 Hi, I'm Olivia Lopez. I'm 23 years old and I'm the founder of SkinMuts. I moved to Belgium five years ago. I lived three, three years and a half, four years in Ghent. And last summer I moved to Brussels. I don't have a real answer for this question. It's always like a constant search in what the answer to that question is. It always depends on who is asking actually and if I just had to answer from myself. I don't know. I always want to say I'm a citizen of the world, but that's very cheesy. I feel like I belong more to people, friends and family than to actual places and countries. I don't feel like I specifically belong to a country. Because it's so mixed all together. So, yeah, it's a constant search to that answer actually. Basically, so SkinMuts is a platform for people that belong to different cultures and are part of different ethnicities. So actually multicultural people, which is immigrants, kids of immigrants, mixed people, third culture kids. Like there are a lot of people that can relate to the concept of SkinMuts. So I always see the need to talk about cultural identity. Because as soon as people know about SkinMuts, they really want to talk with me and understand what's about. So then I'm always like, whoa, okay, this is actually necessary, because people always talk about race and countries and it's a very important subject to talk about. But there are a lot of people that fall in between. So in cultural identity and just multiculturalism. So SkinMuts is more focused on that. It started because when I came to Belgium, so I was an exchange student when I went to high school and I came to Belgium for high school and I was the new girl. I was always the new girl. So people would ask me where I'm from and I never knew how to answer that question because it was always so confusing because I would say Italy and then I don't know, they would make like some stereotypical comments about Italy and then I would have to say like, yeah, but it doesn't really, it doesn't work with me because my parents are not Italian. So then people were confused and I was confused and it was like a big confusion. And then I went back to Italy and I started thinking like, wait, am I Italian? Because my mom is German and my dad is from Guatemala. So there are a lot of cultures and I didn't really understand where I belong, that what my culture was. And when I went back to Italy after my exchange year, I started talking to people, to friends that are also mixed. And they were like, yeah, wait, I never thought about that. Yeah, actually, you're right. And I was like, why is nobody talking about this? So then SkinMuts started and it started with interviews of people that I know, of friends and family and like my brother. But then a corona happened. So I couldn't do the interviews anymore because I couldn't meet with people. So it started being more of a platform with different sources and then different elements. And the goal is actually just to create a community. So there are kind of two goals with SkinMuts. One goal is to create a community where people that relate to the concept can feel understood. So a community where I'm like, I don't feel like I belong here. And immediately the other person understands what I'm saying, even if we come from different cultures and different backgrounds, there is always this common feeling. So to be like a zone of comfort for the people that relate to the subject. And on the other side, to show other people why it's important to talk about culture identity. Because I feel like a lot of people that have, that grew up in a country, that were born in a country and their parents are from that country, they have this very simple idea of what it means to be from one nationality. So then they don't understand the need for cultural identity, because if you're Italian, you're just Italian, what's there to talk about? And it's like, there is a lot to talk about. So it's a very abstract thing. Like if we talk about feelings and how do you feel, how I feel, all these things. But there is a need for change, because there are some very concrete things, like citizenship laws and borders and all this. So there is actually a concrete need to talk about these things, to create a change. So yeah, it's like two-sided. The goal of skin masks is on one side to be like very flowery and this and that, and on the other side, more activism. Like my idea is to have one day the answer to the question, where are you from? Like me, personally, to find this answer. And it's really cool because with skin masks, I get to talk to a lot of different people and everybody gives me like their insights in what it means for them, where are you from, what it means for them, like the question and the answer that they give. And there are always like new inputs that I get. And I'm like, oh, wow, I never thought about this. So in the long run, I hope to have an answer to this question or to find peace with the fact that there is no answer. It's important because we can't stop globalization and people come in contact every day and multiculturalism is all around us. So it's important to come in contact with other cultures so that we can have a bigger perspective of what the world is. And just be more acceptable of like other people's culture, just behavior or language or whatever and just be more open-minded. It's very, I feel like people that grew up in between different cultures already have this. It's like autopilots that they know how to relate to people with maybe a culture or background they're not used to because they had to switch like during their whole life between one culture and the other. But there are a lot of people who still don't know how to do it and they're very focused on what it means for them, like different concepts, what it means for them and that's it. So it's just, yeah, to have like a bigger perspective of what the world is and something different is not better or worse. It's just different and that's it. And maybe you don't agree with me but you have to respect what I'm saying, what I do and that's it.