Visual artist Drue Kataoka prefers getting in on the ground floor of any new social media endeavor.
“I love getting involved with emerging platforms, because I feel like when they're new, they still have a lot of creative malleability and spark in them,” she tells The Japan Times from her studio in California's Silicon Valley.
Born in Tokyo, Kataoka was an early user of Facebook, Twitter and, most recently, the audio app Clubhouse, where she says she was among the first 1,000 people onboard after it launched in the spring of 2020. In the year since, she has amassed over 705,000 followers, established The Art Club space and has spearheaded various social justice-oriented causes on the app, including a #StopAsianHate campaign and fundraiser that raised more than $88,000 in the wake of increased violence against Asian Americans in the United States.