The Grand Prix Japan Prize 2018
Born To Vlog
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Entering Organization | Blakeway North |  |
| Country/Region | United Kingdom | ||
| Media | TV |
All of the finalists featured in the Japan Prize are exceptional and worthy of an award but one work is deserving of the highest accolade – the Grand Prix Japan Prize of 2018. Chosen from among the winners of each category, this year’s recipient follows the exceptional life of one teenage girl. Nikki’s passion and joy for life is unbridled. Through Born to Vlog, she shares her trials and tribulations and how she thrives in spite of the challenges brought on by her health.
We learn about her life-threatening condition, a facial AVM and are shown that life is defined not by health status but by your attitude and how you approach each day. Nikki is an ordinary teenager with some extraordinary talents including, baking. We fell in love with her character, charisma, courage and leadership.
We all face challenges in life and MY LIFE: Born to Vlog sets a high bar for educational content that inspires us to see beyond the surface and look deeper to find what it means to live a full life.
Winning the Japan Prize was an incredible honour, only equalled by Nikki allowing me to tell her story.
From start to end it was a collaboration and crucial that I listened to her ideas about how we should approach making this documentary. We used a mixture of observational footage, vlogs and her personal diaries, allowing her more ownership of the film and a raw, intimate insight into her life.
Whilst Nikki’s medical condition wasn’t the sole focus of the film, it does shape her experiences and therefore it was important to understand how she sometimes feels judged by others for the way she looks.
In a world where social media often narrow children’s understanding of what normal, perfect and beautiful is, it is essential that Nikki is out there challenging these norms. Research has shown that if kids see visual difference before they are 7 years old, it will become normalised. I believe as Broadcasters and Producers we have a responsibility to represent diversity and continually challenge what is ‘normal’.