The 21-year-old emerging fashion designer is already gaining traction on TikTok, and now he’s looking to take over the world.

Sometimes I put on a pink tulle skirt

On May 25, 2020 the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin lit the nation ablaze.

On May 25, 2020, the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin lit the nation ablaze.

I remember the way that he called me beautiful, made me feel that I wasn’t. Rather, I was a picture in his mind, fixed in a gallery somewhere behind glass that was never smudged. Distantly pristine.

Growing up in Moscow, as a child of a white Russian mother and a black Nigerian father, was confusing, to say the least.

It is not enough anymore to shove a stereotype into the shadows and call it square. Our society is being raised increasingly on media, which means the children of color in our country are learning their worth and value in a society based on representation.

This year I turned twenty. The two decades under my belt mark that I am, obviously, now so wise and so old.

In this poem, I grapple with the feelings that I face every morning when looking in the mirror, wondering if I measure up to the expectations of my race.

One day, I’ll get myself another baro’t saya. Or maybe I’ll upgrade to a mestiza dress, and I’ll feel as Filipina as I did when I was young. I want to believe that day is not so far away, but it is.