed is. How can I liven mine up?
Do the complete opposite of what everyone else is doing. If everyone else is going minimal and sticking to a theme or color palette for their grid, make yours sloppy and unplanned-looking. If everyone else is posting light and airy photos, post dark and moody.
What are your goals for this year?
To read 100 books by the end of December.
To support our public libraries more.
To start an Asian American book club here in Baltimore. I’ve been working with some of the independent bookstores in the area to host our meetings and reach out to their communities.
To get back on a more consistent blogging schedule!
And to host more live events. I've done several of those this year already -- hosting the IHM fashion show, emceeing the main stage at the Charm City Night Market festival, hosting a discussion panel about Asian American authors at the Baltimore Book Festival -- and I hope to do many more!
I also plan on devoting more time to one of the non-profit organizations where I am on the executive board — the Katipunan of Maryland. It is the oldest Filipino cultural organization in our region and we put on the annual Filipino Festival every Philippine Independence Day and the Filipino Cultural School for children. One of my goals for the organization this year is to reach out to the other Asian communities for collaboration, grow our membership, expand our media team,, and increase our funding so that we can add more classes and sessions to our Filipino Cultural School program.
And last but not least, to collaborate with other Asian creators, whether they be photographers, videographers, activists, writers, artists, etc. Especially here in the Baltimore/DC area.
What's your favorite Star Wars movie? I see you have an x-wing tattoo.
Rogue One and Return of the Jedi. When I was a kid I was such a sucker for those cute little Ewoks. Don’t get me started on when those two Ewoks died in ROTJ. I still get so torn up when I watch that part. Maybe I’ll get an Ewok tattoo next.
What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?
That’s a good question! I used to always go as something sexy but now I’m getting sick of it. I want to be warm and comfortable now! I’ll probably go as Pikachu or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man this year. I also have a Prince costume that I was supposed to wear last year but ended up not getting dressed up at all.
How can I get influential people to retweet me or share my work on their platforms?
Play up to their ego, stay humble and ask nicely.
I watch your Instagram Stories and you get a lot of freebies. How do you get all of that makeup, restaurant dinners and comped hotel stays?
Well, first of all, I don’t think of them as freebies. It is a lot of work to get to the point where you start partnering up with hotel chains and fashion and beauty brands, etc. You have to have a strong platform online as well as in real life. And once you get to that point, it’s even more work! It is still an exchange of goods and services. You have to stay focused on creating content that you’re passionate about. If you’re tapped into something that resonates with a lot of people, then the brands will start reaching out to you. And to be honest, all of those “freebies” aren’t my end goal. Those sponsorships underwrite my real passion which is my work for the Filipino and Asian communities.
Who is going to win at the Oscars this year?
It’s too soon to tell. But expect it to be an exciting year because the Academy just got a ton more women and people of color in their membership ranks. They also got rid of a bunch of old people who haven’t worked in the industry in years.
A photo from one of my Instagram Stories where I reviewed Revlon’s latest Super Lustrous Lipgloss collection.
What lens do you use when shooting your macro photos?
I use a Sigma Art 24mm 1.4 lens to shoot products and detail shots. I like to set the products far enough away from any other objects in the photo to give it a lot of separation and background blurriness.
Were you always a blogger or did you have another job before?
After I graduated from college, I actually worked in defense contracting in Washington, D.C. at Booz Allen Hamilton where I was on the International and Infrastructure team. As if it needs to be said, it wasn’t for me. After a few years, I got my Masters of Fine Arts in Integrated Design where I studied digital and visual communications like film photography and video production.
What is the biggest challenge about being a content creator?
When you fall into a creative slump. I actually went through a pretty long one earlier this year. I wasn’t happy with a lot of the visual content I was putting out and I just couldn’t get inspired to write. My output was suffering. It actually happens to me every winter. I must have seasonal depression. I’m so unmotivated and lethargic every winter. My creativity started to peak again when the weather gets sunny and warm and the days are longer. Maybe I need to move to the Philippines during the cold months!
How did you get yourself to where you are now?
Honestly, it was a combination of luck and hard work. When I first started doing this, a lot of people dismissed me. They weren’t used to seeing someone who posted a lot of outfit photos talking about race and other controversial issues. A lot of people were like, “shut up and stick to fashion.” But because it wasn’t common, it got a lot of people’s attention. It wasn’t contrived either; it’s just how I am.
What was your very first blog post about?
Ooh, that is a good question. I didn’t always blog here on this site. First I had a Tumblr and then I had a Wordpress site, which I hated. Over the years I’ve lost that very first one but I think it was probably some super amateur-looking photo (back then I would shoot myself using a tripod and a remote control for my camera) and a “get to know me” post. It was not my best work but everyone has to start somewhere.
What is your favorite song? And what kind of music do you listen to?
“Purple Rain” by Prince. It’s been my favorite song since the first time I ever heard it — somewhere in elementary school when the movie “Purple Rain” was on VH1.
I hate to sound cliché but I listen to everything! I like a lot of hip hop but I also love Fleetwood Mac and a lot of electronic music.
What style bloggers do you get inspiration from? Who is your favorite?
None of them.
I don’t have a favorite. I don’t follow that many style bloggers, to be honest.
What podcasts are you listening to right now? You stopped posting about them on your Instagram and Twitter. I need some recommendations. I liked your last podcast blog post.
I just cannot stop listening to The NoSleep Podcast. I hate watching horror movies but I adore scary stories, either written to read aloud.
Other podcasts I’ve been listening to lately are: The Librarian Is In, Mad About Movies, This Filipino American Life, and Asian, Not Asian. Oh, and I also like Books and Boba for their Asian book reviews and author interviews.
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I usually do a write up of the events I’ve organized or hosted and my most-read articles at the end of the year. This was an unusual year (obviously, there is no need to go into it here) so I didn’t bother. Instead I want to highlight a project of mine that I am particularly proud of — it’s my new podcast show, Unverified Accounts, that I cohost with my frequent collaborators, Chris Jesu Lee and Filip Guo. If you're a big movie/TV/book buff, have leftist sympathies, but can't stand 'wokeness' dumbing down our culture, then we're the podcast for you. So far in our 25 episodes, we’ve covered a range of contentious topics.