The Success Nobody Prepared Me For | Jemima Damina

How did it start? When did it start? and what inspired you

okay little story time the first time i picked up a camera was when i was like six maybe um but that time i just used to do like we used to use the camcorders i don't remember i think panasonic um and they used to have like those numbers it was really like old school and my parents had that lying around and i found one that was working one day so I just started recording random things in the house, maybe, you know, all of us at the dining or outside playing and things like that.

And then I would put like voiceovers sometimes.

And then I would be like, oh, this is my family and this is my mom.

And I would do like a little vlog.

I didn't even know those were things then.

But I just know that I had an interest for camera and the equipment.

And we used to watch a lot of Disney Channel growing up.

My parents were very...

We were very exposed, should I say.

So, you know, the likes of Hannah Montana and...

But then I realised that were not a lot of that on nigerian channels there were not a lot of young people my age in front of cameras speaking and a lot of the things in the american shows and films sometimes didn't really translate because we're not americans or nigerians i think the only thing we used to watch back then was papaja school and super story those were the only things i remember having anything that had young people in school or people that looked like us And then, yeah, I think that thought just came to my mind that, hmm, why can we not do something that's like Hannah Montana or like a Disney for Nigeria? Why is there no Disney Channel for Nigeria? And that's just something that was in my heart for a bit up until when I was an adult.

Well, not an adult, but I had just finished secondary school.

It was that period they would ask you, what do you want to be when you leave here? What's your career? And all of that.

And I remember being in the counselor's office and I did not have an idea what I wanted to do with my life.

All I knew was just, I love dancing, I love music, I love fun stuff.

And I didn't think there was any job I could do that would let me do that.

And I also didn't want to seem like I'm a serious person.

Because all my friends were like, I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a doctor.

And I'm like, you guys are so sure about this, right? And then in the office, the lady asked me, and I remember just saying, I remember thinking, what can I say that has traveling or something I enjoy in it? And I was like, you know, I want to be an ambassador.