00:01My name's Sanam. I'm from everywhere. I think my style has everything to do with
00:09who I am. The way I present myself is very important to me. A lot of people in
00:15my generation feel that way. Self-care and self-love go hand-in-hand.
00:21Rihanna found me on Instagram. She saw a picture of me on her
00:26Explore page. You know, like thought I was funny and cute and whatever. Just like
00:31really flattering when like anyone that you look up to feels the same way about
00:34you. I've introduced myself as Sanam for a very long time but the way my name is
00:39actually pronounced as Sanam, it was like part of like me assimilating and making
00:44things easier for white people. It's something that I haven't really ever
00:47talked about and so I'm just gonna like say it now. Like yeah, that's how my name
00:51is pronounced. I had a really hard time growing up with accepting my South Asian
00:56features. I grew up being made fun of wearing like bindi's and wearing henna.
01:01You don't get to wear those things when you haven't had to deal with like what
01:04comes along with that. If you go to an Indian wedding you can wear a sari and
01:09wear Indian jewelry but like can you wear like a bindi to Coachella? No, definitely
01:14not. And there's never gonna be a way for like that to be like not offensive.
01:22I got the tattoo because growing up wearing my culture was a source of embarrassment for
01:28me and not something that I took pride in. Now I wear my culture as much as I can and
01:33this was like the perfect way to do it like permanently and it's like a reminder to myself
01:37to not ever like want to hide it. I would define cultural appropriation
01:43as you want to choose like the aspects of it that appeal to you and use that to
01:49your benefit but you don't want to deal with like all of like the terrible shit
01:55that comes along with it. I've been called out for a lot of things you know like
01:58appropriating black culture because like you know like I listen to like a certain
02:02kind of music I talk a certain way. It's nice for me when people are willing to
02:07like call me out and be like hey like don't do this. I try very hard to like
02:12check myself and to take a step back and be like okay like is this okay for you to
02:17be saying like is this okay for you to be doing? That's how like we're gonna get
02:21anywhere with this shit is just like being able to like call each other out and
02:25like do it in a way that's productive and constructive for everyone involved.
