Representation & Target Audience

 While my research has also helped me learn a lot about the subject of my documentary and how I can best approach it, it has also helped me make the representation clearer and discover my target audience. 

 From the beginning, it's obvious that representation is a major component and aspect of my documentary. I am highlighting and uplifting queer voices and stories, especially those that are underrepresented, such as asexuality. While representing asexuality, I am also representing kids and teens. Most documentaries, especially ones focusing on the queer community, often focus on adults and the life that they live as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. I'm choosing to focus on underrepresented topics both in the queer community and the genre. By representing queer youth in my documentary, I am choosing two groups that I am a part of which allows me to represent both groups in a proper, accurate, and positive way. 

 Although, I am just starting the project, mentioning the representation in my documentary makes me think of a question that is included in the critical reflection. That question is, "How do your products represent social groups or issues?" My products represent social groups or issues by uplifting the voices of people who are underrepresented in the documentary genre, queer youth. Most young people are told their sexuality is "not valid" or "just a phase" because of their age and my project's goal is to prove those people wrong and show that every identity is valid, no matter how old the person is. I am also representing young asexuals, who have been rarely given a platform to speak about issues that affect them both in the LGBTQIA+ community and outside of it. While I'm not going into much detail about the question now, as I am just starting to plan the main documentary component, I think simply answering this question best summarizes how I am going to highlight representation in my project. 

 The target audience for my project is very similar to the representation in my project. The main target audience for my documentary is people of all genders aged ten to twenty-one, either members of the LGBTQIA+ community or are allies, and are likely of middle-class. The documentary could also reach an older demographic of people aged twenty-two to thirty-two. This older demographic would watch this documentary because they are a part of or are activists for the queer community. Both demographics consist of people who want to educate themselves on the LGBTQIA+ community and are typically fans of other media content with prominent LGBTQIA+ themes. By understanding my project's target audience, I can get better ideas as to how I should approach it and properly execute it. 

By understanding both the prevalent and important representation in my project and its target audience, I am able to begin planning the various parts of my piece. 

“Representation not only reflects but actually changes reality.”

- Angela Chen, author of Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex