Welcome to Bimbollectual 🩷

What is this blog + newsletter?

Over the years I’ve been writing this blog with a collection of ideas and interests I would like to share with the world.

My Mom called me and asked why I named this blog(and my instagram handle Bimbollectual), which prompted this write-up. She asked whether I knew that the term bimbo held a the notion of sexual promiscuity. I hadn’t. So I’ll preface by saying that the reason this blog is named Bimbollectual:

• It is provocative and provocativity leads to clicks

• As an idol in Japan, sometimes netizens referred to me as インテリ系ぶりっ子. I haven’t found a good English equivalent to this, so I settled on bimbollectual. You can read what ChatGPT suggests as an English interpretation, which I think is pretty apt.
  

• I am intentionally resisting the postmodern, bohemian-bourgeois idea that femininity(especially absurd or exaggerated femininity) is something to be ashamed of.

  • I have never called myself a “feminist” because I believe that tying your identity with any singular ideology is *bad*. However, if I ever had to call myself a “feminist,” it would be one of the Legally Blonde school of Feminism that rejects the idea that women need to adopt near androgyny to receive respect.

Who am I?

I’m pretty eccentric, and I assume this space reflects that. I’ve gone by a few different names online throughout the years for various purposes. My name is Amina, and that’s always been consistent. I consider myself a proto-e-girl as I’ve been writing, connecting, and sharing in online spaces since I was about 11 years old.

I’m originally from a boring town in the American Midwest and found kinship in digital spaces. I’m a dabbler and have dipped my toes in various communities throughout the years. They include Cosplay, Gothic Lolita, Touhou Project, Japanese pop dance cover communities, etc.

2011 - 2015

As a teenager in Michigan, I initially gained attention online because I worked at one of America’s first brick-and-mortar maid cafes. From there, I began performing with the chiptune collective Piko Piko Detroit at IRL events. Much of the music I did was singing over chiptune covers of old Macross songs. In tandem with this, I also live-streamed on the Japanese website Nico Nico Douga(something of a predecessor to Twitch).

These livestreams gained a lot of attention by Japanese viewers so at 17 I signed a contract for representation with a Japanese talent agency and at 18 I moved to Japan to pursue studies and perform as an idol.

Right as I left for Tokyo, I released my first album Cotton Candy Magical First Date. The genre is highly inspired by Japanese dempa-kei and will probably sound strange to most who aren’t familiar with the style.

2015 - 2017

As an idol in Japan, my career began with a feature on the weekly variety show “Why Did You Come To Japan?”, which receives roughly 20M weekly viewership. I started performing at small underground shows throughout Tokyo’s Akihabara idol circuit.

I garnered more attention by winning a runner-up award in Kodansha’s Miss ID. Out of 4,000+ applicants, I was one of 12 women granted an award. As the first person of non-Asian descent in the contest, this also led to various other opportunities such as modelling in Tokyo Fashion Week, working with Bandai Namco, cameo in a Lady Baby music video etc.

I joined an idol group called Chic Girls for a short stint for roughly 8 months in 2016. I also featured in my 1st and last gravure DVD(bikini modelling) and had an interview/feature in Weekly Playboy Japan.

This time, as an idol was incredibly fun for me and formative to my development. However after getting burned out and realizing that I felt intellectually understimulated I decided to call a quits in late 2017 and move to England.

2017 - 2020

In London, I finished an undergraduate research degree in Sociology & Anthropology with a final dissertation on labor and migration. As a student, I had a brief stint in activism, which led me to work on the board of TAMPEP EU, a European Union-funded organization dedicated to connecting underprivileged migrant sex workers to services. I also helped with union organizing efforts and regularly spoke on panels at events hosted by Open Society.

2020 - Present

I currently reside in San Francisco and work in technology. My interests include information, internet culture, and human-computer interaction. I like to think a lot about thinking. I have an affective computing newsletter called Feeling Machines, which I invite you to follow here

I’m interested in social psychology, philosophy, women, men, subcultures, makeup, beauty etc. Posts on this blog will combine many of these things with occasional personal anecdotes.

This blog is ideal if you’re open to exploring alternative perspectives. Please feel free to comment or email your thoughts to me :) (hello at amina-io dot com)