High Vibes with MIA VALENTINE
INTERVIEW BY PENELOPE DARIO
Model, DJ, photographer, and everyone’s online crush, Mia V is a powerhouse of talent and energy. Since her return from Japan in 2020, she has been traveling cross country to finally settle in NYC for a spell. Lucky for us, Petit Mort got a chance to catch her in action before her next move!
PETIT MORT (PENELOPE DARIO)
I’m super excited to talk to you. I’ve been admiring your career for a while and I’m really fascinated with all the things that you do. So let’s start from the beginning, you are originally from Guatemala right?
MIA VALENTINE
Yes.
PM
When did you come to the US?
MV
I moved to Chicago when I was 15. My mom got remarried to my stepdad and he lived in the suburbs of Chicago, so I moved there. I went through all of high school and I didn’t know any English. I just figured it out throughout those four years, so it was a big change.
PM
I can imagine. I was born in Venezuela and came to the States when I was really young. It was still such a culture shock going from the rural rainforest in Venezuela to New England. Did you experience any culture shock when you arrived?
MV
I was raised in Guatemala City, so I was used to rolling cars and noise and dirt. When I moved to Chicago I actually moved to the suburbs. It was a shock—being extremely bored and not knowing anybody and not being able to see anybody because you needed a car to move around. My first winter was in Chicago, and it was the worst winter in 20 years, it was negative 40 degrees.
PM
I would love to know a little bit about the journey that you’ve gone through, not just from moving to the States, but as an artist and as a content creator. What was the first artistic medium you worked with?
MV
With a lot of school projects that I used to have, I was very into creating with my hands. I think a lot of women in my family are very creative. My grandma used to make all the clothes for my Barbies. I think I learned a lot of that creativity from my family ever since I was a little kid. Dancing was the first time I was able to express myself with my body. I learned a lot about creativity through my dancing. I really learned how to work with my body from that, so that really helped getting into modeling.
PM
Did you start dancing in Guatemala?
MV
Yes. I started when I was five years old. My grandma got me into it because the cost was really cheap. I actually kind of hated it for the first three years but I didn’t want to break my grandma’s heart. So I stayed for three years, which is a lot of time. Eventually, after the third year, I gained this big passion for it. And so I stayed after that.
PM
I love that. And you lived in Japan for two and a half years, right? What made you want to go to Japan?
MV
The first trip that I had there, I moved with my partner who had lived there before. He had gotten a job offer, we were just starting to date, and he was like, “You know, we barely know each other, but do you want to come to Japan?” I always knew that I was going to travel as soon as I could. And so I just said “fuck it, let’s go.” That was the first trip, but after that, I just fell in love. And I knew that was going to be my home. I really fit in and not only because of my height— I’m actually kind of a short person. The clothes and the food are just magical in the culture. I realized this is the sort of the country that I had always wanted to be in, and it makes sense. Everything is clean. Everything works. Everybody respects each other. It’s a lot about that communal living style—we all have got to try our best for everybody so we all have the best possible life.
I haven’t been back in two years because of COVID. It is a little heartbreaking because I used to go at least every six months. I’m hoping for my birthday in October, I’ll be able to hit that wave. The borders are open, so we’ll see.
PM
I think I found out about you three or four years ago when you were in Japan. And I was like, “Who is this girl? She’s Latina, but she’s in Japan and she does content?” I thought that was so cool, and it really felt like it fit you—you seemed like you were in your element in that space. Among many things that you do, you are also a photographer. Can you tell me a little bit about that journey of you getting behind the camera? When did that start and how did it develop?
MV
I started taking my own photos before I started modeling as a creative medium. I used to be a webcam model before I was modeling, so I was selling a lot of these photos to the fans. I was taking a lot of my own stuff and it really helped me create a vision for what I wanted my photos to look like. I don’t think I’ve fully involved myself in taking photos of a lot of women. I did a lot of street photography in Japan, mostly. There’s just so much to take photos of and Japan is perfect for street photos. That’s how I started, and that’s what I do at the moment.
IT DEFINITELY HELPS BEING A MODEL TO BE BEHIND THE CAMERA AND VICE VERSA. BECAUSE YOU GET BOTH POINTS OF REFERENCE FROM THAT.
PM
Your work feels very documentary-based. It’s so interesting when you see a model who has one persona in front of the camera, and then their work behind the camera. You’re seeing their point of view, and I think it’s really interesting to see the contrast between you as the subject and then you as the viewer.
MV
It definitely helps being a model to be behind the camera and vice versa. Because you get both points of reference from that. I take a lot of artsy selfies at the moment. And I really like that—I like dressing up and putting on a wig and some weird outfit and just taking a few hours of my day just doing that. It’s just me playing really loud music and going crazy, just doing all sorts of weird stuff.
PM
That’s so cute, I love that. And it’s kind of like you can capture that sense of play with yourself, even in your work. Probably something that people are very attracted to in a lot of things you make is this sense of joy—it seems like you love what you’re doing, you love your body, you love your style. It all comes through. You’re having fun, and I think people feel that when they’re consuming your content. They’re having fun with you.
I think a lot of people can be very sultry, very sexy, and mysterious, my brand probably fits into that a little bit. I always think, “how can I make this more fun? How can I make this more of a positive kind of exchange?” rather than just seductive magnetism?
MV
I think what works for me specifically is just blasting my favorite song and going from there. I think it’s the environment that you give yourself to do it. You can play really sexy music and have that energy. If it’s just your favorite music and you want to jump around like crazy in your living room, that’s what it is going to transmit.
I feel like everything has energy. The image will take some of that energy into it, and other people see it. Everything is energy.
PM
You’re also a DJ right? You speak so passionately about music.
MV
I never really thought about becoming a DJ. I personally think I had sort of a late introduction to the music that I really wanted to hear. Growing up, I used to listen to a lot of salsa and reggae and Spanish music. A lot of 80s hits that my mom used to listen to. I never really got into electronic music till I was probably 18 or 19, but I really fell in love with it. Some people started more early in their lives. I was very lucky, because I went to Japan when I was 18, and I’m very spoiled to say that my first few club experiences were in Japan because the nightlife there is insane. It was so good. People just wanted to dance and have fun.
Since I stopped dancing professionally, I felt like I needed another space to be able to let go. So I started going to a lot of clubs in Japan and I started making a lot of friends who were DJs, and friends who either threw parties or were club owners, so I guess I just started putting pieces together that electronic and techno music was a really big passion of mine.
PM
What kind of rhythms do you like to spin with?
MV
I love mixing different types of genres. If I’m doing house, it doesn’t just have to be that. Some people are like that, that’s what their sets are like, and that’s great. I love mixing shit up and making it really interesting and fun. Lately, I’ve been mixing a lot of experimental pop, hyperpop and sounds that are very energetic and very lively. I just want to make people feel like they’re dancing in their living room and no one’s watching.
PM
You like to raise the vibration.
MV
I think so. I do a lot of deep house, and I’ve been adding experimental pop to it. I like a lot of percussion. Drums and stuff like that. I’m still figuring out my own sound.
PM
There’s a big movement of Latin female artists in the music scene, which I’ve been super inspired by. Seeing other Latin women becoming popular—and it’s not just like Shakira—other types of women creating different types of music, has been super important. Latin music in general has become a lot more popular in ways that it never was when we were kids. For me, it’s been extremely affirming. Do you incorporate any Latin music in your sets?
MV
I think for a while I disconnected from my culture, especially being in Japan, most of my friends were all foreigners and white people or whatever. I’ve been trying to reconnect more with that and really learn more of the Latin electronic artists. It’s definitely something that I want to incorporate more into my sound, even if it’s not like traditional, it is something that I’m interested in. I really love Peggy Gou, I think she’s a really big influence for me. She’s from Korea and she’s also part of the minorities making it. She’s had a lot of stories of how much harder it is for women to make it in a scene where it’s almost always men, and you have to work harder to gain the respect.
PM
Do you ever spin vinyl?
MV
I am learning to DJ with vinyl at home but haven’t done that in a club. At the club, I DJ with my USBs on CDJ. I have an obsession with vinyl though. I just didn’t have the money to do it. Thankfully, I can afford it now. I spend too much money on records.
PM
It’s totally worth it. I love records, I’ve been obsessed since I was a kid. I used to do this thing where I would go to the record store and I would just go to the dollar bin. I would give myself a $30 budget—they’re usually between $1 and $5, and I would just get stuff that looked cool. They say don’t judge the book by the cover, but I was totally judging the records by their covers. Oftentimes, it would be an artist that I’d never heard of, or didn’t recognize the name, but the cover looks cool then I read the song list like, “I know the songs, these are really popular songs,” and it’d be some classic hits from the 70s. Bringing them home was like Christmas—you play all these records and some of them are terrible, but most of them are really good. And you’ll find super famous stuff where I would recognize the song because it’s on every commercial, but never knew the artist’s name.
MV
I love that. I feel like the music in my record collection is way more interesting than what I have on Spotify, because I do tend to find artists that I wouldn’t otherwise listen to because they’re vinyl only. I always like buying a few records of people that I don’t know or that I’ve never listened to. I mean I have a bunch of records that I absolutely hate, that I bought just thinking you know why not? But it is like Christmas morning when you get home with all these records and you want to listen right away. It’s a big obsession. I have around 500 records now. I’m running out of space!
PM
Did you start collecting records when you moved back to New York or did you start in Japan?
MV
I started in Japan. Tokyo has the best record shops in the world! My records have traveled all over the world too because I went from Japan. I didn’t have all 500, but I had a good 200-300.
PM
How do you feel about New York? Do you like living there?
MV
I love it. It’s part of a bucket list of things that I wanted to do. New York was the first place I visited when I was 12, my first big trip outside of Guatemala by myself with the ballet company—I was like, “this is the U.S.! This is crazy. It’s so big!” I have family who have lived here for years. My brother has lived here for a big chunk of time as well. So it’s easier for me to be here and be closer to them. I love being here. I feel like I’m finally settling down a little bit. I’ve been here for eight or nine months, but I’ve had a lot of fun so far.
PM
You do so many different things, where do you draw your inspiration from, what do you feel you communicate through your work or what do you want to communicate, and what do you see or what music or film do you see that really is like “Yes, this makes me want to make stuff?”
MV
Interesting question. I watch a lot of movies and I listen to a lot of music. Going to see other DJs and nightlife and really amazing artists who make really crazy music and put on these really intricate and amazing shows with lights and all that, obviously that gives me a lot of passion to do what I keep doing in music. I really love Wong Kar-wai. I really love the colors and the energy that transmits through his movies.
One of my favorite movies is Chungking Express, it’s really good and moody. I guess a lot of my stuff that I shoot by myself, I don’t have thoughts where “it needs to look like this,” it’s mostly just that I feel a certain mood and in a certain way and that’s just how my day goes. It really depends on the day, on the stuff I have seen recently. I don’t think I have a specific “this is what I’m going for,” just the vibes.
PM
And you’ve done so many different hairstyles— when do you know it’s time to switch it up? What makes you want to make those changes?
MV
If I could change my hair every two weeks, I would. I think I just have something where I get bored of things very quickly. At the moment, it’s difficult to do it as often as I would like to because my modeling jobs still require a certain, constant type of look. I’ve been trying to let it grow and it’s a little more black, more normal I guess, but I really want to chop it off and do all this crazy stuff to it. I would do it more often if I could, but I’d say at least every six months I’m going to do a little something to it if I can’t do it more often. I’ll cut it, I’ll dye it.
PM
I love that. Are you signed with an agency?
MV
No, I’ve always been freelance. I was signed to a modeling agency in Japan right before COVID happened, and then COVID happened and there weren’t any jobs available and no one was shooting. I moved out of Japan, but that was the only time I was signed for a little bit. Nothing was able to happen from that. Social media is also a good help for that when you’re independent.
PM
I’ve been friends with some girls who were signed and they say in their contracts that they couldn’t change their hair, they couldn’t get tattoos, they basically own your look for a few years. My friend told me as soon as her contract was up she got covered in tattoos and shaved her head.
MV
And that’s another thing, I don’t think I would be able to keep all these rules that you have to be a certain way. I’m not sure if all of them want to keep you a certain way or not, there are just so many rules. I don’t like living around what I have to do for someone else.
PM
I think that’s true for a lot of people that are sex workers or adult entertainers or content creators I think a big part of what draws us to this line of work, isn’t just that we love being sexy, a lot of it just comes down to the independence. Do you feel that sex work and adult entertainment has allowed you to express yourself creatively and in ways that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to otherwise?
MV
For sure. Like you said, having this job has given me the independence to not have to go to a 9-5 job or have to answer to anybody else. I make really good money that allows me to pay for everything I need to, and still have all this free time throughout my day because I only need so many hours to respond to my messages. The other half of the work is about getting creative and shooting, looking hot, and making yourself look pretty. Part of my job is being creative with my fans, so it definitely allows me the freedom for that. I’m very grateful, obviously, I know not a lot of people get to do a job that they love, but I’m very grateful that I get the chance to do it and not have to worry about other people. I do have to worry in a way sometimes, I can’t chop off because I have fans that like a certain style. Every once in a while there’s that idea that I do have to stay a certain way for fans, but at the end of the day, if I decided to shave my head, a lot of them are gonna be okay.
PM
And you’ll get new ones, too, that are into the new hairstyle.
MV
Yeah, when I shaved my head I lost around 10,000 followers. But I also gained a lot of followers who are into the shaved head. Now that I’m growing my hair, there are a lot of people who are like, “Finally! I love your long hair!” and other people who are like, “Oh, you should shave it again, this is what I like.” You’re never going to make people happy anyway, so you should just do what you want.
MIA VALENTINE INTERVIEWED BY PENELOPE DARIO
PHOTOS BY PENELOPE DARIO
WARDROBE STYLING BY KOLT REAGLE
SET DESIGN BY KOLT REAGLE
GLAM BY DESIREE LEIGH