black women exist and if you give them
resources and the support they can do it
[Applause]
hello everyone i'm afton corbin writer
and director of 20 something and a story
supervisor at pixar animation studios
i'm sajda wishtooki and i'm the senior
manager of engagement on the global
public policy team at the walt disney
company i'm very excited to dive in here
at disney plus voices definitely
likewise i would love to know what
inspired you to get into animation and
was it something that you always wanted
to do growing up i always loved
animation i would watch it and tv like
everyone else saturday morning cartoons
and then i started to i guess just ask
questions like how how are they making
this and i would take these drawings and
try to do multiple drawings and like
staple them try to move it across my
table fast i thought it was something
yeah and flip books and stuff like that
in high school my brother was able to go
to one school and i had to go to a
different school my brother took this
animation class
um
actually at the school they had it as an
elective which is crazy
and he thought he would take it as like
an easy a but turns out animation is
really hard
who would have thought i was like so
frustrated because i was like this is
what i want to do like like this is
clearly the class i need to be in so
through a roundabout way i was able to
leave school for one period to take that
class and it was one teacher who was
really passionate about teaching this to
students just educating the students on
this this art form shout out to teachers
for constantly just paving the way if it
were for that class who knows
how i would have gotten into animation
um it was definitely a huge kicking off
point that's incredible i'm curious to
know when did you feel like advocating
for representation was a calling of
yours and something you were passionate
about i'm a big reader so i love just
reading books like sweet valley high and
the babysitter's club but i felt like i
never ever saw myself right you didn't
really have a main character leading
sweet belly high it was always the white
blonde chicks um and so that was kind of
my middle school years and then high
school years 9 11 happened one thing
that really changed for me as a muslim
woman is one i started to perceive
myself as a muslim woman before that my
religion was just something that was
part of me but
it wasn't my main identity and then all
of a sudden it became the main part of
me of how people define me so when i
felt like my black identity wasn't
authentically represented in the books
that i was reading and then my muslim
identity was kind of just being
negatively framed across the media so at
that point it was like i don't see
myself anywhere right who looks like me
who can i turn to and when i went off to
college i had a friend who started up
this blog and it was really about giving
minority women a voice to just tell
their own stories and this is why
representation is so important we should
be out there telling our own stories so
i feel like for that that was the aha
moment where i was like all right how do
i get further into the space how do i
ensure that representation happens and
every work that i do it's so interesting
when you think about authentic
representation because like you said um
you don't really know you're different
until someone like points it out it's
also something when your identity is so
miscontroled right and that's how islam
was so vilified after 9 11 right like i
was embarrassed sometimes to even be
seen with my mother because i didn't
wear a scarf at the time but she did so
i was like oh man people will see me and
like think that i'm x right and that's
awful right to be embarrassed to be seen
with your mother i feel like it took a
lot of
just inner reflection for years
afterwards to try to unravel that and
really figure out who i was without
thinking about who society thought i was
speaking of representation i would love
to know more about 20 something i will
confess i watched it twice in the last
24 hours because it was so good how did
that come about what kind of sparked
that idea to create it yeah so i had
been working at pixar for about uh
three years or so when i was offered the
opportunity to do a spark short and my
immediate reaction was to panic and to
not be excited and to get stressed out
and to worry that i didn't know what i
was doing i was too new for this i was
too green for this i often worried like
am i even
that impostor syndrome of am i even
ready uh am i just going to look good
for the company as like this black
up-and-coming artist is is this just a
good publicity step and i had to talk to
a lot of um
other story artists and colleagues
and
kind of uh squash that imposter syndrome
and know that like no i am ready and the
studio trusts me to do this and
yes also wants to see new perspectives
it's not a negative thing when i was
coming up for the idea for it just this
imposter syndrome felt like such a fun
place to
dive deeper into and this feeling of
being in your 20s and feeling like um
you don't know what you're doing so um
and i just ran with it and had
fun figuring out what these three would
do
um on a night out on the town i loved it
i felt like especially the scene where
people are on the dance floor and you
see them kind of turning into their
childish selves that was just so right
we all have a child in us that comes out
yeah do you feel like you have any
personal gifts or talents creating
global public policy i feel like policy
in general is
a bit you know it's if you don't have
the network for it you can't always get
in which is why it's super white i think
um so
when the murder of george floyd happened
you know bob chapic was like disney
needs to do more we need to step up
my team a large part due to me came up
with this program called public policy
new voices so we work with graduate
students from minority backgrounds to
provide them with mentorship guidance
and network and this was something that
happened because i was there right
because i was like listen as a black
woman in the policy space i don't see
people like me how can we support more
people like myself because that support
doesn't really exist i would love to
know for you as well right what personal
gifts and talents do you bring into work
great question and i asked it to you and
i don't know what to say
with with 20-something i
someone said that it was a
like a secret truth that i was able to
tap into that everyone
experiences
but can't really articulate and i guess
it's something that i've always been
able to dig into the work that i've done
whether it's on seoul or toy story 4 is
just fine
um
i guess get into the headspace of the
character and really try to figure out
what they're dealing with
so along those lines what stories
centered around people of color and film
and television do you feel like we
aren't seeing and that you would like to
see come to life i mean honestly just
fun
i just wanted something fun you know
when i was growing up i wanted the black
sailor moon or you know i think it's
really important to show uplift you know
thriving being successful giving hope
and that's
what excellence story yeah to see more
of those i feel like it's always the
extremes right yeah so based on what
you've seen uh what areas of media do
you feel like have had the most
authentic representation of black women
honestly i feel like the most authentic
representation of black women is when
black women themselves are telling the
stories black women exist and if you
give them resources and the support they
can do it just give them sort of the
freedom to do what they want to do and
tell their stories um and they'll do
them well i want a black ryan the last
dragon that's what i want i want like a
fearless warrior black princess going
off and doing things sci-fi fantasy
space i feel like is still very white
and we don't really see
black people in it as much i mean of
course black panther is an exception but
we don't need just exceptions and we
need it to kind of become more to add to
that i feel like um a range of black
women i feel like we're still
stuck in a very specific
looking black woman who is more lighter
complected
wavier hair i still feel like i don't
see myself on screen or people darker
than me i'm so craving to just see
myself or
black kids that um that don't get
visualized very often and something i
was really determined to do with
20 something is just like no making them
darker again right darker i love that
you did that because you're so right
there's that
type of like colorism that goes on right
it's like what will most audiences like
what will cater to a white audience
basically and i'm like no that's not
there's a whole spectrum of black women
right right i feel like you've
accomplished so much in your career have
you ever thought about what you'd like
your legacy to be for me being on the
global public policy team like what can
i do
in these markets that aren't as focused
on right what about africa what can we
do to support storytellers there can we
start some type of incubator program so
if i can just help
uplift one child have them tell an
african story with an authentic african
voice and really get a showcase of the
world i'm fine with that legacy it
doesn't have to be big and lofty just
something i can say oh i made an impact
i changed this life and i helped get the
story told what about you i always think
i want to tell the stories that i wanted
to see when i was a kid
and if i leave the animation industry
and
you know the generation after me gets to
grow up with stories with
a black brown kids then i think i've
done my part after it's been so great
connecting with you today thank you so
much for joining me in this amazing
conversation i had a wonderful time yes
thank you i had a great time as well it
was great to get to know you thanks so
much for joining us on disney plus
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