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1. We have to express ourselves in the most true and authentic way.
2. I would walk down the street and people would scream from their cars at me and, generally, I’d turn around and it’s a 13-year-old girl. And it’s funny because that is the audience that I think big studios are always trying to target.
3. The strength of the platform that I am privileged to have is that I reach a massive group of diverse people.
4. As a small kid from Texas, I just imagined that Hollywood was this world that was really foreign and far away and I didn’t see many Asians on screen, so I had no idea that I could even be a part of it.
5. We have the right to be angry about our representation in the media. It’s just not a reflection of how we live our daily lives.
6. I was a very insecure, self-conscious kid, and as an artist even more so.
7. The viral landscape is shifting and changing.
8. There’s a reason we all cried when Gina Rodriguez won that Golden Globe. It didn’t matter if we’re Latina. We get it. We’re just like, ‘Thank you! Finally, a more accurate reflection of diversity!’
9. Even before BuzzFeed, Asian-American faces and voices were so prevalent online as huge YouTubers.
10. I really did hate who I was.
11. I always assumed that my otherness was a curse — that I would be held back by my Asian and queer identities.
12. I am a proud, gay person of color and I will not be intimidated into mediocrity or legislated into conformity!
13. For some people of color, for some people with conservative or religious backgrounds, you know, we’re constantly sort of looking over our shoulder.
14. One of the first things that I found audiences related to me on outside of my identity was just my general cynical depressive worldview, which, surprisingly a lot of people share!
15. I know many YouTubers who are these amazing LGBTQ icons for young people, but many of them have not come out publicly, even though they’re well-known online.
16. I’ve always presented as a very cisgender male and that was part of the reason I was able to cover so easily… I was always in such a strictly binary environment growing up. I was never given an opportunity to sort of play into more genderqueer fashion.
17. The coming out video was not just for the masses, but also for many people in my family.
18. Some people just yell ‘Asian BuzzFeed guy!’ and I turn around and distinctly yell back ‘Eugene!’
19. YouTube opened up the types of voices and alternative ways of viewing ourselves that would never have been greenlit by a Hollywood studio.
20. Growing up in Texas, I was already dealing with the fact that I didn’t even know I was Asian until a certain age. I just was informed about it in a somewhat negative way by my peers. And that immediately put me into that mindset where I felt very othered. My safety always felt like it wasn’t something that I could consider a given.