Ridwan Chowdhury is a 13 year old chef, gamer, and super star who lives with his mom, dad, and his 2 sisters! He has a youtube channel that he posts on regularly: Ridwan Chowdhury 123, subscribe! Read on to learn more about Ridwan from an interview we did:
Why did you decide to start your youtube channel? “Ever since I found out about the youtube play button, I had an idea about making a youtube channel. I saw that when they had a play button, they became more recognizable; that’s the reason that I started a youtube channel.”
Where do you see yourself in five years? “I’ll be carrying on, pursuing my youtube career because, by then, I will become more famous, and even TV programs might have me doing more stuff; I would want to be on a teen show, like on Netflix, and even if Disney Channel would have me to be in a show, I’d be happy to do the work.”
What are your favorite and least favorite foods? “My all time favorite foods are spicy foods, and my least favorite foods are strawberries.”
I noticed that you did some gaming on your channel, so what is your favorite game? “My favorite game of all time is in the old console of the Nintendo Wii; it’s called Super Mario Galaxy (1 and 2)”
Who has inspired you to make become a chef? “When I was a 10, I saw my parents cooking, and I saw them chopping up spicy food. Ever since me and my sisters saw it, we had the idea to help them (our parents) cook. Our parents taught us how to deal with something that is dangerous; they usually deal with the dangerous stuff and we do the easy stuff. They usually have us baking because baking is easier, and obviously, my sister, when it comes to putting something in the oven, does that.”
What tips do you have for baking/cooking? “When it comes to the measurements, make sure to get it right; if you get it wrong, your baking won’t come out right. When it comes to folding, make sure you fold properly, and don’t forget to mix very well.”
What are you favorite recipes? “You could try Serbian burgers, and you can try out spicy chicken curry like how I did on my youtube channel. You can follow how I do it by basically adding a lot of spice since thats how I make it, it’s my culture”
What has been your biggest cooking challenge? “My biggest challenge is when it comes to using a pan and putting the oil in there (the pan). That has become harder for me because when you pour oil, it starts to spit out, and when it gets to your skin, it burns really quickly. It’s very painful, but I managed to do that by using an oven glove; I know it’s kind of awkward to put on an oven glove with a pan, but I use it instead to protect my hands.”
What is the most rewarding part of cooking? “When my family members taste the food, they say it’s really spicy, but also very nice. Even though they do have their mouths on fire, they manage to swallow it (the food) quickly since they’re used the spice.”
What advice can you give to the people reading this? “When you’re using a pan and putting oil in there, wear oven gloves or just normal gloves. While you’re adding oil, if it does get on your glove, it might burn the oven gloves, but it won’t burn your actual hand, and that will be a good thing since it keeps your hands safe.”
Deanna Homar is a 28 year old author, writing about the life of coming out and the struggles of mental health. In this interview, she tells us how she has grown as a person and how she has handled the life around her. Read on to learn more about Deanna from an interview we did:
Tell me about yourself. What would a “day in the life” look like for you? “I am 28 years old I am autistic and I am a trans woman my day waking up at 5:30 in the morning planning my day after that have coffee take my medications and relax meditate go to appointments like therapy or doctors appointments then go on the computer and write and listen to music and cook myself a nice dinner and relax til I go to bed.”
Who or what makes you the happiest? “Who makes me the happiest is my mom my mom is role model she made a lot of sacrifices for me and my siblings growing up like taking us places and taking care of us when we were sick and helping me get back on my feet when I need her like opening her home when I needed a place to stay and supporting me during my transition and my legal name change my mom is a great hero to me.”
When did you start writing? “I started writing three years ago I wanted to write who I am in my autobiography about Deanna and I wrote about my coming out and life story then I stop for awhile then I started writing a short coming out story for pride month and everyone love it and it got me motivated to write a book about me.”
Why did you decide to write and share your story with the world? “Because I wanted to share my story with people that are going through the same struggles as I went through back then and I want to say to them is your not alone there is support and there is a story people need to read to embrace who they are on the outside no matter who they are gay bisexual transgender or straight love is love.”
Who or what motivates you? “What motivates me is my family for being really supportive they have a special place in my heart and they are really proud of me for writing this book and been there with me since day one.”
Where do you see yourself in five years? “In five years I hope the book will be successful hopefully it could a New York Times bestseller and hopefully open the door to write more books like a book about dialectical behavioral therapy which means dbt; I hope to write and make a resource book about the lgbt and hopefully I plan to do sex reassignment surgery down the road and finally maybe things come with my first book make it into a tv show a documentary about my life.”
What has been your best life experience thus far? “Getting the call from my book publishing company saying they approve my book.”
How has being transgender affected your life? “At 13 years old I started exploring my feelings as a girl by trying on my moms clothes but end up getting caught by her one night at 14-15 the feelings stop for a while and I was in denial but then after I turn 18 I saw Oprah interviewing a trans woman and the feelings started again which led me to trying on my moms and my sisters clothes and coming out to family members and telling my mom which today they are very supportive some of them are not supportive like cousins that I don’t know well and being really brave to walk out in public as Deanna and not being judge I have a big support team that’s by my side everyday and they are really well to support me in my journey as Deanna.”
How can the people reading this interview become LGBTQ+ allies? “By understanding people that identify as lgbt and supporting them for who they are and being great friends or allies to the community and understanding there true identity as who they are.”
What is a piece of advice you would give to the readers of this interview? “That this story is about who I am as a person not only I am autistic but as a trans woman and I hope everyone reads about who Deanna is and became very supportive of me and become hopefully ally to me.”
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