On the snowy evening of February 5th, I attended Anna Akana’s interview at Kingsbury Hall. For readers who are not familiar with Anna Akana, she is a popular YouTuber known for her videos that discuss mental health, relationships, sexuality, and humorous short films. My personal favorites are “PREGNAPOCALYPSE”, “When I’ve Wanted to Die”, and “How Not to Get Raped.”
Due to the snow (the next day was our surprise snow day at the U), the turnout was low, with the crowd consisting of AASA members, older couples, and me. When Anna walked on stage, though, the meager crowd gave a loud and warming welcome. What surprised me most about Anna was how short she was. For some reason, I had anticipated her to be tall regardless that all I had seen of Akana was from the waist up on the computer screen. Her feet dangled over the floor when she propped herself up in the cushy lounge chair beside the interviewer.
Though I have seen much of Anna’s content, I am not a consistent subscriber. Because I was unaware, I was surprised to find out about her background. When Akana was in high school, her younger sister commited suicide. Following her sister’s death, Akana had a tumultuous time, experimenting with various drugs, and struggling with her own anxiety and depression.
Akana went on to describe her trials in the midst of very dry humor. Akana is not as bright or bubbly like the typical female YouTuber and instead, she spends her videos with somewhat reserved facial expressions and tones. Her personality on YouTube extends onstage, and I was impressed with how honest she was about her experiences, and even lightly joked about some of them.
After asking about Akana’s background, the interviewer began asking about Akana’s experience as a woman in the entertainment industry. Although Akana began her artistic career primarily in YouTube, she has branched into other media, including acting in movies, writing her own book, and releasing a music album that will be available later this year. Given her diverse entertainment resume, Akana had a lot to say about her experience in the field. Upon a discussion about being a woman in Hollywood, Akana remarked that when she is working as a producer or writer, she typically is mistaken for being an actress or an assistant. Anna says most of the time she just brushes these assumptions off, and continues her work as a badass female but sometimes, she is annoyed people automatically assume she is not in a position of power. According to Akana, some women don’t take these assumptions as lightly. She has a female friend who also works in Hollywood. Her friend, who faces the same unfair assumptions to Anaka, is often mistaken for the intern and not the producer. As a strategy, she has now recruited a white man who repeats everything that Akana’s friend says in board meetings with other entertainment people. Sure enough, Akana’s friend has never felt more heard now that she has a white echo to back up her ideas.
While Akana has overcome a lot of the assumptions about women in entertainment, she has still faced a tremendous amount of sexual harassment in the field. Akana told the sad, but true stories, of male coworkers who touched her inappropriately or made lude comments about her body. This harassment isn’t in Akana’s distant past either. She said that right before she walked on stage, one of her editors called, and angrily told her that he wouldn’t continue pushing her work through. According to him, he had been helping and editing her work for over a year now and she still hasn’t dated him. Although upset about the incident, Akana decided she would worry about that later and continue with her U interview.
Akana also acknowledged that she is an Asian American whose job does not fit the stereotype of what most Asian parents want: a lawyer, doctor, or accountant. Akana described her own struggles with her parents when she began working in media. Given that her parents had taken a boat to the U.S. in search of a better life, she didn’t want to disappoint them by creating YouTube videos. While her struggle with her parents has been long, her parents have finally accepted that her work in media is both a) a real and profitable job and b) something to be proud of. Time was allocated for audience questions, and one young AASA member asked Akana how she was able to finally break from the “Asian mold” (her words, not mine). Akana simply said that you have to do what you love. Regardless of the expectations put on you, you have to do what you love. If you love something, you will work hard and you will find success. Akana also joked that if more Asian Americans worked in the arts, Hollywood would be astronomically more productive.
Akana finished her interview in about 90 minutes and I have to say, I enjoyed all of her answers. She was funny, real, and gave me more insight about the lives of Americans who are different from me. If you would like to subscribe to or watch some of Akana’s YouTube videos, I have linked her Youtube as well as her book down below.