Dajiana Huang

Born: Palo Alto, CA — 2000 / Living: Orange, CA

Interview by Speciwomen — September 2016

Speciwomen: Tell us about yourself. 

Dajiana Huang: My name is Dajiana Huang, I go by Daj. I’m a teenage girl living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm super passionate about filmmaking. I'm fifteen years old.

S: How did you get into cinema? 

DH: The first time I was introduced to cinema was by my Aunt, who always gives me film recommendations whenever I see her. From animated films such as Spirited Away to historical dramas like Rabbit-Proof Fence. However, I never really considered working in the film industry until this past year, when I took a year-long film class for high-schoolers, led by James Franco. Over the course of the class, we wrote, filmed, and produced a feature-length film called Metamorphosis: Junior Year. This experience really opened my eyes to the effort and dedication that goes into creating a film, and also helped me realize my love for filmmaking.

S: Who inspires you?

DH: I get a lot of my inspiration for films from directors and movies such as: Wes Anderson, Bertie Gilbert, Gia and Sofia Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, RocketJump, i-D, MVA Films, NOWNESS, Princess Nokia and Troye Sivan's music videos. Hala by Minhal Baig, Blue Girls Burn Fast by Amandla Stenberg, Mr. Robot, Josh Ovalle, Julia Kelleher, Tim Mattia, Jack Harries, and Rupa Anurendra.

S: Are you working on anything currently?

DH: I'm currently in the process of planning a collaboration with Julia Lee, a really cool YouTuber who creates great content. I'm super excited about it, so keep an eye out for the video on my YouTube channel (Dajiana Huang) and on hers (Julia Lee).

S: Do you have other interests? 

DH: I love fashion, to sing, play piano, read, watch movies and TV shows. I love photography, learning foreign languages (I speak Spanish and Chinese, and am learning French), scrolling through Tumblr, and watching YouTube. TheThirdPew, Bertie Gilbert, Dietblond, Jujusquad, Rian Phin, Zinakara, Haley Blais, Clothesencounters, and The Fashion Citizen are some of my favorites.

S: Where are your favorite places? 

DH: I've been very fortunate to have the luxury of traveling to many different cities in foreign countries. Some of my favorite places I've visited are Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Paris, and Madrid. However, my favorite place is definitely Glass Beach, it’s a beach in Northern California that used to be a dump filled with glass bottles and other trash, but turned into a really cool beach covered with sea glass over time. I went there once when I was younger, and it's on my bucket list to return there with my friends someday.

S: Do you have future plans?

DH: In the next year, I'm hoping to be able to make more short films with new people, have more collabs with other YouTubers, and have an internship or job at my local media center, which concentrates more on broadcast journalism. I also want to get a volunteer job at my local Goodwill and get my driver's license once I turn sixteen!

S: How has womanhood affected you?

DH: Being a younger woman, especially a woman of color , I was ashamed about a lot of different aspects about my appearance, such as my skin color and body hair. I would be scared to go outside because I didn't want to tan. I'd shave pretty much everywhere from my eyebrows down. I had some really unhealthy and destructive behaviors. 

I think that the reason I dealt with these self-esteem problems was because as an Asian girl, I was put under more pressure to look a certain way (Taiwan has definitely shaped my life in a lot of ways). As time went on, I learned to love myself, as a result of body positive role models. However, as a young woman who wishes to enter the film industry, I now face more problems moving forward. For example, of the top-grossing films between 2007 and 2013, only 22 were directed by women, and out of those 22, only 3 were directed by women of color, as shown in a study conducted by USC. I'm really hoping that as time goes on, there will be increased diversity in the film industry that will allow more women and people of color to take part!