Saphyre Skye Velasco

I'm very, very thankful and grateful that I knew what I wanted to do at a very young age, and I'm also very thankful that I had immense support at a very young age. Coming from an immigrant family, I was fortunate that my parents were on the side of 'Who told you you can't pursue film? Who told you you can't create movies?' My family's very no excuses - if you want something, go after it. At least you can say you tried. If it doesn't work out, dust yourself off, there's something for you, but don't count yourself out immediately. Having that stability really helped me. As a child of the 2000s, seeing Hannah Montana and just seeing how extravagant everything was honestly, totally, so cheesily inspired me. I saw how out there and confident she was, and just being able to do what she wanted to do. I was like, I can be that it girl, I can do what I want to do and pursue what I want to pursue. There was a clear lack of representation that I was seeing, but I saw myself in these other girls. They're not Mexican, but I feel like I'm them. So from a very young age, I was like, I want to combine both. I want to combine both of these aspects of my life, of my childhood, of my growing up, and I want to be that girl.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is some variation of “Who told you you can’t?”—a reminder to pursue my passion, challenge self-doubt, and stop limiting myself so I can confidently go after the opportunities I truly want.

Take all of the info - anything that anyone tells you, any criticism, any information, take it all in. Hold on to it, but also don't be so married to certain things. Don't be so married to 'well, this is the plan that I have for myself, this is what it's gonna be.' It is good to have a plan, it is good to have an outcome, but be flexible, be open to change. Be willing that, here's my idea that I'm putting out - say if you're writing something and someone's like, I don't like this idea, be flexible, be willing to be like, hey, you don't like the idea? That's fine, how about we do this? Be a collaborator. If you can't work with other people, I hate to tell you, film is not for you. If you can't work with other people, if you can't be open to change, if you can't be open to new possibilities, this field is not for you. Don't marry yourself to one specific thing, because you're also doing yourself a disservice by staying one-minded to one thing. And I think when people come to you in this industry with their opinions, yes, I will say not all the time it is good, but also not all of the time it is bad either. And it's kind of like, trust your gut, trust your vision, but don't be married to anything.

Right now I'm completely a one-woman show, so everything's kind of on me, and it definitely is a bit hard because when you're managing kind of everything by yourself, it tends to feel a bit overwhelming. I kind of let myself get lost in that a little bit, and I'm learning these ups and downs of starting my own business and being my own mentor, having to navigate these things with the knowledge that I have and with doing the research that I'm doing. My father has his own business, but what he does is completely different from what I do, so even if I ask him for certain advice, it's a bit tricky, because the film technicalities and the film aspects of everything are just a bit different. So for me, it's just definitely navigating all of that kind of alone, and just trying to hope for the best. As someone trying to create and amplify Mexican voices specifically, it's hard to already find a business or corporation that kind of has that in mind, so I'm taking the liberty into my own hands and starting from the ground up and becoming an entrepreneur.

For me, it's really just take care of your mind, take care of your body. You can't make movies if you don't have a healthy mind or body. You can't put yourself at work if you don't take care of yourself. As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder, it's a very dark place, and it's a very intense feeling to feel - being at war with your own self consistently. I want to break that generational curse. If I don't feel well, I'm not going to go in and force myself to do something and give mediocre work, just because you want me to go in and push myself. It took a lot of learning to not be mad at myself, and to be accepting and patient, be extremely patient with myself, and how I recovered and how I was able to kind of bounce back out of that mindset. I think people just - I think that being selfish is like a bad word, but it's not. You can't take care of anybody else if you can't take care of yourself first. It's really important to produce stories that show people, like, hey, this is a very normal thing that happens to people. You are not alone. Please take care of yourself. Please put yourself first. No one's gonna get mad at you for being a little selfish.