Our mission is to share honest stories about the intersection of passion and identity of Asian individuals in the U.S. As Asian Americans ourselves, we want the nuances in our identities that are often glazed over in mainstream media to be celebrated instead of hidden. We aim to uplift the voices of Asians in America (whether that means East to South, cultural or racial) and allow them to speak through a series of mini-documentaries.
The Blanket Identity team is made up of three students, Iris, Kaitlyn, and Ria, who are currently studying at the University of Texas at Austin. Between the three of us, TBI was birthed out of our shared interest in discussing the Asian and Asian American narrative. In our conversations, we realized that there were parts of our identities that didn’t fit into any particular Asian/Asian American trope-- we weren’t avid boba consumers nor were we obsessed with our engineering majors. We wanted to expand the dialogue that we have on the subtleties of Asian identity to a larger platform to bring in a greater amount of perspectives and backgrounds.
TBI is based out of Austin, Texas and is looking to interview individuals located in or near the area between the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022. We’re excited to grow as storytellers and filmmakers, as well as in our own Asian identities, through meaningful conversations and learning experiences with the Asian community.
Hi! I’m Iris, a Chinese-American that was born and raised in Knoxville, TN until I was 12 and moved to Houston, TX. I’m currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering (with a minor in business), with hopes of getting the chance to work in the consumer packaged goods industry and help reduce waste and close the supply chain loop. I love photography, baking (I’ve been wanting a KitchenAid stand mixer for years now), going on Netflix and watching every trailer without ever settling on anything to watch, and exploring the outdoors (trying to go to every U.S. national park before I die).
Having grown up in Tennessee, I felt very obviously out of place. I felt distinctly Asian, but I wasn’t proud of it. Looking back, I am grateful that my parents made me speak Mandarin at home and introduced me to so many yummy dishes. But at the time, I was embarrassed when I would accidentally slip in a few Mandarin words or when my classmates would laugh at my school lunches. Moving to Houston and then Austin was very eye-opening as I saw more people that looked like me. However, it was pretty clear that although we have many relatable experiences, being Asian does not mean the same thing to everyone. I hope that through TBI, I can continue to learn about the nuances in Asian identities and how that shapes the person we are today.
Hello! I’m Kaitlyn and I’m a Chinese American from Plano, Texas. I currently go to school in Austin, Texas for civil engineering and I'm interested in furthering the public agenda on transportation infrastructure equity. I’m an ISFJ-A (a true introvert) and enjoy crocheting, being outside, learning about history, and occasionally just having nothing on my mind.
As a second-gen daughter to Taiwanese-Cantonese parents who emigrated in their late teens, I’ve never felt wholly culturally Chinese due to the acculturation that my parents themselves had already undergone and my quite broken Chinese (though my parents did try, I will give them credit for that). I’ve come to realize that the things I’ve felt lacking in my identity do not make me more or less Chinese; rather, it’s representative of all the nuances in the Asian diaspora.
I hope that TBI will be a way for me to continue learning about myself as a Chinese American, as well as a way to show all the subtleties among individuals that make the term Asian no longer a blanket identity.
Hi! I’m Ria and I’m an Indian person who has a contentious relationship with the label Indian-American (but I did fairly recently get my American citizenship). I was born in India (Shimla), moved around to multiple cities (Mumbai, Indore, Bangalore) all before the age of six, and settled down in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas after. I’m currently pursuing my degrees in Linguistics and Mechanical Engineering at UT Austin with future plans to continue asking questions and finding answers about how people interact with and change big systems like language. I enjoy going on long walks listening to two specific comedy podcasts, drawing things, and the color green.
As an immigrant myself, I have never quite related to the experiences of a lot of my peers. I grew up in India and it is a big, unquestionable part of who I am. A lot of the struggles of second-generation immigrants aren’t mine, and the people who understood my exact position as a “1.5 gen” came few and far between. At some point, I gave up on finding people who exactly understood the in-between-ness of the longing for a country so far away but also the knowledge that where I’m standing has shaped me just as much, even if I don’t want to acknowledge it sometimes. That’s not to say I gave up on relating to people at all, just that it’s easier and much more fulfilling to relate parts of my friends’ identities to mine, and listen to the parts that differ. That’s my goal with TBI-- to listen to people, make friends, and share their stories.
Hi, I’m Hayden! I was born in Richardson, TX, and moved to Wylie, TX when I was three years old. After spending two years at Texas Tech University earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and working a disastrous summer internship, I decided to take an entirely different career path. I have always been passionate about storytelling, and during the pandemic, I spent all my free time researching filmmaking and learning cinematography. I’m now pursuing a degree in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas hoping to eventually work as a cinematographer on films, TV shows, or commercials. My work is inspired mostly by the images created by Robert Elswit, Bradford Young, and Reed Morano. My favorite color is blue, I love watching movies (I’m a proud AMC Stubs A-List member), playing the french horn in university ensembles, learning languages such as French and Norwegian, and spending time outdoors camping or hiking.
Hey! My name is Michele and I am an African-American first-generation student studying Radio-Television-Film in the Moody College of Communications. My career plans regarding my major are to break into the film industry as an editor and hopefully transition into the role of director later on in life. For my hobbies, I love to journal and add books to my never-ending collection— just don't ask if I ever do get around to reading them.
As someone who has always been interested in storytelling both in terms of creation and consumption, one of the most important takeaways is that everyone should have the ability to share the stories no matter their background. TBI is a way for voices who have been silenced to come together and take the stage to tell their story.
Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself or a friend!
Swipe or click through to check out some of our videos below or on our YouTube channel.
A: We will be creating videos in the form of mini documentaries (~10 minutes) and each video will highlight a separate individual sharing a passion of theirs and how it has (if at all) been influenced by their Asian identity. In our intro video, the three of us made short clips of our passions which gives a short example of what you can expect to see in our future videos. All of our videos will be posted to our YouTube channel.
A: No. Although the three of us are currently students at UT Austin, TBI is not affiliated with the university. However, there are opportunities for others, students included, to be involved.
A: Currently, the only way to get involved is to either nominate yourself or someone else to be featured in one of our videos using the form in our bio. If other opportunities come up in the future, we will notify you all first on our IG!
A: Unfortunately not, but if you do love to knit, let us know! We chose the name because we felt that oftentimes the term “Asian” gets applied as a blanket term and doesn’t take into account all the nuances that come with identifying as Asian. Therefore, we hope to dive deeper, past the stereotypes and surface definitions, to learn about what makes up someone’s Asian identity and how those differences across the board shape what we are passionate about today.
Our mission is to share honest stories about the intersection of passion and identity of Asian individuals in the U.S.