J.R.: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome back to 1000 Gurus. Today's episode is featuring my friend. Kat.

J.R.: 0:07

And let me read her bio. Kat is a model, cosplayer, artist, content creator, life enjoyer and, most importantly, she's just a girl. She is the founder and director of a performance team called Aurora, where they do both vocal and dance covers. She's been very active in many communities, such as the K-pop community, photography community, anime community and so on. Often considered a jack of all trades, she wears many hats and will pursue anything that piques her interests.

J.R.: 0:33

Turns out it was undiagnosed ADHD Her words, not mine. Anyways, in this conversation we talk about a lot of different things. Main topics are K-pop, like the evolution of K-pop, how we got into it, and then we pivot over to content creation and being an influencer, how to build a following and what goes into Vara videos, and also like an inside look into the different communities she's a part of, as mentioned, and some of her favorite yapping topics which she's known for on TikTok, such as Southeast Asian advocacy and whatnot. So it was a very fun conversation. I really enjoyed it and we get into a lot of really unique things that I'd never heard of, but I feel like the audience, you guys, will really enjoy it. So, without further ado, thanks for tuning in and hope you enjoy. Hello everyone and welcome to 1000 Gurus. Today's guest is my friend Kat.

Cat: 1:28

Hello, thank you for having me Thank you for coming Pleasure to be here today.

J.R.: 1:33

Yes, great Kat was on my shortlist for season one, but I'll go over a little bit of how I know Kat. So Kat and I met in 2017. We were both in a K-pop cover dance competition. I know that she's into K-pop, obviously, cosplay, photography, she can sing, she's one of the directors of Aurora, which is a dance and singing team, a content creator on social media, and she probably has a bunch of other hobbies and interests. Anything you'd like to add to that?

Cat: 2:04

I think I'm just a girl who happens to be a part of a lot of things, because I think we're all very multi-faceted people.

J.R.: 2:12

We're not just tied to one specific hobby or interest or career so I guess, when people ask what do you do, do you have, like, do you have a canned response for that? Because I'm the same, I have, like, I do a lot of stuff, but do you have something that you say?

Cat: 2:26

Yeah, I just said I don't really do anything. I do everything and nothing at the same time, because it's like being in the jack of all trades but not really a master of one. So people don't know me for one certain thing. Every time people… my friends introduce me to somebody else, they're like like oh, this is Kat, she does this and this and this and this and this. I was like oh dear, this is, this is like a. I feel like this is a very high standard to like try to reach.

J.R.: 2:53

I don't like oh no, I don't do all that, but I do, yeah, I'm the same. I usually just like oh, I kind of, you know, I teach or something yeah and later on they'll find out. Oh, you also do this, you also do that.

Cat: 3:02

I'm like oh yeah, I have a lot of hobbies.

J.R.: 3:04

Yeah, it's like a little surprise each time they unlock, like jr and cat lore um, but I think that's the best way to do it because it's like I'm like you mentioned. It's kind of hard to if someone hypes you up and like they do all these things.

Cat: 3:15

You're like I really just do it for fun I'm not anything special I don't have expectations yeah, like it's really not that serious uh, I guess I wanted to.

J.R.: 3:23

The first thing I want to talk about is k-pop and k-pop dance. I know that's one of the things that we share in common. How did you get into k-pop, like what? How did you get into it? What do you like about it? What do you enjoy about it?

Cat: 3:33

I know our mutual friends are also into k-pop, but for those who maybe aren't into it yet, um, maybe just take a peek into that world yeah, so I think I got into k-pop around 2009 to 2010, so I'm definitely what they call gen 2 or just very old, and I know that you're like that too um, because, like some people were getting into k-pop like during like 2020, during the pandemic or anything like that, but I had to like sit around me like back in my days but I got into like like 21 girls generation, big bang wonder girls during that time and I guess back then we didn't really have that much media surrounding k-pop or even like asian medias in general that are accessible to us living in america. So whatever I could find and get my hands on, I held on to it. I thought it would just be like a phase and then it turns out it wasn't like around like 14 years later so 14 year phase yeah, 14 year phase and I haven't gone out of it yet so what kind of what kind?

J.R.: 4:33

of media are you speaking of like when you say it's hard to get a hold of that sort of stuff?

Cat: 4:37

um, I know that a lot of my friends growing up, like my asian friends in particular, they said that they didn't have a lot of representations growing up and I just like I can't really relate to them because I go out of my way to find Asian medias that I relate to, whether it's music or movies or TV shows. And that was also when, like Japan and Korea, korean medias was on the rise, like the how you Wave was basically forming, so K dramas were really popular at that time, and then K-pop at that time was also like starting to push out a lot of like there's, trying to there's. They were starting to reach a global audience around like 2010. So, whatever I can get my hands on on like all of the music videos, all of, even like the commercial songs I, I ingested it and I just like held on to it. But nowadays, like there's so much being pushed out that I can't keep up anymore. So it is like a very stark difference same.

J.R.: 5:39

It's like I I also got into k-pop. Well I think a long time ago I I was listening to like BoA and Rain and TVXQ. But then back in college, the era that you're talking about, like 2008, 2012 is when I was super into K-pop and I was like there was maybe a dozen groups that were active like six guy groups, six girl groups, something like that.

Cat: 5:59

You're aware of every single group that's going to debut. Every single group that's having a comeback.

J.R.: 6:04

All the stages Like of every single group that's going to debut, every single group that's having a comeback. All the stages like who? Who are these people exactly? So, yeah, it was. It was definitely a simpler time back then, um, but I'm curious how did? How old or like what grade were you in when you started to get into k-pop in those times? And then how does it inform who you are today? I know you said like asian media had a. You were trying to consume it and you like the representation and I'm sure it had a big impact on you so I was around nine to ten at that time.

Cat: 6:30

So those are extremely formative years as a child for me, and I think, especially around 12 years old. Whatever interest you have around the years of like 12 years old to 14 years old are sort of the interest that you keep with you your whole entire life, and for me it just happens to be a lot of um korean media medias in particular. So a lot of k-beauty, k-fashion, k-pop, a little k-drama like at that time there's there's still like english stuff is still a little bit hard to get my hands on, but yeah, I just sort of took it and ran with it up until around like 2012, 2014. I was also on like the asian swag tumblr side of the internet, so it was. It was very much like a lot of um asian american medias as well as like straight from the mother countries kind of medias too formative years.

J.R.: 7:25

Do you think like it affected? Again, I know you sing and dance and you're into fashion and photography. Do you think? That had an effect on you know what you do today, like your varied interests, or were there other pieces that went into play for that?

Cat: 7:40

It definitely sparked a big interest of mine when it comes to dancing and just performing, in particular, because we've always had, at least for me.

Cat: 7:54

I always looked up to the pop divas of that time, like Beyonce, rihanna, britney Spears, spears but there wasn't like somebody that was a little less sexualized that I can aspire to. Until I saw my um, until I set my eyes on the wonder girls, I was like this is amazing, what is that melody? And I also felt like it was a little bit more age appropriate for me, and my parents didn't really have much of a problem with it because I was also listening to um, this, um, I guess vietnamese um musical performance series called paris by night. So my parents are just like ah, yes, our child, she's so cultured. I'm like thanks, mom and dad. Yeah, but yeah, when it comes to k-pop especially, I just like the bright visuals, I like how expensive and artistic the visuals are, the music videos especially, and I think during that time the music videos that american pop artists were pushing out weren't really that, I guess, influential on me yeah, I feel the same way.

J.R.: 9:06

I think, looking back on how K-pop affected me as well, I think what I really appreciated was like the performance level and aspect. I think, looking at pop growing up, at least for me. Yeah, there's that sort of Western genre of music and artists doing really good stuff, but what I liked about the like the K-pop scene was that their performance and their singing it was like at a I don't know how you describe it Like it's, there's like a standard, it's like an industry standard.

J.R.: 9:36

And every year K-pop dancing and singing has like a higher standard because everyone stands on the shoulders of giants before them. But I remember seeing like, okay, yeah, there are dancers in America, but then if you look at all these groups coming out of South Korea and K-pop, like they're killing it and they just constantly kill it every year.

Cat: 9:56

Like the vocals are like out of this world. The dancing is all synchronized and it's complicated dancing too. Yeah synchronized and it's complicated. Dancing too, yeah, whereas like back then, like the renowned dancers of the time was like chris brown, usher, justin bieber, but it wasn't.

J.R.: 10:12

I didn't, I didn't feel that much like like, oh, that's choreography, you know, it's just like a couple people like freestyling and doing a backflip every once in a while I remember the first time I saw taeyang dancing like okay, so this was in college and then wedding dress just came out, but someone sent me a video of where you at, so it was a YouTube video and then I closed the browser in five seconds. I was like what the heck is this? This guy is too good. I don't want to watch this.

J.R.: 10:38

I have a weird visceral reaction to like really high dancing, like talent, where it like bothers me, but in a good way, because of my like freestyle dance battle background. Yeah. So I was like damn this guy, he's so good. But I opened up later on and now I'm like the biggest fan of taeyang. But, um, yeah, things like that where it was like okay, so I, I see this like, uh, you know asians coming out and and making a name for themselves and being pioneers in some of these, some of these aspects, um, for me was inspirational.

Cat: 11:10

So I don't know if, like I'm thinking that for you might have been similar yeah, um, they were very much like role models for me growing up, because I also aspire to the kind of, I guess, showmanship that they present is not always just being the best dancer or the best singer or the best visuals, it's all those combined. You have to be the full package and I realized that, like girl, now that I'm older, and like hindsight's 2020, I'm like these are 14, 15 and 16 year olds that I'm looking up to. And now that I'm 24 and I listened to like Replay by SHINee, I'm like I'm Nuna now. This is a little crazy.

Cat: 11:53

But, yeah, like as a child, I'm looking at teenagers. I'm like this is what I aspire to. But now that I'm older and I'm looking at the teenagers, now I'm like, oh my God, they're just kids. They're literally just kids that, like smaller kids are looking up to. So it's a very weird like sense of one part of his nostalgia, but the other part of it is, I do feel like it's too much responsibility to be like, essentially, an idol, like somebody's idol I think about that sometimes too, because it's like wow, what was I doing when I was their age?

J.R.: 12:28

right, like 14, 15, 16, 17. There are idols who debuted around that time too, but like. And then I go back and like, wow, this idol who I look up to, they were like 20 and dang, what was I doing when I was 20? It's kind of crazy yeah. Yeah, I wanted to ask you. So you know we've been into K-pop for a while now. I guess two separate things. One how has K-pop changed since back then until now?

J.R.: 12:53

And I know we talked about now that it's like not oversaturation, but there's just a lot more going on, a lot of groups and there's a lot more media and social media and all that stuff, so you can see them on different platforms. Lot more media and social media and all that stuff, so you can see them on different platforms. And or and or two where do you think k-pop is headed, especially in the context of maybe people who are in it or people who are on the outside of it and don't really know what it is yet?

Cat: 13:16

um, I would say the biggest difference for me has to be song duration. Every song nowadays is around two minutes long, which is great if you're doing a k-pop cover dance and you're like, oh great, I only need to.

Cat: 13:26

I only need to do two minutes, gotta survive but like back in the day it's like three minutes minimum. But to be fair, like, like, say, pre-2015, there was a lot of live vocals going on and the choreographies are less intense, so they can withstand the three plus minutes of being on stage and performing. But I can't imagine doing like an itsy style choreography or n mix style choreography or even like 17 style for more than three minutes as a cover dancer. So I do think that the standards are changing a little bit. Um, especially since a lot of people debuting are still very young, like back then it was. There's a lot of 16 year olds debuting back then, but there was also like a lot of 20 year olds and up.

Cat: 14:13

But now the standards is like debuting 16 and 18 year olds, which I'm like these kids should be in pe. They should be in like key club, not training for 12 hours a day, but again, it's one of those like hindsight is 20-20. Like I don't think the industry standard is going to change anytime soon unless there's major backlash or like something really tragic happening to somebody. I do feel like that's going to, like it's going to be in the future someday, considering how much the companies are pushing these kids physically yeah, my thoughts are it's probably a combination of well one they want to get good roi like return on investment on them so they start younger and two the standards are higher, so you do need to train them for longer and they have a long longer way to go.

J.R.: 14:59

But also there's a larger talent pool now that you know k-pop is more of a mainstream sort of thing where a lot of people there's a lot of eyes on it. So there are a lot of kids who might want to be k-pop idols and they have to kind of start early to get there yeah um.

Cat: 15:14

So where do you think k-pop is headed um, I guess in terms of, like, its place in society and culture one thing I know for sure is we everybody just sort of acknowledges that for the most part K-pop songs are very superficial. It's made to be sold, it's made to be commercialized, although of course there's always exceptions, there's always songs that are written from the heart or they're very deep, meaningful songs. But I do think that it's going to be even more surface level and even more commercialized, with, especially, the rise of ai being used in music writing. So I I do think that that's going to be in the future. I do think that there's going to be a lot more competition, show um groups debuting too, and at a certain point I'm at the.

Cat: 16:07

I'm at the point right now, actually, where I'm like I just want like a four member girl group and like maybe like a six member boy group to debut. I'm not trying to follow a eight week long show to know who the next members of like this 12 member group is anymore. I'm a little bit tired. I got like we are adults with jobs and like responsibilities. I don't have time to sit around and like look for the english subs of a show anymore, and I also don't have time to keep up with what like 14 to 17 year old idols or trainees are up to. Although I will say my favorite show was boys planet, it was really good reality tv like okay, well, this was good though this was good, though.

J.R.: 16:54

This was good, though, nice uh, okay, last thing before we move topics um, do you have any recommendations for guy groups, girl K-pop groups or solo artists?

Cat: 17:04

Despite how problematic their current company leaders are. I love New Jeans. I love especially the fact that Hani is essentially, but not really, my cousin, because Vietnamese people just claim her like that's my little sister, that's my cousin, that's my niece, and she's making big waves. She's becoming the nation's little sister and that's crazy, considering she is southeast asian, and korea does not really have a great history of giving a non-korean so much commercial power, especially within their media. The nation's first love, the nation's little sister, or like nation's girlfriend first visual all that has always been like a korean woman. So for the first time I'm seeing that honey, who's vietnamese, is so beloved there cool, so new jeans yeah, I love new jeans.

Cat: 17:57

I also love ats. If I have to suggest a k-pop group to anybody, it's ats I'm. Oh my god. They're such good performers. You can tell that they were trained to sing live and actually be performers, be dancers. It's not just about looking good for the cameras, it's about giving a show. So any ats concert that I can go to, I will get my hands on the tickets yeah, good rex, good rex.

J.R.: 18:22

So let's move on to um. I want to move on to content creation. Um, so some people who know you might say that, okay, she's a content creator. Right, one of the biggest things they might know, might yeah, on how did you get into content creation and like, how do you see it in like the context of your own life? Like what role does it play?

Cat: 18:41

yeah, um, I started like a k fashion and beauty blog when I was in middle school and I guess it's just been a downward spiral since then. Um, I was on multiple blogging um sites and platforms, tumblr being one of them, and I ran like a pretty successful for the time um like k-pop fashion blog at that. Um, at that time I was probably around like like sophomore in high school, but since then I actually developed a lot of skills in copywriting, graphic design, photography all of that just because I wanted to blog about my interests, and I was able to start building a bigger platform on Instagram with, like my own image, I guess. So I I think I've always been like a quote-unquote content creator since I was in middle school, but I wasn't like a influencer heavy quotes until I was around 16 and a lot of brands started picking up like influencer marketing and then they started to contact creators for smaller platforms like me. So, yeah, I would say on certain aspects, I'm a content creator and in certain aspects I'm an influencer.

J.R.: 20:02

Something that maybe people might be curious about is how to create content and or how to become an influencer. Right, I think? Um, for myself, I was really big into this with my girlfriend and i's channel, like we were doing content creation for a year and a half straight and I was really obsessed with, you know, creating content and what makes a video go viral, and then also how you build a following, because those are different things right yeah, um, and then I kind of was going through your instagram of some of the some of the things that you pinned and some of like your more viral videos and I've seen them before.

J.R.: 20:33

When they're posted, um, like for example you have, it was like a battle thing, like almost looks like a fashion show thing oh yeah, ballroom yeah, battle, is that what it's?

Cat: 20:43

yeah, so I'm in the ballroom community and, for those who don't know, it's like a underground community full of mainly black, uh and brown queer people and we it started in the around like late 70s, early 80s in new york and they've expanded since then. It's like a global phenomenon almost, but I was able to slowly integrate myself into the community and and and then like, of course I'm in like the k-pop community, anime community, but I do feel like I I'm still trying to like fall into the ballroom community, which involves um a lot of. From what most people know, they're mostly known for voguing, or, as we call, the performance, but I mainly walk two different categories called base and best dressed. So I do post a lot about my life, especially on TikTok, and that just happens to be one of the videos that went really viral was one of my ballroom battles where I walked best dressed, nice.

J.R.: 21:50

Yeah, it looked pretty hype actually. So yeah, that was on TikTok, right. Another one was it was your. Your bite me thruple.

Cat: 21:57

Oh, my god and Richie yeah.

J.R.: 22:00

Yeah, that one was. That was pretty sick too, I guess. So from your perspective as a content creator and you have a lot more videos that have done really well and people seem to have resonated with it- it yeah, what do you think goes into a viral video?

Cat: 22:13

when it comes to videos in particular, people like what they can relate to or they like something that they know completely nothing about, but it's interesting to them. So I think that when I lead an interesting life, it's also reflected in the kind of content that I put online. I don't like to generate or fake content. It seems very insincere to me personally and the kind of sincerity and what I'm interested in and my hobbies and the different communities I'm in people are also interested in that for me.

Cat: 22:50

So like something as like just like a 30 second long video of me at a kpop art pd for those who don't know, it's called a random um play, dance and they just play like a random k-pop song, chorus, and you just go into like the middle dance floor, if you know, and you dance to it. And I just happened to work with calvin on a song called bite me and we danced to it together, but richie also happened to jump in, so like the three of us ended up dancing to it together and people just found it interesting. Yeah, because it's like a little, it's like a little spectacle.

J.R.: 23:29

Yeah yeah, it's like unexpected little spectacle. Yeah, yeah, it's like unexpected. So you're talking about authenticity and kind of posting what interests you and then people might resonate with that and that's kind of your key or your approach to content creation, and this might not even be a focus of yours. But how do you see or approach like building a following, like I said, not assuming that you're trying to building a following um, like I said, I'm assuming, not assuming that you're trying to build a following, or that you are or not, but how do you? What are your thoughts on that?

Cat: 23:55

yeah. So I do think that when I try to build a following, the kind of followers that I get, it's not sustainable, whereas sometimes I just talk like, like. On TikTok, I just talk a lot, I'm a yapper, and people really resonate with that and that's how I built most of my followings online, like on Twitter. On TikTok, I just say what I want to say and I react to certain things. I have a lot of opinions and I put it out there into the interwebs and if people like that, then that's usually when they're like oh, aren't you the girl who talked about this or aren't you the girl who brought up this? I'm like, yeah, I am. It's sort of crazy that sometimes, whatever I say, there will be millions of people who resonate with it. So you really don't know what kind of power you have when you're just being real. And if you're just saying whatever you want to convey to the world, there will be people who will resonate with it.

J.R.: 24:57

So correct me if I'm wrong. The takeaway I'm getting is that posting content that's real, people who will resonate with that will see it. Yeah. They'll agree with it, and then you can build a following that way. Is that the advice that you would give people?

Cat: 25:10

I would definitely say so. I mean, of course, everybody. It's not really a need, but I would say if you're on a certain platform, it it does help to find your niche. A lot of people grow their following because they're known for one specific thing, like on tiktok, I'm known to just talk. I'm really I'm not. I'm not known for like, like going on photo shoots or doing cosplays, or even like k-pop dancing, although I am known for that more on, say, instagram. On tiktok, I'm just a girl who yaps, I'm the girl who won't shut up.

J.R.: 25:44

Yeah, um, I think similar to me. Um, with my content creation journey, I found out that there there are, in my opinion, there are formulas to doing well in a video and to build a following. But a lot of the reason why I don't do a lot of that stuff now is because what I found, that to get the views and the likes, it's very trendy, it's very like baby and very insincere stuff, like, for example, my girlfriend and I were we're really big in like the couple stuff, joke stuff and all this stuff right.

J.R.: 26:16

And then you see other creators and what they're doing and you kind of like, okay, well, I guess this is what's doing, well, but it's all like fake, yeah, it's like. Yeah, there's not a hidden camera there, they're just doing this and it's totally scripted. And if you see any like couple content on there, I'm like that's not. There may be 0.01% of it is a real video, yeah, but a lot of it is shot to make it look like.

Cat: 26:37

It's like a real video. It's scripted content, it's rage bait. A lot of it's made for shock value and of course there are people who would fall for that that, but for the most part, like yes, it helps with your following, it helps to make money. That's a big part of it. That's a big reason why a lot of people do that. But at a certain point I don't think having my, I guess brand being known for making scripted content or, um, making rage bait videos. I don't think that's that's. That's what settles right in my soul and I don't think that's what settles in like yours and Blessy's content either.

J.R.: 27:11

Yeah, definitely. I think to your point earlier. Like sustainability, I think your content has to be authentic, and that's kind of what I want to do is produce content that's authentic to me and or authentic to us. If we're posting on our account, I want to put out content that I would want to consume and or I feel like is a value add to the world. Yeah, when there's so much trash content out there, that is brain rot, and don't get me wrong. If you like it, it's fine.

Cat: 27:36

If you like it, it's fine.

J.R.: 27:38

You want to decompress, whatever, but for me, if I want to produce content, I don't want it to be things that I wouldn't be proud of later on and that I want to show my family or my kids yeah, that's a big part.

Cat: 27:48

It's like, like a lot of people say, it doesn't matter what your family thinks, it doesn't matter what your friends think, just put your content out there. But, like to me, it does matter. It matters that what I do relates to my friends, because we're friends but most of the time we have the same interests, whereas if I do things that I feel like doesn't represent me or my character and my friends know that, like it, it feels like lying a lot of the times too um, I want to get back to um your yapping and talking, uh, but I want to go to um, like photography, cosplay, um anime convention community, um, you mentioned, that's one of those things that you, you're really big into yeah you can probably talk about it at length on.

J.R.: 28:30

Maybe we can go back to the beginning of like how did you get into it? And like what do you love about those communities or any specific community?

Cat: 28:38

I've been into anime much, much, much longer than I've been into k-pop, so I was like like a wee little weeb back in the day and now that I have adult money that I can spend on, what childhood we?

Cat: 28:53

want adult money yes, um, the anime convention scene especially has been extremely commercialized nowadays, but I still have fun. I luckily know a lot of people in in the scene, a lot of cosplayers, a lot of cosplay photographers. And yeah, it's nice to know that whatever convention I attend and whatever cosplay I wear, there's still people who like what I'm doing or they like seeing me, they can't wait to shoot with me, like we'll meet up at conventions sometimes, and it's just fun. It's just fun overall. It's like having special occasion friends that you, that you see once in a while once in a while yeah yeah, I've been to.

J.R.: 29:36

I've only been to a handful of conventions, but it's. I like the. Um, what do you say? Like the vibe, the? You know people put so much of their own like artistry into their cosplays. It's not only just like a one-to-one sometimes, it's like those, those mashups that are really cool where it's like two different characters yeah like worlds and then they put into like, wow, that's very creative, it's not just the thing that they're doing.

J.R.: 29:59

And then also, on top of that, photography too, because I um a few years back I I met a lot of photographers in the cosplay community and like the passion for what they do and kind of like the artistry there, especially given that I know you mentioned it was commercialized when I was talking to them back. Then they're saying that there's not really any money in the cosplay scene.

J.R.: 30:18

Um, from what they're saying and I was like, okay, that makes sense maybe like 0.001 percent of cosplayers make money or something like that, but everyone else does it for the love for the passion, for the passion, yeah so I think that's. That's pretty admirable. What would you say like people wanting to get into cosplay? I know like I also myself am a weeb since since a long time, so I love watching anime and I've done a few cosplays before, but are there any sort of inside scoops or hot takes or advice you have for people um wanting to get into the community?

Cat: 30:47

oh my god, 100. And this goes for the like photography community, cosplay community or just like convention community in general. If you are a minor, please vet the people that you're working with and and even if you're not a minor but you're new to the community, there are so many creeps and predators out there that it's not even funny. Like I, you, I, I mean I I breeze upon like other communities every once in a while, like even like like the import community, where it's like a bunch of like hot, sexy women posing on cars. You would think that there would be like a lot of drama going on there, but no, all the drama is within like the cosplay, cosplay photography and like anime convention community, because every other week there's always somebody being outed as a predator. There's always like um, like a victim who's a minor involved, and it it does take a lot to protect each other, but I do think that veterans of the community also do our best to protect minors and people who are coming into the community too.

Cat: 31:57

So I would say that's my biggest hot take is that there's so many predators out there that there's so many big, big, big things that happen. I'm like there's so many big, big, big things that happen, like not to scare anybody. But there has been a cosplayer slash model who was working with a photographer who she actually vetted, but while she was changing in like the changing room, she found out that he hid a secret, like hidden camera, in there and that was like like a big thing. So I like, honestly, back before covid, every other week there was somebody being outed and then I would say, like after covid, when everything was shut down, there weren't a lot of events going on. Now there is, like I would I would say also like a lot of um accusations and a lot of call outs have been been going on. Now that events have started back up and people are interacting with each other again, yeah, yeah, thanks for bringing that up.

J.R.: 32:55

I think it's something important to know. It's always vetting and just looking out for one another and just being aware of that stuff is very important, I guess. One question I have is what do you think differentiates the import community from the anime cosplay community? Why do think that that's so prevalent in that?

Cat: 33:14

I do think that one of the biggest things that people cognitively um acknowledge but they don't, they don't really like actually internalize it, is the fact that a lot of cosplays are of not real people, but those are still. The cosplayers themselves are real people. A lot of people forget that, like, hey, these are real people, don't um push your unrealistic expectations on them, whereas I would say, like in other photography communities, like import, portrait, lifestyle, fashion, beauty, whatever, we all acknowledge that they're real people, although I would say, on the other hand, on both sides, there's a lot of unrealistic beauty standards that are upholding anything that involves visual media.

J.R.: 34:02

I want to move on now. I don't want to run out too much of the time To Catherine's yapping, so I know I've seen some of your videos too, where you go on like these sort of tangents, and it's really good information.

J.R.: 34:17

It's kind of like either you're calling out something that should have some attention on it, or even just a hot take, or even just some thoughts and a lot of it, too, is could be stuff that people don't know of but you're like, hey, by the way, you know this is a thing, or this is historically how it's been, or whatever. Do you have any of those on hand or top of mind that you think is important to speak about that people resonate with?

Cat: 34:44

Oh my God. So this is like the one thing that I will never shut up about, and many people have tried to get me to shut up about it. I have now been the person. I feel like Beetlejuice Whenever people tag me in comments where somebody is misusing the term ABG.

Cat: 35:01

I don't know why. That's the one thing that I latch on to ahead of everything. But, like I said, I had of asian representation growing up. I so I know my history, especially the place that I grew up and the people that raised me. They are like the true original abgs and they're the kind of people that you don't really want to mess with. But somehow, like over the years, even in like the last 10 to 15 years, I've seen that term diluted down into just like an asian girl that, like wears a lot of makeup or likes boba and going raving, and I do blame a big portion of that on subtle asian traits. Oh my god, like and and boba, liberalism and all that. It's just so much for me to passively watch over the years, and now that I actually have a platform, I like to think that I'm getting the message out there. I've had a lot of people who didn't, who haven't met me, yet where, once they have met me, they're like aren't you that girl who like?

Cat: 36:06

and I'm like it's about abgs yeah like, yeah am, but that's also one of my biggest message out into the world. That sometimes does cause a lot of diaspora wars, like globally, for some reason. That I don't think is a hot take to say don't call Asian girls an ABG, because, whether or not she is one, that's your way of categorizing and often degrading and demeaning someone. I don't often hear it being used in a good light, so just stop saying it like it's not nice.

Cat: 36:38

It's actually so rude and yeah, it's good to know any other um hot takes or topics that, um you think, resonate with people um, I do talk a lot about specifically southeast asian advocacy, um, especially for those in america, or or at least like the american diasporas. I'm sure a lot of people feel this way in other western um countries like canada or australia. But because my main point of view is like an Asian American, specifically a Vietnamese woman in America, that's more of my, what I can talk about without really speaking for somebody else. That's why I bring up a lot of issues that I think aren't really talked about or mentioned, especially within Asian American medias, like I hear a lot of people say, like I grew up without representation, or they'll always write something in their college essays about having smelly lunch at school or how their parents would cut up fruit as an apology instead of verbally telling them I'm sorry and I'm like okay, we've talked about these kinds of stuff for years.

Cat: 37:54

Now let's move on to other topics, because I do feel like southeast asians are much more oppressed than um. Our paler, more represented counterparts, um and vietnam and the philippines are some of the biggest southeast asian countries, but there are other smaller um, less known groups like um, lao, lao, cambodia, even like mong people, they barely get any representation. And while I'm not, I'm not mung, I'm not cambodian, I'm not lao. At least I can do my best as a majority minority that now that I have a platform, I get to talk about these people more and bring light of their issues to like a higher platform and more visibility quick tangent.

J.R.: 38:48

Have you seen the movie dd? I have not are you planning on watching it?

Cat: 38:53

um, not in the near future, but I do hear a lot of really, really good reviews on it. I'm just not the biggest fan of generational trauma movies like I don't, I don't get into that.

J.R.: 39:06

um. So yeah, I've watched it. I really enjoyed it. It's funny because… Just quick tangent, so the filmmaker is actually from my high school. Oh, and that was shot in Fremont, which is where I was raised. Yeah, yeah, I went to elementary school, middle school, high school there, and so I… so this is a weird… no, no no Keep going keep going.

Cat: 39:25

Yeah, keep going.

J.R.: 39:25

Yeah, Do your thing Quick thing. It's like it's about growing up in the age of like YouTube just started and like from MySpace to Facebook, and I know my generation is slightly older than yours, but it was like. I was like, wow, I feel seen.

Cat: 39:37

Yeah, you feel seen, you feel heard.

J.R.: 39:38

Exactly as an Asian American and in the same context. It's a great film. Again, it highly recommend it. I agree with the whole generational trauma. Don't want to spoil it. I recommend everyone go watch it. Yeah, it's one of those like good looks and representations of Asian Americans, like ourselves growing up in America and also like in these communities, Feeling like an outsider but also an insider within our communities but also an outsider within us. It's like. We're not like our parents, who have a different context where they grew up.

Cat: 40:12

But, yeah, great movie. Yeah, if you ever come across it. Well, you know what? Maybe you've convinced me. Yeah, like I said.

J.R.: 40:17

I don't want to hype it up too much, but I think you'll enjoy it. Yeah, okay cool, so let's go, so we can always do like a part two in a future season.

Cat: 40:27

Yeah, I'd love to come back.

J.R.: 40:28

Yeah. So first off is the billboard question. If you could put a sign up for millions of people to see, what would it say?

Cat: 40:41

I would promote a ceasefire in Gaza. No matter how much we talk about it, there's always so much to be told and so much to, I guess, guess, spread awareness to the world. There's so much like atrocities and tragedies happening globally, but at a certain point some people do prefer to look away. If I can have a giant billboard on, like the 405 or the i-10, to call for a ceasefire and just call for more humanity in this world, especially towards, towards our government, then why not?

J.R.: 41:13

Favorite failure or something challenging that you learned the most from?

Cat: 41:16

Hmm hmm, my favorite failure god, there's so many um. I would say around 2019. I was very on like the come up in terms of my life. I was 19 years old, going on 20. I have like the whole world ahead of me, so many careers and opportunities and networking um lined up. And then COVID happened and as an extrovert that just needs to talk to people and needs to go to event and like almost further my career, but also like me to like a lot of nice people who also have the same interests as me, I it was hard for me to adjust to that so hard. And then, during um the lockdown, my um instagram who I've been, that I've been growing for years also got like deleted. It got like bot attacked and I was just like damn, I gotta start all over. I lost a lot of people that um I tried to stay in contact with and then afterwards I I was like you know what, it's not that serious, it's not that serious. Let me just restart, be brand new and see what happens.

J.R.: 42:28

Another one of the videos that I saw that did really well was the like I'm 20 something and I don't know what I'm doing with my life. That's okay, yeah. I also thought that was great too, because it's like yeah, a lot of people seem to resonate with that too it's like it's fine if you don't have your life figured out. Just kind of take it one step at a time. Yeah. Do you have a biggest regret? And or, if you could redo something, what would you redo?

Cat: 42:51

Honestly, I don't have that many regrets in my life Because I always function off of like the thought process that I'd much rather regret doing something than regret not doing something. So that's why I delve into so many things. But I do have a couple of regrets when it comes to the people that I make my acquaintances after, like finding out certain things that they've done that just really doesn't align with my own morals, or they're just not good people, even though they pretend to be if you could give your younger self advice, what would it be now?

J.R.: 43:26

any age range?

Cat: 43:29

not to be like a grinder and a hustler, but I would have started learning so many more skills at a younger age because I was already self-taught in so many things, especially within the arts. But hey, at that age where your brain is so malleable, why not pick up a couple more things?

J.R.: 43:48

So just learn more. Yeah learn more Any habits or routines that are key for you to getting the results that you have now, if any at all For me. I'm a productivity nut, so I love building habits and just running on autopilot. Do you have any things that call out to you?

Cat: 44:05

As somebody with ADHD, it's really hard to build habits, but one of the things that really helped me personally, because I'm a very visual person, I prefer to have a physical book planner, pen and paper and I write down all my stuff in it. On one hand, it helps me be organized with everything that I have going on, but on the other hand, if I don't have that planner with me, my life is over. I will not function without it. So it's a lot to um accommodate certain things for myself, but it's still manageable okay, so just having like a physical planner to help like organize yourself yeah who would you call successful and how would you define success?

Cat: 44:46

how I would define success is, honestly, this is like getting a little into psychology, but if you, if you're at like the, the tip of like maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's not about how much money you make or what your career is or how much you've accomplished in life, as long as you're happy and for me, I think that's the true pinnacle of success. Everybody has different ideas of what success is, but at the end of the day, if you're happy, I think that's all that matters. If money is what makes you successful, or if it's having a family or being able to travel the world, whatever you think you're able to achieve, that is almost like your life goal or anything like that. I do think that happiness is the ultimate key to success.

J.R.: 45:37

I brought this up in a past interview too, which was like this Tony Robbinsbins quote, which was uh, success without fulfillment is failure. And I think it's like if you're chasing those achievements but not either enjoying the journey along the way or sacrificing your values to get there, or kind of missing the, the does it force for the trees or whatever, where you don't realize what's actually important, and you're just chasing like the you you know….

Cat: 46:02

Like tunnel, visioning on like that one goal.

J.R.: 46:04

Exactly. And then you realize you're like, oh, I was actually chasing the wrong goal and why do I have all this money? But I'm unhappy. Yeah, why do I have? All these followers and likes, but I don't feel fulfilled or something like that. Yeah, I think like happiness… Everyone just wants to be happy. I think that's a common denominator yeah 100. But I think if people don't realize like well, you have to figure out what makes you happy you can't just go by society standards of if you have the career like abcd yeah yeah, the relationship, you'll be happy.

J.R.: 46:29

I'm like, well, if you don't have, if you don't have that self-love and happiness for yourself or realize what unlocks that for you, yeah it's, you're going to be walking in circles and trust.

Cat: 46:39

I work with a lot of like, like heads of, like heads of companies. I've worked with like ceos of, like really large companies, and I've I'm able to have conversations with them about this and majority of them say like they're so surprised that they always ask me what's your dream job? And I look at them squinting eyes and I say I don't dream of working and that's why that's why I just want to be happy and sometimes that I like that line of thought is so obscure to them. But then they think about a little bit more. They're like, you know, I I am quite literally the ceo of this large company. I make so much money, I have a wife and kids at home, and yet why am I still trying to do more? What? Why am I missing in my life? I'm like now's the time to find out or something like that.

J.R.: 47:45

And the other thing he says is um, every desire is a choice or decision to be unhappy. And so his recommendation is like choose your desires carefully, make it only one or two things, but otherwise you should be content and at peace with everything else because, otherwise you're going to live a life of just constant desire, which is constant unhappiness yeah aspect.

Cat: 48:01

If you're off like chasing everything and trying to reach goal, like one after another, and sometimes even like pushing the goalposts back you're, you will never be content in life uh, maybe, maybe this is on a more personal side, but what?

J.R.: 48:14

how do you define happiness or like? What does that make up for you personally?

Cat: 48:20

yeah, I prefer to live my life a little less bound by institutional rules and structures, so I I'm not the kind of person that likes to follow authority. For the most part, freedom is a really, really big part of like certain goals that I have in my life. I don't like to have a job that has so many rules about the way I act or the way I look or even my schedule throughout the day. Freedom is very, very big part of it, and I do think that that also is a huge contributor to my own happiness. Another part of it is that I will never or at least I really try not to sacrifice my own morals and beliefs and even character, to accomplish a task that I think might be a goal of mine, and if I need to do that to accomplish a goal, it really should not be.

Cat: 49:19

It shouldn't be, your goal. It should be a goal in the first place. If time and money weren't an obstacle. What?

J.R.: 49:28

would you be doing now? I know you said not working, but yeah, the question is like ultimate freedom.

Cat: 49:30

yeah, oh my god, if I have all the money in the world to spend, I'd spend it on stupid things like I, I, I would like, I would bring it back to like like the renaissance days and be a patron of the arts. Oh my god, the amount of like… the amount of commissions that I would just like give to artists, especially To just be like you know what. Give me an oil portrait of myself with, like, my K-pop crush and my anime crush. I think that's what I would do with my life. I love… yeah, I would do with my life. I love.

Cat: 50:03

Yeah, I would love to commission arts. I would love to build a whole building just in my name, but it's going to be so cool. I like to make cool things and if I have all the money in the world, I want to commission other people to make cool things for me.

J.R.: 50:21

I like that. You want to create. You're a creator. You're a want to commission other people to make cool things for me. I like that. You want to create your creator, your builder and an artist. How do you spend most of your time? I know you do a lot of different things, but um.

Cat: 50:30

So I do a lot of errands, a lot of chores, and sometimes I'll like meet up with people. But at night is definitely when it's the most busy for me. Either I'm working until 2 3 am, or I have rehearsals until midnight, or sometimes I have like full on performances that there's always something going on that a lot of people wonder like how do you have time for everything? I'm like there are 24 hours in a day and I only need to sleep for 8 of them. Everything else is like the world is my oyster.

J.R.: 51:01

There's so much to do. Yeah, I totally agree do you are you like more of a night owl? Then would you say I'm a night owl.

Cat: 51:08

I can't, I can't, I cannot be up at 8 am for a job, not not for me.

J.R.: 51:13

Yeah I agree, um, okay, last, rapid fire any favorite books, movies, videos, articles that you share or recommend the most, besides 80s and new jeans.

Cat: 51:24

Uh, I always love showing people Paris is Burning, which is a documentary in the 80s about the New York ballroom culture. It's. It's one of those queer um pieces of media that I think everybody should watch at least once. It really delves into the history of ballroom culture, queer culture and how queer gay, trans pioneers within the community have basically paved the way for other queer people like myself in the contemporary space and one more time.

J.R.: 52:05

What was the title?

Cat: 52:06

paris is burning. Paris is burning great.

J.R.: 52:08

I'll link that in the show notes. All right, let's go to our ending questions. Um so gratitude. This is something I got from my mom. Always know what you're grateful for ending with gratitude.

Cat: 52:18

So what are you grateful for, kat? I'm very grateful that my parents raised me to be somebody who's very sure of myself, because they've always been very sure of me. They know that whatever I want to get myself into that, I'm going to be successful at it, and we talked a little bit about that, so that's why I've never faltered in my actions, because I always know that I'll be okay.

J.R.: 52:41

I love that Good parenting is so important. I feel like Any final ask from my audience or any takeaways that you want them to have from this episode.

Cat: 52:52

I would definitely say that this quote really guides my life, and it's day one is always better than one day. Day one is always better than one day. Starting something on the day, the first day of it, will always be better than eventually getting to it Like maybe one day I'll do it. No, you can start today. I think that that's always the first step to achieving whatever you want to do. At the end of the day, there's just a couple of steps to it. If you really think about it.

Cat: 53:21

There's only a couple of steps to be a lawyer right, you just got to start and do it there's only a couple steps to start a podcast and here you are with that yeah, there you go day one's better than one day yeah, definitely.

J.R.: 53:31

Um, yeah, don't do it. I didn't sit on it for 60, or you can, or you can. You know what I was doing? Other things too yeah, you were busy I was busy but I was like okay, I think it's the right time now and all the stars have aligned and I have no excuses. And, like I was telling you beforehand, my original ideas did not change six years prior and sometimes you need ideas to cook and your brain will change it and the art that goes through you?

Cat: 53:53

Yeah, let it marinate a little bit.

J.R.: 53:54

Exactly, or someone else might pick up the idea, but it was still there, so I was like, all right, it's a sign, sign um, cool.

Cat: 54:03

So last thing is uh, where can we find you social media handles, websites, anything? Every single one of my handles is at pinkstellar p-i-n-k-s-t-e-l-l-i-l-a-i-r-e. I know that a lot of people don't know how to pronounce it. It's pinkstellar. Hello, my name is actually kat, not stella common misconception. But yeah, um, you can also find my dance team it's called Aurora or Aurorateam on Instagram. Thank you for having me.

J.R.: 54:28

Yeah, thanks for being here. Feel free to give Kat a follow. She puts out really good stuff. You'll be entertained and hopefully inspired. So thank you again, kat, for being here and for the audience listening wherever you are. Thank you for tuning in and joining. Hopefully you guys took away from this conversation as much as I have, and just a reminder to be kind to others, and especially yourself, and also that you can always learn something from someone. You just need to take the time to listen. So thank you guys for tuning in.

Cat: 54:57

Thank you so much for having me. I actually have a gift for you. It's official Pink Sailor photo cards. Thank you so much for having me. I actually have a gift for you. It's official Pink Sailor photo cards Feel free to pick one.

J.R.: 55:05

Oh my gosh, thank you Cute. Look at this, it's adorable. Yes, nice. Thank you so much All right.

Cat: 55:12

Thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed our talk and you know what? Hopefully there are many more conversations to go around.

J.R.: 55:18

Yes, definitely.