runAway Japan works with many different creatives, from musicians to graphic designers, Youtubers, and stuntmen. Creative Collaborations celebrates their amazing work.
MEGSTER メグスター aka Meg Igarashi
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Check out her videos
Tell us about you!
My name is Meg Igarashi and I’m 23 years old. I love nature and being outdoors. I also love tacos and I eat taco rice every week. That’s basically a fact. I was born in Massachusetts and lived there for 13 years and then moved to Japan. I didn’t really like Japan at the beginning, not really because of anything with Japan, but because I had to pack up my life in the US to start a brand new one here without knowing anyone, or even the language! Everything was a struggle until I started making friends. I didn’t really think of Japan as a home for a long time, and I always thought I’d go back to the US one day, but now I love it! It’s my choice to be here, and I want to stay here. Japan is now home to me.
What do you do?
Apart from runAway, I work for Japanese Pod 101 making videos. It’s part of Innovative Language Learning LLC, a language learning channel, with lots of podcasts and videos.
I started editing videos and YouTubing when I was around 15 in 2009. I used to do theatre and acting and doing Youtube and talking to a camera kind of felt natural to me and I really enjoyed it. Editing took a bit longer to get good at and I still feel like there’s so much more to learn and I really need/want to get better at so many things, but I’ve somehow made video editing my main job and I absolutely love it.
Tell us about your channel!
My channel is a bit random. I like making all kinds of videos but one thing I always try to incorporate into my videos is positivity. I feel like the purpose of my videos is to give people a sense of feeling good. People who spend time with me in person too – I don’t want them to leave me feeling worse than they were before. I want people to be okay with being themselves and I try to always stay true to myself in my videos. Making videos and doing Youtube has been a huge part of my life and I owe a lot to it.
If it wasn’t for Youtube, I wouldn’t have my job right now. I watch so many Youtube videos, more than I actually make videos for Youtube. It’s moulded me, and what I want to be doing. Sharing my work pushes me to make more videos, even if I don’t get a lot of views, or comments. I live for the occasional nice ones like, “You made my day”! I don’t know what I would be doing if I wasn’t video editing.
What are some future goals?
In the future, I would like as a person to keep spreading positivity and change people’s lives. Living my life in an open minded, happy, open way. Or through my videos inspire people to follow their dreams, and not be down on themselves. I didn’t actually graduate high school or university – but I’m kind of following my dreams. So I hope that people can take inspiration from that. I would like to be a film-maker – like Nancy Myer – she makes happy movies, that are kind of light but still inspiring, and I hope to direct or edit music videos one day. I think that music inspires you to create.
How did you get involved with runAway?
A friend introduced me to Dean. His work with NPOs, especially in Tohoku, really excites me because that’s something I really want to be involved in too.
I edit teasers of the runAway episodes and I just finished making a video about Dean’s trip to the Sapporo Snow Festival. It was a fun edit to do with lots of freedom and a cool jam.
I would love to be part of a season 2 for runAway! I told Dean the first time I met him that I want to do it, even if it’s challenging!
