When making questions, using my questions, and listening to my peer’s questions, I realized that some of my open ended questions could be more open ended and free. For example, the majority of my questions were similar to “why did you come to TALONS?”, which are technically open-ended questions, but they’re quite strict to one topic. But, some of my peers’ questions were more similar to “do you have any goals for the future?”, so in the future, I will try and include some more open questions for interviews. Another thing I noticed when watching other people’s interviews is that they had good transitions through subjects of questions such as “now I’m going to move onto more in depth questions.”, which I didn’t have, so I will take this into account as well during my real interview. From the feedback I got, I found that I was slightly unfocused during the interview, so I will pay attention to that during the real interview as well. I could also work on being more prepared with my questions, because I was taking quite long pauses in between my questions. To do this, I could order my questions of importance from first to last when making the questions, so that I can immediately move on to the next question when I’m done with one. Overall, this was a good experience and good practice, so I’m glad that we got to try out interviewing. I learned that there are some aspects that I am successful in like good body language, enunciation, and clarity, and some aspects that I still need to work on such as focusing and extending on questions properly, and I will take all of this into account when preparing for and doing my real interview.

Reading some of my peers’ blogs, I was able to see how they viewed people and their different values. This was very interesting, because some people had values that were similar to mine and some people chose a person with very different values. For example, Mathab chose Sal Khan, who is focused on providing everyone with world class education, while my eminent person’s values are more focused on creating a better world for people of the LGBTQ+ community. It was also very interesting reading what exactly inspired my peers and some interests and passions they have and how they connected to their eminent person. Some of the eminent people that I read about were people that I have heard of or people that have created something I know, and it was very cool how I could finally get to know those people better and find out interesting facts about them. During the commenting phase of this assignment, I found that it was easier to think of compliments than constructive criticism because everyone’s blog posts were well-done, interesting, and informative. Because of this, there were repeated points in the comments of some of the posts, but it was still interesting to see how my peers saw the same posts that I read. When reading through my comments, I found many helpful tips and positive feedback that I will definitely consider next time. This experience was an overall positive one, and I look forward to the rest of the project.

“Because us weirdos have to stick together. And nobody should be punished for who they are!”

– Luz Noceda in The Owl House

The eminent person that I chose is Dana Terrace who is an American animator, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and voice actress. I chose because she created one of my favourite shows promoting inclusion and exposure of the LGBTQ+  community. Doing this was very brave of Dana especially since it’s a show for and on Disney, which is a company that has a history of turning down or cutting short films or shows with LGBTQ+ representation. Although there was a high chance of the show not being very successful, or being cut short, Terrace took that risk for the purpose of exposing children to our community at an early age, and normalizing LGBTQ+ and not being “normal”. Her actions inspire me and make me want to work hard for normalizing being “weird”. Some qualities I have in common with Dana Terrace are that we are both part of the LGBTQ+ community and we both want to normalize that, and we both have a passion for cartoons, animations, and art. Dana Terrace exemplifies my own goals with TALONS because she inspires me to want to take risks, work hard, and overcome challenges so I can have a future where I help other people’s futures and make them feel safe just like Terrace did and is still doing. Some barriers I have with Terrace would be knowledge and experience with animation, and geography. Dana Terrace is a professional and successful producer and animator who lives in America. I can overcome these barriers by researching some struggles with animation and finding a way to know how she felt during the process of making the show. For the geography, I can research what it’s like to be a well-known openly LGBTQ+ person in America. This way, I’ll know how she feels right now, how she felt before, and I will be able to empathize with and evaluate her situations better. Although I connect with Dana Terrace, of course, Dana Terrace has made a much bigger impact on people’s lives than I have. Some impacts and contributions she made to the world of Disney Cartoons include being one of the first people of the LGBTQ+ community who are open about their sexuality to create a show for Disney, which was a very brave thing to do. Another contribution Dana Terrace made was being one of the first five women to create a show for Disney, which impacts the world of Disney Cartoons because she contributed to normalizing LBTQ+ people and women being as successful as straight men. Seeing a strong and independent LGBTQ+ women inspires me and many others to want to be like her, help normalize these things, and tell children that it’s okay to be “weird” and not fit in. Because of the impacts Dana Terrace made on some women and people of the LGBTQ+ community, she will be remembered by these people for very long and her impacts may even inspire more members of our community to step up take risks, and work hard for social betterment. Some obstacles Dana Terrace faced while on her rise to eminence would include doubt from her peers, friends and family. Terrace started dreaming about this show and impacting people with it long before it was created, and even from the formation of the idea, she was doubted and told that she couldn’t achieve her goals. She also received a lot of hate even after the show was created saying it would never become successful because of the LGBTQ+ representation. She overcame these challenges by brushing these comments off, taking risks, being brave, and working even harder to prove them wrong. Eventually, she did prove them wrong by creating an outstanding and successful show, and receiving many awards like the Dusty Award. Although she overcame many challenges already, there is another obstacle in her way right now. Dana Terrace’s show The Owl House, is getting cut short by Disney. Disney stated that this was because the show didn’t fit the “Disney image”, but many people believe it’s another case of discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community. Dana Terrace stands out and should be worth remembering because she made such a big impact on many people’s lives and inspired even more. Her work inspires people, including me, to work hard for the same reason she works hard, and makes people who “don’t fit in” or are “outcasts” know that they are safe, welcomed, and proud of who they are.

My next step in research would be overcoming our barriers.