- Oh my God.
Damn.
(upbeat pop music)
I hate to admit it but I'm very much growing into
my mom's shoes.
We're both very empathetic.
We read that you're having a bad day,
we're going to try to solve something for you.
- My mom and I are very close.
We've never really fought, but we are very different.
When she goes shopping for me, she looks for the ugliest
thing she can find and she buys it for me
'cuz she knows I'll like it.
My mom takes care of the survival aspects.
Have you eaten?
Have you slept enough?
My mom and I aren't that similar, so our conversations
tend to be short.
We're not super close.
- In this photo of my mom, my mom is rocking some really
cool earrings and she's holding my brother.
The best part is her hair.
She has long hair down to her butt
and she's got this cute little Flecko situation.
- The photo is my mom when she's 25,
which is how old I am right now
and I think she was at work
and she was just talking on the phone,
and whoever took the photo was just like, "Hey."
And she turned and they captured this candid photo of her.
- She used to play volleyball.
They had a photo shoot, so she's posing with the ball.
She's about the serve it and it just looks really bad ass.
- I wanna recreate this picture of my mom holding my brother
because it's just a beautiful portrait.
- If I were to replicate her style,
I could really see how similar we look,
and I know she would love it.
- Through showing her this photo, I hoped to learn more
about who she was as a person then.
She has such a brilliant life before she became my mom.
This photo is only a small snippet of it.
- My mom's name is Lourdes, also goes by Luli.
Her favorite job is taking care of my nephews.
My mom loves music.
When you wake up on a Saturday morning,
and you hear Cheyane on full blast,
you know it's going to be cleaning day.
When I moved to New York, away from California,
we grew much closer, it was also at the time that I came out
and was fully supported and embraced.
I'm always here for her and she's always there for me.
- My mom is amazing.
Her name is Debbie, she lives in Pittsburgh
which is where I grew up.
She's an accountant.
She's really compassionate and always tries to see
every perspective of things.
My mom has always been very stylish, definitely dresses
a little bit more casual now than she used to but
she definitely had it going on.
She made me a scarf a couple of months ago that was
bright pink.
I was like, "Why did you make this scarf for me mom?"
She'll probably be really embarrassed that this photo
is going to be put on the internet,
she's probably just going to laugh.
She has a great sense of humor
and we're just going to make fun of each other.
- My mom's name is Ngo Ling Zu.
And she was born in Beijing, China.
Currently she works at a High School as a cafeteria worker.
She used to be a doctor.
I don't know a whole lot about her life in China,
people envied her style almost,
and it makes me so wish that I could see that,
see her strutting down the street with confidence.
Since I don't know that much about my mom when she was
growing up, I'm hoping this photo can help me learn
a little bit about the person that she was.
(upbeat pop music)
- [Oscar] Oh my God.
Damn.
I feel like my mom has a very stoic look.
(whistles)
- Wow.
Oh...wow, my hair is so beautiful.
I really look like my mom.
- Oh my God.
(laughing)
I do really feel like I'm in a Sci-Fi movie.
Cute regardless because I have my mom's genes.
(electronic music)
- I'm gonna send my mom the photo and then call her
so we can hear her reaction.
(phone ringing)
^Hello?
(laughing)
- What?
^(laughing)
- It's just like what you were wearing.
^(laughing)
- Okie dokie
Ayuuyuu
Bye, love you.
- Okay bye, love you.
- [Mother] I love you too.
- I'm so grateful to have such a supportive and loving mom.
- That's pretty much exactly how I thought she would react.
She would laugh and tell me that I look stupid.
(laughing)
- So after we took this photo, I actually had a conversation
with my mom just about how she grew up.
And I felt so good coming out of this.
- For me, it was a beautiful experience because I knew that
the activity, or the process of my mom going through
all these beautiful memories from her past was a very
positive experience.
- My mom definitely looks way better than I do
in this look.
It's definitely her look.
I gave it a try but she invented it.
- Even with our broken vocabulary, it's still very much
possible to exchange stories and learn from one another.
As long as we're patient and compassionate.
- I want to go home now.
(whimpers)
(upbeat electronic music)