Today we’d like to introduce you to Melina Datugan.
Melina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ever since I can remember I’ve always enjoyed documenting my life- whether through a journal, a blog, photos or video. I loved seeing and hearing about my childhood memories, and I knew I wanted to do the same for my family. When our now seven years old son Luca was born, I knew I had to start documenting everything. Unfortunately, I wasn’t always as consistent as I would’ve liked, but by the time he was two, and our military family had an overseas move to Japan, vlogging our journey truly became my passion hobby. YouTube has always been my favorite platform and watching other people’s videos inspired me to keep making mine, even if they were only for us. In January of 2017, my husband Shane and I started our adoption process for our now three years old son Julian from Korea.
I decided to film every step of the way and be very open and honest through our challenges. My biggest wish was that if anyone came across these videos, they would be encouraged to stay hopeful and know they weren’t alone. Little did I know that a short 13 months later, our lives would dramatically change overnight. The video I made when our son came home went viral and the vlog channel took off! This was a very sudden and overwhelming change at first, but all I knew was that my little passion project had now turned into my dream job, and I was thrilled.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Although for the most part this has been such an amazing and encouraging adventure, I can’t say it has always been smooth. As parents, Shane and I have to be thoughtful about the pros and cons of having our family in the spotlight. It can be a very vulnerable situation. And while we get a lot of constructive comments from our viewers, we unavoidably get some negative feedback as well. It’s not always easy to deal with. But the hundreds of messages we have received of sweet people telling us how much our transparency and encouragement has helped them in one way or another makes it all 1000% worth it.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
My channel is mostly focusing on documenting our everyday lives, as truthful and transparent as we can- flaws and all. Speaking loudly about how love is what makes a family and encouraging people to know that we all share the same struggles and that they are not alone. I believe that something that sets us apart is that we are just a simple multicultural, military family of four who is just trying to live life like everyone else. We have the same hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties. We are the same people on and off-screen, and “love one another” is our everyday motto.
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
