00:04I really, really don't know how much I've been spending on my Barbie thing.
00:09I have over $450 now.
00:13Definitely it's beyond hobby.
00:16I sometimes call her my best friend.
00:19I'm not trying to be like Barbie.
00:22I know we're different. She's a doll and I'm human.
00:26I just wake up like regular people, you know?
00:29But in my Barbie bed.
00:31I'm not waking up in Barbie. I'm living in the real world.
00:38I'm Azusa. I'm a Barbie lover in West Hollywood.
00:42I was born and raised in Japan.
00:45I moved to California when I was 30 years old.
00:48I started collecting Barbie things when I was 15 years old.
00:52I kept buying and collecting Barbie stuff since then.
00:57And it just became like this.
01:01Since I moved 21 times in my whole life.
01:05So I never really felt home even when I was in Japan.
01:09I never tried hard to do anything I didn't want to do, you know?
01:15So maybe I was not fitting in Japanese society already.
01:20I'm still close to my family, but I don't really call them or anything.
01:27Right before I moved to the U.S.
01:29I noticed my mom was totally expecting me coming back.
01:34And when I told her, I was trying to completely, like permanently move to the U.S.
01:40And she actually didn't like that.
01:42I had to tell her that, please give up on me, you know?
01:46Like, I literally told my parents, like, your daughter is weird.
01:52Literally, like really different from like average ones.
01:56I know most mothers, of course, they want to live closer to daughters.
02:02Or they want to see their daughters more often, I think.
02:05But I rejected, you know?
02:09Here's my closet.
02:11As you see, they're mostly pink clothes.
02:15Well, not just pink, but more Barbie brand clothes.
02:19And here are some Barbie shoes.
02:21Like, officially Barbie collaborated shoes.
02:25These pairs were pretty expensive.
02:28These are like, yeah, close to $1,500.
02:32So, right now, I have over 450 Barbie dolls.
02:37And I have to say, it's not a lot as a Barbie collector.
02:41To me, the amount of dolls is not that important.
02:45And recently, I'm super particular with what I get.
02:49And also, it's important how I display.
02:52I have three mini-me.
02:54We call these mini-me.
02:56My first mini-me was this girl, my original mini-me.
02:59And she used to have blonde hair.
03:02But I pulled her hair out, and I re-rooted it by myself.
03:07People think she look like me.
03:09So, I already showed you my mini-me.
03:12But she is my medium-me, midi-me.
03:15And she used to have long, curly, blonde hair.
03:19And she even didn't have bangs.
03:21But I shampooed her hair, and I dyed her hair into pink.
03:26And I cut bangs.
03:31I became an exchange student when I was a junior in high school.
03:36I went to Indiana and stayed there for one year.
03:41Since I was the only Japanese student, I was brave enough to do anything.
03:48So, people there thought I was maybe weird or crazy or different or whatever they thought.
03:55I was just confident with what I liked or what I was doing.
03:59I knew my fashion style was stylish.
04:02So, I never tried to change or anything.
04:05At the end of the school year, some girls started copying my style.
04:11They used to make fun of pink, but they came to me and they were like,
04:18I got pinked.
04:20I got inspired by you or something.
04:23Everyone likes something different.
04:25Everyone got different tastes.
04:26So, like, you know, I don't need to be loved by everyone.
04:31If they don't like me, I'm like, okay, thank you.
04:34You know?
04:34When I first met Barbie, she was already like fashion icon, pop American culture icon to me.
04:43It was so hard to find Barbie stuff over there in Japan.
04:47So, when I was an exchange student, I bought everything.
04:51Like, not just stores, but all kinds of stationeries, kitchen tours or any Barbie items I sell was fine.
05:02I moved to California because I just wanted to get more and more Barbie things.
05:09Even still now, buying Barbie things is more expensive in Japan.
05:14I just wanted to be closer to Barbie.
05:18My life has been really crazy.
05:21Like, real crazy, but it's always happy, you know?
05:25After my exchange program, I went back to Japan.
05:30Maybe I was supposed to finish high school and go to college, but I didn't.
05:34I dropped out of high school in my senior year.
05:38That year was the hardest year.
05:41I found a brain tumor and I had to have two brain surgeries.
05:47And, like, my doctor thought I was going to die in three months.
05:51Yeah, it was kind of crazy.
05:52Well, they finally found it was not cancer, but benign.
05:56But that tumor was really big, huge.
06:00That stayed in my brain for 15 years.
06:04And at the end, it disappeared.
06:07I was bringing several Barbie doors in my room.
06:12My nurses were always excited to come into my room.
06:17I always tell people I have no stress.
06:21Like, my life has no stress.
06:23And I live in the happiest place, I think.
06:26So, maybe that's why my tumor disappeared.
06:30So, when I first started being, like, Barbie influencer,
06:35I really didn't have any purpose, you know?
06:38I was just sharing what I wanted, what I had.
06:41I started getting comments or messages from my followers.
06:45They're saying, like, I inspire them or I help.
06:49And after I read those comments and messages,
06:53and I started thinking to, you know,
06:57keep spreading happy vibes if it makes someone happier, you know?
07:02I don't have much haters.
07:04Or maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm not noticing.
07:07But I, of course, got some not lovely comments on social media.
07:15When I saw them, it didn't hurt me at all.
07:18But I just deleted it.
07:20And it didn't, you know, it doesn't exist in the world anymore.
07:24So, I don't care.
07:25Yeah.
07:26Time is really important and precious.
07:28That's why I don't talk back to my haters or anything.
07:32Because that's just wasting my time and energy.
07:35Yeah.
07:36I used to do nail art business.
07:39I'm a professional nail artist.
07:41But since pandemic started, it really hit my business.
07:44You know, we were not allowed to work.
07:46One of my friends, she did like making doll accessories just for fun.
07:54And then one time she asked me for help her.
07:57Because I'm really good at working with my hands.
08:00And I really love helping her.
08:03Like, I love making little stuff.
08:05And I wanted to make it serious business.
08:07So now we have our website.
08:10We have Shopify store.
08:12So I will show you what I make.
08:15Now it's my job, but like, it's almost like my hobby.
08:19We literally make these from scratch.
08:22Our products are not just buying some pieces and put together.
08:26But like even this one, we cut acrylic pieces.
08:30My partner designs and we make the data and cut pieces with laser cutters.
08:37Or we use 3D printer.
08:40You know, cut decals, print on vinyl and everything.
08:44And then we pack and ship from this Barbie apartment.
08:49So I love DIY.
08:51When Mattel doesn't sell what I want, I have to create.
08:55I have to make.
08:56When I first started, it was just simple painting the whole project.
09:00But got more and more serious.
09:03Sometimes maybe I wanted to have some help.
09:05You know, I wanted to ask Ken.
09:07But I felt like, no, I don't need to ask Ken.
09:11You know, I could do it, you know.
09:12I just started seeing that in my video.
09:15And I noticed, like people really loved when I said that.
09:19And it just became like my slogan now.
09:22My next DIY project is a small shelf.
09:26Like a bedside shelf.
09:35I want to make this shelf, like I'm, you know, moving.
09:38Usually when I make shelf, I need a magnet, handle, hinge, brackets.
09:46But I already have those at my place.
09:49So all staffs at Lumber Yacht, they're so nice.
09:52They're always sweet and so supportive.
09:54But I remember the first time when I went there,
09:59people literally look at me like if I was, you know,
10:02coming into the wrong place.
10:05Maybe they thought I wanted to come to Louboutin.
10:10It's on the same block.
10:13I always go to Lumber Yacht and ask the Lumber guy to cut pieces
10:18because I don't have table solved, unfortunately.
10:21I'm sorry.
10:23So I got four wheels and one page form.
10:27And good pieces for the shelf.
10:30I always have five different shades of pink at my place
10:34so I can start DIY anytime when I get inspired.
10:39I'm too lazy to put masking tape or cover stuff.
10:42But every time when I finished one item,
10:47and I got more ideas or, you know, more skill.
10:52And that's how it got bigger and bigger.
10:56So during pandemic, since I had to stay home more than usual,
11:02so I've done more DIY.
11:07I always like creating something.
11:10I always had good friends,
11:12but I also didn't mind being alone.
11:16So I'm not 100% done yet,
11:18but so far I think it looks good.
11:23Barbie is special to me because she's been given a lot of good experience
11:29that I could never have without her.
11:34Like, I met so many good people and friends through her.
11:38Like, hosting Barbie convention in Japan,
11:41it's like, that's amazing to me.
11:44And it wouldn't happen if I was not doing this, you know.
11:49So many of my dreams have been coming true.
11:53Barbie was always in my dream,
11:55so I just cannot picture any of my life without Barbie.
11:59I don't think I would ever get tired of my Barbie lifestyle.
12:04She was just meant to be in my life, so.
12:08I'm definitely proud of things I've done, you know.
12:14But I also feel like I'm not done yet.
12:17You know, I'm still in the middle of the way.
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