S:2 E:20: Journalist, Host, Podcaster, Content Creator - Karama Horne of TheBlerdGurl

Thank you for watching! Welcome back all my nerds, geeks, blurbs, and freaks to another episode of Geeky Sexual and Intellectual. I'm your host Q, and today's guest is Karima Horn. You may know her as the Blurred Girl over on Instagram and a multitude of media platforms. I first met her back in 2014, I believe, and she has just shot to the top of nerd media. She's doing things with SyFy, Universal, Marvel, DC, any other geek source that you can think of. And I'm so proud of her. She has been putting in the work. And I just, I praise her and her knowledge base and her expertise and her willingness to help others if she sees that they're applying themselves. Again, I always say this, and it's a good thing, this is a note-taker episode. She's dropping jewels. So, get your paper ready, get your pen ready, and here we go. Oh, and to add, around minute 47, as always, technology would not have let us be great. So, it's going to be a break, and we'll roll back into it. Enjoy. Let's do it. present Geeky Sexual and Intellectual, today's guest. I think I have been talking to you since 2014. So, today we have Ms. Karen Mahorn. You may know her as the Blurred Girl. How you doing today? I am good. How are you? Thank you for having me, Quincy. It's been too long. We should have did this already, but. Well, yeah, and it's funny. The moment I saw you on a podcast, I was like, hey, look at you. So, congrats for joining the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. You're a revolution. I've also seen you streaming as well. So, congrats. Girl, I'm trying. And what better time than now while we all supposed to be quarantined? And it's gotten real lax, but we'll get to that. So, like I said, I've been seeing you when I first noticed you on Instagram. I think it was back in 2014, and that's really specific in my head because I was working in radio. And so, that's when I started my platform, and I saw you, and what I saw on your page was a very iconic image of you. Which is your loco, and it was on a bag. You had your products for the Blur Girls. And I was like, this is so cute. Yeah, the Blur Girls shop. Yes. So, that's how I started following you. And I was like, she's amazing. Because I tell people I got into Instagram because when I first got in, I just saw white people doing this and white people doing that, and I didn't see us. So, I was like, well, let me throw my hat in the game. And then I saw you. Like, it was like, clink, clink, like that. So, I was like, I love everything she does. And I wanted to keep doing it. Aw, thank you. Yes. So, you asked me, but I want to ask you, because I tried to start the show out, with a check-in. How have you been doing in these quarantine times? I'm okay. It's been a crazy couple months. I'm not going to lie. I'm in New York. So, for a minute, that was ground zero for the crazy. I had spent actually one couple months actually not in New York. My mother had to have her pacemaker. She had to have her pacemaker replaced, like, right before the quarantine started. And so, I was like, let me jet, so I could be with her. She's outside of Philly. She's in Jersey, outside of Philly. And I was like, let me get down there, so I can be with her and chill with her and hang out with her and make sure that she's okay. And then that turned into, you probably shouldn't come back. Like, my boyfriend was, like, in the house. Like, you probably shouldn't come back, because it's bad. It's really bad. But, yeah, I mean, it was just really kind of crazy, because where she was, people weren't taking it seriously. So, like, I was, like, I remember this kid following me around the ShopRite in Jersey, because I had on, at the top of March, I was wearing gloves and a mask, and he thought it was hysterical. So, I'm sure I'm on somebody's TikTok somewhere. And then, literally, six weeks later, that same ShopRite, making people wait outside, only letting certain people in, having big plexiglass dividers. Between the grocery, you know, at the grocery thing, everybody had masks and gloves. And it was funny. I was, like, if I see that boy, I gotta laugh. So, yeah, I mean, she's fine, thank God. That's great. I'm obviously back home. I had a harrowing trip back to New York, because I had to take public transportation to do it, which was bananas in May. And yeah, we've sort of been sort of sheltering in place ever since my boyfriend makes the odd trip out to the grocery store. Now that delivery service has kicked back up, now we're getting groceries delivered again. But yeah, it was really kind of crazy. I'm looking at some water that we still have stocked in the office, in case, because it was crazy. I think that's the last of it, because everybody thought things would be done by September. And it's funny. I remember saying in August, when they started opening things back up, going to that phase two, phase three. I was like, "Nope, here it comes again." And now they've opened, I guess this week they've opened Florida all the way back up. Girl, Florida opened itself up, okay? I don't understand. And it's funny when you made the remark, yeah, when you were at the store and you had the mask on, what has always been baffling to me this entire time is that people have been waiting for city overpasses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The officials, the US government, CDC, whoever. You don't have to wait to use your own intelligence. If you know how- I had people yelling at me. I had people like, I remember I got my hair done right before the, because I was actually before they shut everything down, I was supposed to go do Ace Comic Con. And so I was prepping for that. I'm like, "Until they say no, I'm just going to keep moving like this is happening." And I went there with a mask and stuff, and they're like, "Why are you wearing a mask?" I'm like, "Because COVID?" And they were like, "Well-" So, they said that only sick people have to wear masks. I'm like, "Listen to what you just said. When you go to the hospital, who wears the masks? The patients?" The doctors. Common sense. Common sense. And people are like, "But they didn't say that." I'm like, "You don't know me. I don't trust, I trust what I see." And it doesn't make sense if you have an airborne virus and they can't tell where it starts that only some people, the sick people, and they don't know who's sick and who isn't, that they get to wear the mask. I was like, "All right. Whatever you want to do." But I'm wearing this. That makes no sense to me. And I will tell you something that's so funny. Back in January, when Netflix had the show Pandemic come out, I was like, "You know what? I've been sleeping on this." I've been saying it ever since. My daughter's 11 now. When she was a baby, it was like full-on paranoia. I was like, "You know what? I need you to give me a bug-eyed bag. I need to get X, Y, Z." So when that came out, I was like, "You know what? I need to get back on that." Right after I finished binge-watching the show, I went to Amazon and put all this stuff in my cart. Nothing hits. Actual real life hits. And I go back to my cart, everything is bought out. "Oh my God! Damn it!" Yes. Yes. All of that. So actually, my husband thought I was crazy. I was like, "We don't know what's going to happen with this. Why not be ready? You don't have to get ready." I bought us a, what is it, I think it's like a 72-hour bug-eyed bag. It's enough for 10 people. But it's three of us. So we good. I bought water. I bought everything. I bought tofu. I bought milk. I bought everything. I put it in the cupboard. I'm just like, you never know. And people waiting on the CDC. And that's when people go crazy. Like what they did at the stores. Then they had to shut them down. And I have a Walmart right behind my house. It was ridiculous. Oh, I'm sure. They didn't have anything. You couldn't even have it delivered to you. But it's just crazy. I had my little moments. I think I had two quarantine breakdowns. And I'm good. Yeah. I mean, it's tough. I think the other thing that we were dealing with also out here was. I'm a little agoraphobic. Now because we went. When I came back, it was straight into all the protests and things like that. So there were helicopters all the time. That was also when they had the fireworks going on all the time in July, even before July. It was June. It was like fireworks constantly happening. And so it was a little bit nerve wracking. And I think that's where my anxiety comes in. Yeah. I mean, it's tough. I'm a little agoraphobic now because we went. It was June. And so it was a little bit nerve wracking and I think that's where my insomnia comes from now. But yeah, it was crazy there for a minute. Things have calmed down. I think things have calmed down physically, like in New York, but now we're in anarchist states. So. Sure, girl. It's just. It's always something. This is the most. I mean, but I'm. I've had anxiety before. I'm chilling at this point. It's tea and anarchy. Yeah. Tea. It's tea and anarchy now. I'm just like, "All right. This is where we are." And I live in Texas, so Texans with all the almighty green, that's all they care about. And so my daughter starts school tomorrow and I am trying to hold it together. So I was like, "Let's see if I'm having a breakdown when I drop off on Monday," because doing two days there three days home okay so I'm like here's your sanitizer here's 50,000 masks here's whatever I can do she's 11 so you know and so she's old enough you don't have common sense like my niece um she's not two and my brother was like we gotta send her to to take care and I'm losing my mind I'm like yeah because how do you tell the two-year-old to social distance how do you do that they love to hug and they haven't seen each other in a while like come on so yeah I mean they're doing their best um but yeah and that's all you can do is all you can do is do your best and I think the thing that's frustrating though is everybody's like you know self-care take care of yourself if you need to like not do stuff you need to sit down and just take a break okay but you know black women so we gotta still work and do things because we gotta like even though my Morgan and things like that Morgan's and stuff like that is still kind of on hold yeah when it turns back on they don't want that money so yeah you know it's just I don't know child I mean we can put all these scenarios in place but nobody started to do anything that's actually beneficial to us so we just gotta walk through we gotta yeah we gotta do it ourselves and then we also have to vote yeah oh god don't get me started I'm like am I gonna have to buy some lawn chairs because I know the lines are gonna be ridiculous and yeah I saw a guy with a hula hoop he had made a hula hoop social quarantine thing I'm like I gotta give me and my baby a hula hoop bring that bug out bag in case anything jumps off exactly girl don't start because I keep an aluminum bag in my car so all right so we checked in we feeling good we're not jumping off nobody's building no girl I'm like you can't you can't check no I'm a Scorpio I'm not jumping off a building I'm throwing something off of a building no I'm not going you can go but I'm not going anywhere she's like I got shit to change I got things to do yeah no yeah all right so we gotta check in but what I really wanted to have you here for to tell the world like everybody listens to me but I want to tell the world about the greatness that is you because no joke whenever I get a notification that I'm like like it actually makes me happy I don't know and that's not even you know I don't know by it's maybe I'm biased because you know black girl love but I'm just like yeah she always posts some good shit let me go check it out so that's why I wanted you on the show so other people could experience the joy that is you oh thank you thank you so much and you know it's funny because many times when we're as content creators we're working a vacuum so I don't and here's the thing I tell people all the time likes and follows don't mean first of all likes and follows don't mean money that's the first thing I tell people all the time and likes and follows also don't mean that that you're doing like people are responsive to to what you're actually saying a lot of times it's just responding to the image or whatever so that means a lot to me coming from you because I know you would tell me first you would get me like girl um but also because I think in this age of like we just said COVID and I'm having nightmares and little zoom boxes everything's like a Brady Bunch box in my brain now um it's nice when you have some face-to-face somebody's like I like your stuff so I appreciate that I really do yeah girl no problem but I want to go way back okay I'm gonna start so I want you to tell the audience about your childhood and your childhood influences that have made you the woman that you are today that's actually pretty simple um I grew up in a geek household so I grew up in uh small town in Jersey right but everybody that lived in my town actually worked in Manhattan in fact my town lost I think the most people in 9-11 because of how many people had commuted in it was a lot so um I grew up sort of in this suburb and so we were like the only black folks in this white neighborhood because my father wanted to put us in a public school neighborhood that had a really good public school set of public schools he didn't want to pay for private school but that meant no black people I'm like okay in his in his mind that's what that meant so I grew up not realizing I was a geek because I was too busy being the black girl so I didn't know you know that part was weird so I got to college but my earliest influences were really Uhura so we weren't allowed to watch certain things my father was very very big on academics he graduated um my parents were older uh or older he graduated um Harvard class in 1960 not there's only about five black men who did that or six um and he uh so he was all about academics so I was not allowed to watch things like um I'm trying to think he didn't mind if we watched science fiction stuff but he or fantasy stuff but he didn't want us watching like Saturday Night Live or Good Times or anything that he felt was what had stereotypes okay like I never saw I saw Little Rascals in a film class in college like we just were not allowed to watch it because Buckwheat was the ultimate stereotype to him yeah so it was weird because I grew up in this black family about being strong and smart or whatever was sort of isolated in this white neighborhood but we went to a black church so it was sort of like I was obviously the black girls the white kids and I was too white for the black kids so I never really fit in and my brothers who are twins they're younger than me their birthday was yesterday happy birthday guys um they um we were all geeks but I didn't know that that's what it was called so we were watching I Uhura was my girl because Uhura was the only sister in the room I was used to that she was in the back of the room nobody would talk to her unless they really really needed something and then she could translate any language which meant she was listening so she heard everything so Uhura was absolutely my my um I guess role model growing up because it was like you might be the only one in the room but you're not the only one in the room and I was used to it and I was used to it and I was used to it and I was used to it and I was used to it and I was used to it but you belong there and pay but you belong there and pay attention listen because at some point somebody's gonna need attention listen because at some point somebody's gonna need something if you're the only one who's something if you're the only one who's got it that's yeah that's your world so she was that's got it that's yeah that's your world so she was that's a small piece of representation just that a small piece of representation just that little thing it matters it connected to you I'm really little thing it matters it connected to you I'm really happy that Martin Luther King made her stay happy that Martin Luther King made her stay on the show um for those of you who don't know it on the show um for those of you who don't know it was she Nichelle Nichols wanted to leave the show was she Nichelle Nichols wanted to leave the show after the first season and Martin Luther King after the first season and Martin Luther King begged her to stay so y'all love the I have a begged her to stay so y'all love the I have a dream speech I love the fact that he made Uhura dream speech I love the fact that he made Uhura stay on the show um so yeah it was um it was that stay on the show um so yeah it was um it was that and then we all now every a lot of people know and then we all now every a lot of people know what Crunchyroll is now but like 15 years ago what Crunchyroll is now but like 15 years ago when I was saying oh we got a family Crunchyroll when I was saying oh we got a family Crunchyroll account people didn't know what I was talking account people didn't know what I was talking about but we did like my mother is not from this country she's from Bermuda um but in country she's from Bermuda um but in Bermuda the satellite television just like Bermuda the satellite television just like in a lot of islands so I was used to seeing in a lot of islands so I was used to seeing shows with subtitles because everybody shows with subtitles because everybody have would have big satellite dishes and have would have big satellite dishes and you just get tv from all over the world you just get tv from all over the world so I grew up on so I grew up on Indian Indian Bollywood movies and and and Indian Bollywood movies and and and um Taiwanese soap operas and Korean soap um Taiwanese soap operas and Korean soap operas and operas and there was just a lot of stuff that we there was just a lot of stuff that we just saw was exposed to and my brothers just saw was exposed to and my brothers were big into gaming I was more into were big into gaming I was more into animation we were all into animation but animation we were all into animation but I would like steal their toys or I would like steal their toys or whatever but they were into gaming but whatever but they were into gaming but they would take the games apart and then they would take the games apart and then they would like they would like reconfigure them so that like a game reconfigure them so that like a game that was single player now could be two that was single player now could be two player like we were all just player like we were all just really geeky really geeky crazy kids you know and so but crazy kids you know and so but used to being the only ones and used used to being the only ones and used to being isolated so fantasy and science to being isolated so fantasy and science fiction fiction was how was how you know what we were into and then you know what we were into and then also I was raised also I was raised also I was raised to to to I was raised to sort of revere I was raised to sort of revere I was raised to sort of revere excellence it's funny because all of us excellence it's funny because all of us excellence it's funny because all of us my dad wanted us all to be like lawyers my dad wanted us all to be like lawyers my dad wanted us all to be like lawyers doctors or whatever but we all ended up doctors or whatever but we all ended up doctors or whatever but we all ended up sort of in the arts in one one way or sort of in the arts in one one way or sort of in the arts in one one way or the other I played it safe and I went the other I played it safe and I went the other I played it safe and I went I did go I went to northwestern but I I did go I went to northwestern but I I did go I went to northwestern but I went for I had I wanted to go for a tv went for I had I wanted to go for a tv went for I had I wanted to go for a tv a tv film a tv film a tv film and theater like and theater like and theater like combo major but they did away with that combo major but they did away with that combo major but they did away with that major the year that I got there and I'm major the year that I got there and I'm major the year that I got there and I'm like listen I'm gonna have scholarship like listen I'm gonna have scholarship like listen I'm gonna have scholarship but this stuff is still expensive so but this stuff is still expensive so you're gonna have to figure something out and they were like all right we'll go to the theater department because that's harder and if you don't like it you can transfer out and go into tv film by your sophomore year and i did i went to the theater department and it was just like i what they wanted was classical theater and i just didn't fit the mold they wanted again i was the only one and then but all my finals and everything that i was writing about was like you know check off and and all of these classical european artists and i was constantly being told you don't look like masha you don't sound like masha i'm like because i'm not i'm not and i won't be so until unless you can widen your imagination i i don't think this is for me so i went to tv and film and it's funny after that i did a lot more theater but i had this background of liberal arts plus basically it had if it had buttons on it i wanted to play with it so i got into the technological side of things and then what i um i really wanted to direct but then when i graduated i wanted to eat so i realized that editing like video editing was kind of like video editing was kind of safe because in terms of video editing a you could you were sort of the director when it came to postage post-production like after everything was in the you know shot the editor does everything to get it on the screen like in sort of post-production advisors and things like that and so i said you know let me go into that because even if there's not enough money to shoot something new people always have money to re-edit stuff especially like advertising so i got into editing commercials and promos out in chicago when i graduated ended up moving out here um because it was either new york where i got to the point i'm like i gotta go to either new york or la if i'm gonna make this a career and la you needed a car new york has a subway also i got i could have stayed with my parents so i'm like i'm going home so and and that's sort of how i got into like the graphics and video and stuff like that um even tech so i always had that technological thing going on because i was always in a situation where people would not help me so it's like i i would be an assistant editor but if i edited no one would give me an assistant so if you didn't know the gear and if you don't know the video programs the editing programs and the software the hard drives or how to maintain your rig you you know you would just fail so i had so i it was a blessing and a curse because to this day i have a problem asking for help because i'm so used to thinking no one's gonna help me anyway let me just do it um which is why my podcast comes out so but i'm trying i'm trying um but yeah so uh and then in terms of it's funny the blur girl came about god i i have to actually sit down and figure out what i should call the anniversary date for the blur girl because it kind of yeah it started in in pieces um but i basically was gonna like i started as a tumblr page and i wanted to just i started talking about um comics and stuff that i remember reading and i remember being excited about and characters that i was excited about that a lot of people didn't know about so people were yelling about diversity in like we need more diverse characters and stuff and i was saying yes but we do already have some you know let me tell you like there were three black captain americas before steve rogers like there were you know there were yes there's black panther but there's also black lightning and there's also all these other characters that you don't know about so i would write about them on my little tumblr it's also a really big fan of indie artists black indie artists and i would just put some of their art up on my page and go look at this amazing you know cosplay look at this amazing um fan art of you know many different things and i was also into obviously into anime and manga and so i was just basically talking about the stuff that i liked what i didn't realize until i wrote a couple posts that went viral was that there weren't at the time that many black folks just talking about this kind of stuff and i'm not not to say that like i'm the only one to do it it was just like i think at that time it was really um i remember black nerd problems black girl nerds um geek soul brother like a few people and then you know i just sort of came up you know in the room and i would tell people all the time i'm i'm not new to this genre i might be new to this geek space that y'all are y'all are in but i'm not new to this genre i've been writing fan fiction i've been doing all the stuff everybody's doing but i just wasn't showing it it was it was great to say you know to call myself a blurred i not coined that term but it was nice to call myself that and no because people think to ask me that a lot i'm like no i did not come up with been out y'all's is late um but it was a signifier at that time if you call yourself a blur this is before black panther before all these tv shows and all these things we have now it was like wait yo you know you like death note 2 not the netflix show the real manga you don't know um so yeah it was just a signifier like yeah i like this i like this and um it's really funny i didn't make the decision though to really go full like go from tumblr to i did make the decision to like level up to wordpress or whatever but i didn't really make a decision to lean into it until a few years ago when i actually had a stroke i'm a stroke survivor um and i had to um i was in rehab i had to learn how to walk again it shut down my left side i learned how to walk again i had to learn how to use my left hand again and everything it was just it was up to my arm and the the problem was i had friends that were sending me comics and stuff like that and i remember thinking because i had i had been editing like non-stop my dad it was a really rough year like that year i was going through a divorce i almost lost my house my dad died um and then at the end of the year i'd had this stroke and then i remember i would i was working on a few discovery channels and i was like oh my god i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die shows and an a and e show i think the last thing i worked on before i got sick was like naked and afraid and i was like i am not gonna die working on naked and afraid yeah like they're not gonna put that in my no so i said i remember laying on the high being in in rehabilitation center going okay if i get out of this and if i get proper use of my hands back and stuff like that and everything um i am not gonna work myself to death somebody else's dream. Like I want to do something that I like and I want to help some people. And I've just been really, really lucky. You know, God in the universe heard my, you know, heard my prayer and I've been able to do that, which is why when I have a bad day or something goes really, really bad, because I know a lot of people are like, you know, how do you deal with a lot of the hate you get sometimes? And I'm like, I'm walking like perspective is a, I'm a journey. I already, I told you, you're a fabulous human being. So you getting hate, it's something wrong with them people. Like I can see if he was out here producing trash, even though nobody should be hating on people. We're doing the best we can, but I'm like, no, I get it. I get hate for commenting on fandom sometimes. And if, you know, different fandoms are very sensitive. So, and then also once you get that blue check mark on like on Twitter and once you get past a certain following, people think that you're paid to be there. Like there's this really weird thing where people think you got a blue check mark and you got this, you got that. That means, and I mean, you had a lot of followers on Instagram, you know, they come at you like, so, you know, you're just going to sit there and, you know, not say nothing. It's like, wait, is this important? Yeah, no, I have, uh, what is it? Uh, where you can take out certain words. So somebody come talking trash. I've typed in every negative thing I can think of in comments of, uh, the settings, the Instagrams and I don't deal with that shit. I was like, don't come here with that. This is my happy space. Yeah. So, and it's, it's, um, I think for me, the other thing that's been really amazing is my world's kind of collided, I would say in 2017. So there's a lot of people that think like, oh my God, she just came out of nowhere. I actually didn't like, I was a full-time video editor, independent owning my own like freelance independent contractor, uh, for basically 16 years before all of this. So I just prioritizing and marketing and stuff like that and put it towards, um, the blur girl. I think what was great is in 2017, I was hired and this is classic black woman thing. I freelanced for this editing company for ages and I've trained a couple assistants there and we're always talking about comics and we're always talking about what we're reading and watching. And they were like, oh, we're going, we are, we've been hired by sci-fi to go out to San Diego comic-con to edit their live show. Does anybody know any editors that know anything about comics? And I'm like, right there. These guys are like, have you ever had a conversation with camera like ever? So that's been a lot of my career. I tell people all the time, I actually, there hasn't been like a big plan to like, oh, I'm going to go this. Now there is more of a plan. But in the beginning, it was like, I'm blogging, I'm getting popular. Okay, great. The sci-fi thing, what happened was when I went out to San Diego, um, what people don't realize is when people are doing those like live shows from like the show floor and things like that, there's usually a truck or a series of hotel rooms that have been bought out nearby. And they took up the top three or four floors of the Marriott next door to the San Diego convention center. And they, everything green room production, editing, live editing, you know, so I'm just one of the grunts back there in the room with rows and rows of computers. But what happened was I sort of became, I don't want to say a de facto assistant producer because I'm in a room with people because it was just so thrown together. A lot of the people were not familiar with comic cons. So there were people like, can somebody tell me what that this, which Disney character that is? I'm like, that's not Disney. That's Naruto. What, why? Okay. How, why? Like, and somebody tell me who the old guy is on the screen. That is Peter Capaldi. And that is not how you spell Dr. Who. Like it was just one of those very weird, you know, and then, so I just got started. And funny thing is I would speak up. Because I thought about it and I said, well, what's the worst that can happen? If they didn't want me to speak up and if I'm, if they didn't want me to be here, I wouldn't be here. And I'm helping them. Also worst case scenario, they fire me. They've paid for the hotel room and they've paid for the plane ticket. I'm on vacation at a comic con. So, um, and so that led to me being asked to pitch, uh, a show for sci-fi, which I did. It's a tiny show that nobody saw. It's a tiny show that I saw in 2018 that, and it's not even, I mean, it's not even worth going into, but it was a little daily news show. And then they had a little weekly thing, but it got me a pretty your credit which was great um and so i've i've gotten all these credits they also asked me to be on a podcast and i did that for a couple years so there were all these little smaller paid things but i was still editing and then i made the decision in 2019 last year to not the better like second part of 2018 and beginning of 2019 i said you know i'm gonna try and do this full time and i i think what made the decision for me was when i asked to go was asked to go to the red carpet for black panther they were like do you want to cover red carp do you want to cover black panther do you want to go to la and be on the red carpet i'm packing like when do we leave you know and so that was my first red carpet experience not as crew but as talent um and it was fantastic i look back at it it's kind of cringy because i was kind of so excited to be there i was like wow um thank god i've gotten better um but i came back to them and i've very was very clear i said listen i really appreciate this opportunity i love the fact that i was able to do this for you but if you if black panther is the only red carpet you put me on i'll drag you myself on twitter yeah and they were like no no no no we want you to do other things black history month is in a month and you know so right so um i think i had to pick and choose my battles there um but what i did do was start leverage leveraging that i've never been an employee of sci-fi i don't think a lot of people understand that i've always been freelance and they will hire me to do certain things so if you see my face that was not misunderstanding also but a lot of but i can see why because when people started getting dragged for diversity they were like find all the black people and put their faces on screen so we don't look like we don't have anybody but technically sci-fi wire even the website only has three well now i think they have four black writers sci-fi wire fangirls is a little bit separate that's sci-fi people don't realize that either but i am the only um writer black writer on the sci-fi at sci-fi.com fangirls has more including stephanie williams um and there's a couple other people that are there but yeah if you go to the site it looks like there's a whole bunch of people but those are everybody who's ever freelance written for the site not who's actually active so there's a little you know there's a big and i'm not i'm not disparaging them they there are things that sci-fi did for me and my career that i i can never repay them for there's been amazing but i have to tell people on a pretty regular basis i do not have a full-time job with them i am my own full-time job um and i'm always pitching and always freelancing and always you know asking for stuff what's been great though is and here's the thing though i do have a column there and that column is indie comic spotlight and so every two weeks it used to be weekly but i dialed it back to every two weeks i am you know interviewing somebody in the indie comic space i did not call it poc comic book creators because that's not my life i live in brooklyn and so i wanted the column to look like brooklyn and that's everybody black white queer straight whatever you know latin you know so um i think i've been able to do a lot of live events and things but i because of my producer background and my like uh production managing background i've also produced a lot of the things that you've seen me in so i can tell you right now had i not put my name in the contract as backup for the show that i did on sci-fi and if i wasn't producing that show i would never have been on camera oh yeah and let me tell you about that because i'm a dad you said nobody saw i remember 2018 i was sitting in my bed in my little apartment and i was going through sci-fi i don't remember what show i was watching but you came on during like the intermission yeah i was like oh like crowd mama moment i was like oh my god my baby you saw my show yeah so there were sci-fi wire news break and then they there was like a weekend edition for a while that was a little bit longer those are still up on youtube so yeah that was that was what i was working i can't believe you saw that because you had to be watching like i don't know like z nation or something to be able to see it you know something weird not memorable but i remember seeing you and i was like oh my god i had to pause the tv i was like i'm so corny i have i have friends in film and when they pop up i'm like i didn't know he was in here pause take a picture you know how mamas do rip out the newspaper article yes so yeah i mean and and what but what people don't realize is a lot of the stuff like many people at many outlets they're given interviews and sometimes i am but every interview that i do for a sci-fi wire i have to get myself and i have to pitch it like i everybody i know a lot of people and i could do a lot of interviews but the ones that i've just thrown in there going well i'm just going to do this on my own i've got my hands lapped so for people like oh why won't you cover me there's a lot of people that i i would love to cover but they're you know it won't fit there many times and this isn't just sci-fi i don't i don't want to make it sound like i'm blasting them mainstream um sites they are trying to keep their numbers up so they need you to talk about something very specific to keep your numbers up um but what i was going to say was it's interesting because a lot of the stuff that i have done and tried to do a lot of those pitches don't go through so i'm i was doing interviews first and tried to pitch them and they'd say no and then i'm stuck with the interview and i was like what do i do i just had this great conversation with this great artist okay i'll start a podcast so i started putting those interviews the you know non-transcribed interviews on the on the podcast and that's how i started going the podcast when i but something else that i was also very very big on and i'm still big big on this is there's not many of us that are let in the door inside to see the um how the how the cookies are made yes and what's interesting about it is i will tell you and i'm not even i'm not this is not necessarily sci-fi because i can put this across several different outlets it is where we think there's a lot of racism happening i can tell you right now it is easier to be lazy than it is to be racist and i'm not saying that they those don't go hand in hand because sometimes getting up off your butt and actually actively looking for somebody that does not look like you is also racist but there are i have been able to get a lot of stuff because i was in the room but like uh i i have that same um affliction as that's this on um the black lady sketch show where i'm always in the room but nobody sees me like i am and that's a blessing and a curse of being a black woman in media like i am nine times out of ten i'm always in the room and i'm always in the room and i'm always in the room and i'm there but i literally have had conversations with people like oh my god i wish you were at so-and-so screening i was i was sitting next to you they just don't see you so and it's fine but i'm in the room so i already have the knowledge so when people go oh my god we need to find a person of color that might know anime and might know this and it's comfortable talking about like yeah i did i'm there i already did an article on it what do you need oh my god well people are so topical so if it's not happening in the moment you could have they could have walked past you talking to some you could have been talking to them about your interest in nerd culture and it was just oh we were just talking it never registered i need to dial that in when i need it again and it should have just been like oh karima that's that's what don't stand in front of my face and ask me do i know the person i've talked to you about anime many a time and so and that's that's actually a conversation i have with people a lot right now i've been telling people like yes you're absolutely right you have pitched and pitched and you've got your project for two years and nobody said anything and now in the past three months people are noticing and i'm going to tell you to pitch again i know yes pitch again to the same person why because now that particular gatekeeper feels that they do have to deliver something that is diverse and i'm telling a lot of people to do this simply because i i'm tired of being one of the only people holding the door open like behind the scenes i can't tell you there's a lot of people that i recommend for projects because i a don't have the time or b it's not my wheelhouse and i will i'll tell you and i have no problem doing that and um it's funny that angelique roche is one of those people i she uh i got they wanted me to do another podcast i couldn't do it they were like we need somebody who's got the same energy i'm like you should talk to angelique angelique is great they gave her sci-fi gave her a podcast on um amazon and now she's doing tv stuff with them it's great um we also and she and i did radical geeks together and that was fun like she's doing tv stuff with them it's great and she and i did like i this is how it's supposed to work there is enough room there's this there is this weird thing that people think there's not enough room here so i'm not gonna let anybody you know come in and i've talked to people like that and i've i've even had conversations with people who want me to review their stuff and i tell people listen one of the things i tell people all the time is recommend other people tell me other people that you're interested in retweet other people talk about other people's stuff and they're like well why would i talk about somebody else's stuff that's not mine i'm like because that's how it works and if you don't want to do that if you don't want to do that i'm just not interested i'm not interested in you because it's because i'm going to tell people i used to go through this even with um getting people into the chumper um there's a lot of every week somebody says to me like i don't know any black women in comics i don't know and i'm like which is dumb because i don't know how many more lists i can make in tweets and things i can make for you but all right and i always tell people okay sis you got in great this year you have a table next year you have a table next year you have a year, you split that table with somebody else because you've been grandfather it in split that table with somebody else then there's two of you in and then next year the two of you get your own tables and split them so that you're not we're not we're not doing this we don't have to yell that we're not there because we're there what we keep doing is asking for permission yeah and that is something i don't do i usually people are like oh my god they're not letting us in they're not letting this they're not letting that and i'll go right okay well where were you i was like i was in a room already i wasn't asking i just went in yeah but a lot of people have the competitive mentality if i'm doing it and then you come in and you do it better than me then they don't need me anymore so i'm not going to recommend you but i'm like i'm like this so we talked about numbers you know the instagram numbers followers all of that stuff i'm broke as hell okay so i'm like but i you know i sell t-shirts i do all the other stuff i do web design graphic design but when i see other people that i enjoy the creativity i reshare it on my social media now somebody else that's competitive no because if i give them shine why would i you know post their t-shirts or their artwork or whatever great thing they're doing because then i can't get money i'm like it's not about that at the end of the day it's about putting pushing people forward and then sometimes they remember that i mean you don't do it for that reason but sometimes they remember that that's true but but quincy honestly you could listen and not even talk about the t-shirts let's back up a minute let's because you're not gonna act like you didn't say what you just said you shouldn't be broke and i'll tell you why and i'll tell you why and it has nothing to do with because your designs and everything are great it's not about that your design business is wonderful but the one thing that you can sell is your knowledge so one of the reasons why i started my business thailand creative was because i am inside rooms now with people who are submitting things and submissions look like crap they don't they don't know what a press release is they don't know what a press kit is things like that and i'm not trying to be rude or mean to anybody who doesn't know that but i'm saying that this is the language of people who are getting put on so i'm seeing somebody with a bad comic or no presence or just is problematic getting stuff pushed through and getting highlighted and getting shine because they know how to present it i can't tell you how many people email me they go yo i have an album so you should talk about me i'm like excuse me like yeah i've been starting to get that too so and it's no like no background or like hi my name is i'm a fan of yours i love the article that you did on this like show that you even know what i do you know um and i am a content creator who's doing this and in two months i'm doing that is there any way you can help me with that or do you know anybody who can help me with that or you know like there's no ask it's just like you should just retweet me like what yeah and i'm like okay and i've even had i've even had people say to me like i'll pay you to tweet to retweet me and i'm like that i can retweet you but you still have five followers and you're still not doing anything with them like you need to start telling people about what you do so quincy you yourself could absolutely have a class on this is how you use instagram and people would pay you girl i'm gonna be 100 okay trans at times i'm just fucking lazy i'm like i do it for the joy of it and then that's when i go i go hard and then sometimes you know i get into my whatever my mental stuff and i'm just like yeah it's cool it's on the back burner i mean it's just for fun anyway and then i get into that moment again okay i get the podcast i gotta get the the youtube i gotta get this i've done that i've done that that's why my youtube doesn't have a lot of things like that and what what dawned on me just like you is that instagram is a great platform because it can get you that engagement pretty quickly but here's the thing i learned i've learned a lot about this is a big thing that i love is um basically reusing material that you already have so for instance the blur girl live that's my show it is up on twitch on the osmyc channel season two is coming little little pub there season two is coming next month um but i have great content through that but i learned you know what nobody cares if this is a a repost of the the the audio from that thing they don't care so the blur girl live is now also going up as a podcast i'm taking clips and i'm putting up putting them up on instagram for the people who are visually impaired i'm getting them closed captions so that they can go up on youtube so it's the one piece of content and then i'm just reusing it what we're doing right now that could be your class people make it seem like they have to do a big thing you could say who here wants to learn how to do a podcast or who here wants to learn how to do instagram hit me up with some questions and pay me for the podcast $25 on paypal or $10 on paypal and we'll do a zoom yeah and i think a lot of people are jaded at this point um like i told one of my artist friends i consider a lot of people on instagram my friends like i said i've been knowing them since 2014 uh one guy in particular his name is sean he goes by uh art attacks on instagram so i remember i was trying to get back into the art game so i got an ipad and i got procreate so i was like i can't figure procreate out you know i'm used to photoshop and illustrator but this is a pen and a pad what do you do yeah so i was like okay my hand isn't sturdy i'm am i getting old like why is my hand the lines are horrible so i would write different artists and be like hey can you explain i know you use procreate could you please explain how um i can get the lines smooth it was like well you just have to practice you just have to practice or people just wouldn't respond so i wrote sean and he was like you know what when i go on lunch because it was at work he was like when i go on lunch i'm gonna send you a video i was like wow you click your pen and then you click the settings and then there's a tool in there you just slide it all the way across and it'll just i was like dude he didn't even have to do that and so now that helps me create my art which led to other things like the comic book that i'm working on yeah so if i never figured that out nobody would have hired me to do any artwork with them because my line was shaky and he just blessed me with it and that's what i'm talking about just bless somebody sometimes it comes back to you it does and you know funny is i'm trying like it's so funny i have i need an intern i probably need about seven interns at this point um but i i am i don't have the budget to like pay interns and you see people all the time getting dragged on twitter because they're like yo um you know never work for free and i'm like yeah okay i can i can pay in doordash like that's all i can do right now like i can pay in sephora gift cards but that's all i can do right now so it's just one of those um but then i had somebody say to me they're like they're not talking about you they're talking about all these people out here who are not helping so i do have one intern now who's amazing dominique has been saving my life but i've been helping her because on the thai on the thailand side of things i help artists and basically people online help them promote themselves that don't that don't know what a press kit or press releases or any of that kind of stuff and also help market campaigns i do a lot of kickstarter coaching and kickstarter managing like i just finished doing i just finished doing um ray comics okamas campaign i did pb soldier a couple years ago i did a big one for rosarian publishing and it's not supposed to be me you were supposed to see the client not me i'm behind the scenes helping but it's not about me because i'm trying to teach other people you know how to do this and there's a lot more people that are that that's going to be a class very soon because i have a lot of people asking me and i don't have enough time so i think it'll be easy if i just show do a class and teach everybody that way um but it's really it's i've learned that as long as you know more than at least one other person that you're in the room with you can teach and that's where the money is like there's people like there's a comic book artist named greg pock he's he's done uh he's done incredible help he's done he's done a lot of indie comics and he's in a he even did that storm comic a few years ago that was him that wrote that um okay and his patreon is a class he's like if you want to learn how to create a comic book just be a patreon subscriber i do classes once a week and i'll show you white manga is the same way white manga from saturday am all of his tiktok all of his youtube is let me show you how to draw let me show you how to clip studio paint let me show you how to draw black hair like yeah all of this stuff is out there and people are getting like a lot of followers off of it so i'm going to be starting to do it more tutorials that way too um i'm just trying to decide whether or not i want to put it up on youtube for everybody or if i want to put it behind like patreon or something i'm figuring that out i'm still i'm still working on that because i do have this idea for like a blur girl university where i can go all right if you want to do what you want to learn how to do yeah exactly like if you want to do learn how to do what i do this is how you do yeah uh-oh did i lose you again no we're still here okay yeah it's it's you definitely have to ask for what you're worth and the person who really got me that information was april rain oscar so white april rain april is a wonderful person she's also sort of she doesn't know this my mentor in terms of how to help people behind the scenes like i'm like okay i'm gonna start really making moves like you very shortly like getting people positioned behind the scenes because that's where the power is everybody wants to be in front of the camera and i love it it's great but that's not where the power is again remember i was not on camera until i was executive producing something so but she told me something that i'll never forget and she said first they ain't paying you enough i was like damn second she said Second, she said, you need to ask for a number that scares you and don't back down. And she said, but when they say yes, you're going to kick yourself that you haven't been asking for that number for years. And I have learned that that is that is, you know, and listen, Quincy, you're an amazing, amazing person. And I think a lot of people on Instagram and many platforms know that you just need to. And you're and I'm not saying you turn dial any of that down. Don't dial down your friendliness. Don't dial down that love. That is your charm. But don't be afraid to go. You know what? Yeah, that's lovely. But this is how this is. This is how much this is. Yeah. Send me a shirt. Extra large. Exactly. Oh, but I've made so many connections. And I don't know. Yeah, you know. So we did the the the Blur Fleet. Yeah. It's a couple of us nerds on Instagram that we've come together to make a collective. So we can help each other get that reach and get that acknowledgement or whatever you need to just promote whatever you're doing, whatever great thing you're doing. So I'm really happy about that. And so when I told him that we were doing the interview, it was like, oh, my God, we love her. Well, I got to have a meeting with y'all because I want to know more about what Blur Fleet is doing, like behind the scenes, because there's definitely some stuff I'm sure I could toss your way. But I got I want to know. I want to know more. So we're going to we have to make that happen because that's amazing. I think that's an incredible. I think that's an incredible idea to have your own collective. That's awesome. Yeah. So we're trying to do that. We're still trying to get it on the piece. You know, it's a lot of chefs in the kitchen kind of thing. So everybody has their own. Yeah, always. But I won't let you go before I pick your brain about Lovecraft Country. OK, so first of all, I have been able to see a little bit further than other people. And this show. Oh, my God. I love Lovecraft Country because it's bringing together things. And I like which is sci fi as well as history. I love the fact that the Easter eggs are history and historical facts. And I have some amazing conversations with people every time I live tweet the show. I had a great podcast episode with the official Lovecraft Country podcast hosts, one of which I love this show, one of which is the writer on the show. And it was a really good episode because not only did we break down what we liked, we talked about what we didn't like, like the end of episode four. And I'm not going to spoil it. For anybody who hasn't watched it. But there were some decisions they made that I didn't like and a lot of other fans didn't like. And it was very interesting to hear one of the writers say, yeah, we screwed that up. We messed that up. Yeah, I like that they have so many in depth conversations in the writing room. And they talk about what? No, we're not going to do it that way. No, we're not going to talk about it. No, we need to talk about this. So I love it because black faces in spaces. Yes. White people probably put this. Oh, let's just put that in it. Like, no, that is highly offensive to black people. Please don't do that. But I also. But. Also, but there's some things that they did that I think were offensive to the LGBTQ community. And people spoke up about that. And they I'm not saying that show is any better. There's a lot of people that stop watching after that. And I'm not saying that you need to watch it. We have a lot of things now, which is great. This is the thing. If you don't like the show, you want to stop watching. That's fine. If you want to watch a show, that's great. If you love Antebellum, that's great. If you hate it, that's awesome. Because this is what we need. We need multiple things to look at. So that we can have these criticisms. I love on Lovecraft Country that you don't like every single one of these characters. The lead character. He does some stuff that is not cool. You ain't seen it yet. But. And here's the thing. I like that. And one of the things that Ashley C. Ford, who was one of the hosts of that podcast, said is. This is what's so real about that show. Sometimes heroes are not good people. They're just the people that were there to save you at that moment. And I love that. I love that. So, yes. I cannot wait to the end. I mean, I'm thinking of doing my own Lovecraft Country podcast after the whole season is over. So that I can break down these episodes again. Because it's amazing. I was telling one of my friends, Onaji, from Concrete Comics. Me and him talk about it after each episode. And so, I'm like, Onaji. I am physically spent after each one of these shows. Yes. Because it touches something in everyone. This is our background. There's certain parts I think about my grandfather. My grandfather had passed away. He grew up in this time. And he would tell me stories. And I think about my relationship. So, it's great for black people. I just love it. It's an amazing show. I love seeing sexy black people on camera. Okay. I can't get enough of that. I'm tired of seeing sexy white people. But it was so much more I wanted to talk to you about. But I hope we have another chance in the future. We will. We absolutely will. I would love to come back. This is great. Yes. See, I'm just smiling. I can feel the sun just coming from my chest. You bring so much joy, girl. You don't even know. All right, Karima. So, let everybody know where they can find you. You can find me, TheBlurredGirl, T-H-E-B-L-E-R-D-G-U-R-L, all over the interwebs, but mostly on Twitter and Instagram. Okay. And don't forget the podcast. Tell them where they can find your podcast. And honestly, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. Every place that's your favorite podcatcher, you can get it on iTunes. You can get it on Spotify. You can get it on Google Play. I even think Anchor might have picked it up. Like, it's just about everywhere. Stitcher, they all have it. Great. Great, girl. Great. All right. So, I'm going to reach out and I'm going to let you go because I stole enough. All right, y'all. That's our show. I hope you enjoyed Karima. It was very insightful. I got a lot of homework to do. If you're trying to be in this marketing media game, you got a lot of homework to do also. So, I'll. Let's all get to work. Please, please, please go over and follow Karima on TheBlurredGirl on Instagram. Subscribe to her website, TheBlurredGirl.com. Please follow her at Thailand Creative. That's T-I-Y Land Creative on Instagram. And any other media platform you can find her on, please support this sister because she getting in the spaces that need to have our faces. All right. So, let me know if you have any questions. I can probably try to direct them to her to get back to you. All right, y'all. Let's pay these bills. All right, y'all. It's time to do the spiel to pay the bills. You can support the show by donating through Patreon, Cash App, which is dollar sign gadgets and geekery, or through anchor.fm. There's a couple of different ways that you can donate to the show on a month-to-month basis to help sustain future episodes and equipment. There's merch over on the Gadgets and Geekery website. There's shirts, mugs, hats, cell phone cases, all sizes on the shirts. You can call us and leave any comments or show ideas on the hotline, which is 972-664-4886. Again, that's 972-664-4886. We're on all the social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Gadgets and Geekery is how you can find us. We also have a 21 and up Discord that you can find through our Patreon. We also have a Nerdcore Spotlight showcasing artists in nerd, genre, hip-hop, et cetera. You can submit your songs to gadgetsgeekery at gmail.com. Again, that's gadgetsgeekery at gmail.com. And also, please leave a review wherever you stream the show. All right. And again, I hope you enjoyed.