Kat Blaque
| Kat Blaque | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 14, 1990 |
| Residence | Orange County, California[1] |
| Occupation | Illustrator, writer, YouTube personality, activist, vlogger |
| Website |
katblaque |
Kat Blaque is a transgender African American feminist vlogger, YouTube personality, activist and illustrator.[2]
Background
Blaque was adopted as a baby and raised in a very Christian household, going to a Christian school for most of her childhood. In fifth grade, Blaque went to an art expo for People of Color and learned about the California Institute of the Arts. She immediately knew that she wanted to attend that school and continued to focus on her artistic skills. In middle school, Blaque began to question her gender identity and started to identify as gender queer.[3] In college, she began to explore her gender identity even more and began identifying as transgender.[4]
Blaque graduated from the California Institute of the Arts (CAL Arts) in 2012 with a BFA in Character Animation.[1]
Career
Youtube
Blaque first joined YouTube in 2010 to vlog about her life. She now has a weekly YouTube series called True Tea where she answers questions that viewers send her about racism, transphobia, black culture and several other topics.[5] Blaque has also released a podcast of her True Tea episodes with additional commentary that is accessible on iTunes. [6]
Blaque has guest appeared in several other YouTuber's videos such as the BuzzFeed video about gender pronouns.[7]
Illustration
While also maintaining her YouTube channel, Blaque is a children's book illustrator and animator. While at CAL Arts, she made the short animated film Heart Strings. In 2015, Blaque also teamed up with fellow artist and YouTuber Franchesca Ramsey to animate Ramsey's story "Sometimes You're A Caterpillar".[8] This short film addresses and breaks down the concept of privilege and has since been share on a several sites such as Everyday Feminism,[9] Upworthy,[10]Mic,[11] and MTV[12] to name a few.
Other Ventures
Blaque contributes to many websites such as Everyday Feminism [1] and the Huffington Post's Black Voices section.[13]
As of 2015, Blaque has been publicly speaking at universities, conferences and conventions. She participated in a panel on writing transgender characters at San Diego's 2015 Comic-Con [14] and was the keynote speaker at the University of Toledo's LQTBQA History month celebration.[15]
References
- 1 2 3 "Meet the Team". Everyday Feminism. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
- ↑ Chase, Sidney (6 August 2015). "Back to Blaque: Meet the Trans YouTube Queen of the Underground". Huffpost Queer Voices. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
- ↑ "About Kat: Draw my life". Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ Reese, Ashley (February 12, 2015). "Everything You Wanted To Know About Transgender Girls, Answered By Kat Blaque". Gurl.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ Idika, Nicky (January 19, 2016). "YouTubers Of Colour: Kat Blaque Is Your Weekly Dose Of Awesome". Pop Buzz. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ "True Tea Podcast". iTunes. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ Aleck, Steven (16 March 2015). "Why We Need Transgender Pronouns". BuzzFeed Community. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
- ↑ "Animation: Kat Blaque". Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ "This Advice on Dealing with Your Struggles and Privilege is Pretty Much Perfect – And Super Adorable". Everyday Feminism. April 20, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ Shoaff, Morgan. "This adorable cartoon explains privilege in the most nonconfrontational way possible". Upworthy. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ Clifton, Derrick (March 26, 2015). "A Snail and a Caterpillar Perfectly Explain How To Deal With Our Own Privileges". Mic. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ Speller, Katherine (March 25, 2015). "What Can Two Twerking Bugs Teach Us About Privilege?". MTV. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ "Entries by Kat Blaque". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ Anderson-Minshall, Jacob (July 9, 2015). "Queer Con: The Gayest Things to Do at San Diego’s 2015 Comic-Con". The Advocate. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ↑ Mahaney, Lindsay (October 27, 2015). "YOUTUBE STAR TO VISIT UT CAMPUS FOR LGBTQA HISTORY MONTH". The University of Toledo. Retrieved March 16, 2016.