It was mid-2016 and the unknown conversation of Tomboi stemmed from an existing platform. I reached out to the creator after they had posted that they felt like they weren’t doing enough for our community. I pitched them the idea of having different cohorts in different cities, pulling my experience from Gamma Alpha Omega Sorority. I offered to build a community in Phoenix under their brand. They were down for it.
2017 came and I found myself helping an old friend build a media platform. I took it as my own and again, intended for it to be necessary for other cities. I met with creatives weekly and created space for them on and offline to showcase their talents and come together as I believed were the next city on the rise.
Unfortunately, we had different visions for the platform, so we parted ways. I continued to bring the creative community together through an intimate open mic until I decided to move to Tucson in 2018.
Living on my own for the first time and not having any connections yet, this is when I gathered and reflected on all of my experiences and attempted to connect the dots.
How can I continue to create videos, podcasts, and photography?
How can I be a teacher with students that want to be there and teaching a curriculum that’s useful and I’m passionate about?
How can I still host events on and off stage?
How can I still be a student and gain access to experts and professionals and ask them any questions I want?
How can I foster a deep connection and community?
How can I create something that’s bigger than myself and will keep my interest for a lifetime?
How can I create something that is all over the world (because it’s the 21st century and we have the internet) and no matter where I’ll go, I’d be taken care of? And how can that be true for others?
How can I empower others?
How can I still be apart of the entertainment industry without actually being apart of it?
How can I not be the only one in the room that looks like myself?
How can I create curious, interesting, and important conversations without judgment?
How can I help others share their stories while sharing my own?
How can I foster a space where I can be all of myself, but still be given loving feedback?
How can truly be an integral part of a community?
How can I create something that I needed when I was younger, today and for the future?
I continued to ask myself questions like this and gathered all of my past experiences that made me feel like the most “me.” What it came down to was recognizing how privileged I was to have these experiences in college and how can I recreate that for girls like myself without having to go to college. And if they do choose to go to college, how can I create safe spaces for them to funnel through to adulthood?
In the heat of June, it came to me. Tomboi International. To be honest, but unsure and transparent, I think I was browsing an ex’s Instagram and they worked for a nightclub called International, but they abbreviate it INTL. As for Tomboi, I saw that it was also able to be abbreviated to TMB and envisioned them stacked on each other as a logo. I was able to envision it and that was enough for me.
Q: Why the term “tomboi?”
A: It was the first term I heard that signified that I was different from the rest of the girls.
Q: Why international?
A: We have the internet, so why not try for the world?
-K.S.