14
Like many 14-year-olds, she was totally oblivious to real life boys and completely obsessed with fictional boys.
Here,Turning Reddirector Domee Shi reflects on her teenage years in Toronto, Canada.
In 2003, 14-year-old Domee Shi was taking her first halting steps into young adulthood.
Her mom had recently let her bleach her hair, resulting in a very chic bright orange shade.
I like to joke that instead of going to therapy, I made this movie, Shi says.
And it’s my mom, Shi laughs.
The film also benefits from Shis grown-up perspective.
It also made me empathetic to my mom’s side of that story.
Whereas back then I was just like, Oh my gosh, why is she so crazy?
What was being 14 like for you?
It was very similar to Mei in the movie.
I drew a lot.
That’s how I made friends at school.
And we were just this dork squad.
So drawing helped you connect with people?
Yeah, it was kind of like my superpower, because I was really socially awkward.
Around that time I developed a stutter.
So that’s kind of how I was able to cope and make friends.
And did your mom ever see any of your sketchbook drawings, like Meis did?
No, thank goodness, no.
I had a secret sketchbook hidden under my bed for years that luckily I think my parents never found.
Id hidden it away and I’d forgotten about it for years.
And I was like, Oh gosh, I need you to do a favor for me.
There is a sketchbook under my mattress under this board.
Could you take it and then burn it?
And then I hear from her 10 minutes later and she’s like, I took care of it.
And I went back to sleep.
I still don’t know what she did with it.
Did you have any moments where you felt like you were literally turning red?
It’s like when I first got my period, I didn’t even know what was happening.
I thought I had like, diarrhea or something.
And then I was just in the bathroom washing my underwear.
I didn’t even want to tell my mom about it because I was just embarrassed.
Did you have a creative routine down when you were 14?
It was one of my favorite things to do.
I was teaching myself how to draw on the computer, too.
And then I was teaching myself how to do Photoshop with my janky little tablet.
What did a typical weekend hanging out with your friends look like?
We were so nerdy and lame.
There’s this particular mall in the burbs called Pacific Mall.
And that was kind of like the Asian mall.
They had Asian hair salons where you could get the latest Japanese digital perm.
They had video games that were straight from Japan, too.
And my friends would bring their PlayStations there and they would do this thing where they’d unlock it.
Because back then this is so nerdy game consoles were like, region-locked.
So your American PlayStation could only play American games.
And there’d be an arcade there, where we’d play DDR.
So that was the place to hang out for me and my friends.
What were your biggest hopes and worries at the time?
What does that mean?
Because at the time I didn’t have any guy friends.
All my friends were girls and I really didn’t know how to talk to guys at all.
I was worried about that.
And now years later with an Oscar under your belt, what would you tell your 14-year-old self?
Gosh, what do I tell her?
Don’t worry so much and just don’t put so much pressure on yourself.
This is when your life changes.
And I felt that way.
Not everything is life and death.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
