Entry No.37 Yumi Fuzuki, Miss iD 2014

What’s the reason behind that you started “Miss iD”?

Miss iD is an audition to become Idol that nominees post daily comments and selfies online, then compete the number of votes by fans. Since poems are not that common culture at all, I was hoping people understand that poems are fun if Idol introduced them. So I applied in spring of my last year of college.

I was originally interested in Idols. I wonder about what girls around my age think of and work hard for. For example, at AKB48’s election, Atsuko Maeda was crying, shaking her body and said “Though you don’t like me, please don’t hate AKB. Her words hit me very strong especially knowing that she’s my age. It is simple, but poets don’t carry body expressions, so I got attracted to Idols.

Some say that it is conflicted to be a poet and be considered as a girl from Miss iD. When I was 18 and received Chuya Nakahara Prize, there was some news headlines saying “a beautiful girl appears to a literary circle!.” Then all of sudden, people talk shit about me online. They post pictures of me looking bad, the name of school that I went and my real name all over online, so I was like “I need to understand that’s how it’s going to be if I continue to be active as a poet.”

At high school, I cared about how boys will be looking at me and I was also worried about people tease me for being unfashionable, so I tried to get adapted to other girls. But when I’m home and writing poems, I got let go of such feelings and didn’t have to belittle myself for not being too much like a girl. Therefore, I was very disappointed to find out such superficial perspectives for valuing looks and girlsness once I put my name out as a poet. Since people will look at me with such perspectives anyways, I entered Idol auditions to expand my area to show “I’m fine if you are interested in me that way, not this way.”

After all, were you happy with being Idol?

It was good overall, but I prefer not to limit my Idol work by being categorized as “Poedol” (Poetry + Idol). If someone invites me, I’d prefer to be at Idol events or write lyrics for Idol songs. I’d love to be involved in people from various genres by expressing self with words.