Increasing Diversity in Animation

I personally think that the diversity in animation needs to increase and I want to share my purpose in helping the animation industry accomplish this and the topics surrounding that.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jm1EPQZ3Kk

How are we going to increase diversity in animation?

*Kids need to see someone who looks like them

*Increasing the diversity in the diversity

• A lot of people were inspired by the same stories growing up and are just replicating those stories in adulthood
• Expose animation to kids who don’t have the typical interests that a lot of people in the industry have, e.g. Star Wars or anime
• Introducing animation to minorities, girls, urban communities, rural communities, etc.
• Introducing animation to the elderly — making it more palatable and presenting it in senior centers
• Introducing animation to really small kids — learning how to make it plain

*Giving people of lower socioeconomic status a chance to have their voice be heard

• Providing a low barrier to entry by teaching programs like Blender

*Educating communities about how animation can be a lucrative career

• People associate animation with the “starving artist” trope and discourage their children from choosing anything art-related as a career
• Parents sometimes only look to athletics or becoming a doctor or lawyer as the pathway to success, but that’s not the only way
• Sometimes your environment is not conducive to being exposed to animation; you don’t grow up with an animator as your next door neighbor

*Increasing diversity in work through the indie industry

*Allowing kids to express themselves about the situations they are living in and expose those conditions to others

• PTSD of living in an urban area
• Depression
• Bullying
• Having great parents
• The culture of their neighborhood

*Increasing diversity of thought about animation — expose people to it so much that there’s less limitations to what people think animation can be used for

If you want to hear these points fleshed out, please watch the video on this. If you have any questions or ideas, please reach out!

-BlkWmnAnimator