We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hip Stir. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hip below.

Hi Hip, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I think a lot of people would describe me as a “risk-taker” because I’ve done many things that go against social normality, especially as a woman. I left the country in 2017 to go live in Peru (which I had never visited before), continued to travel solo around South America for about 6 months, moved to Thailand, and then lived in Vietnam through the pandemic. I’ve entered male-dominated fields including DJing, producing, and business. I’ve dipped my toes in male-dominated sports like skating and surfing. I’ve come out as a polyamorous woman in a world that shames any type of non-monogamy for women. I guess I come off as a risk-taker because I’m doing things that women don’t typically do or aren’t “supposed” to do. So, in that way, I’m a major social risk-taker.

As a femme DJ and entrepreneur, sometimes just existing feels like a risk. Both of those fields are dominated by men and unfortunately there are still biases against women and gender non-conforming people in both the DJ and business world. I’ve experienced and continue to experience being underestimated in my work, whereas I’ve seen men “fake it til they make it.” It’s much harder to do that when people automatically assume you don’t know what you’re doing or that they can take advantage of you. There are definitely extra barriers and still I show up as I am, continue doing my work, and continue taking these risks because if I didn’t, I might as well be dead. I wouldn’t be living my life. I’m doing the best I can with the path that’s been paved for me by other brave women. I honor their contribution by continuing to trailblaze for others to live their lives too.

I believe that we take the risks that we have to, the things that our hearts and souls cannot afford to lose out on. Each risk is weighing the things that are most important to us. My current risk at the moment has been quitting the security of my full-time teaching job to pursue DJing, giving DJ lessons, music production, and investing more time and energy into BABE ATX (a femme/NB DJ collective trying to improve gender diversity in Austin’s music scene).

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was so fortunate to have learned how to DJ with a feminine collective when I was living in Vietnam called Pho the Girls. Rather than jumping blindly into a male-dominated, competitive arena, I was welcomed into a community where I not only felt seen and heard, but was actively encouraged to share my unique voice and perspective. In this precious space, I was able to blossom and thrive. Before this, DJing didn’t even cross my mind as an option even though I was always complimented on my music taste growing up, made many many playlists, and loved playing music at parties… It wasn’t until I saw a DJ space specifically for women and non-binary folks that I realized I could do that too.

When I moved to Austin in 2021, I was desperately searching for a similar community. I really couldn’t find it and eventually decided I had to create this space myself. So, BABE ATX (Bad Ass Bitches Elevating) was born in July 2022. BABE’s mission is to increase gender-diversity in Austin’s DJ scene. BABE does this by promoting events with women and NB folks DJing at them every week on social media (@babeatx), offering gender-diverse lineups to venues, promoters, and event planners, offering networking and community for femme and NB DJs in Austin, renting gear to DJs, offering DJ lessons to women and NB folks, and throwing events with all femme/NB lineups. I, personally, have put so much time, effort, and money into this femme and non-binary DJ collective and cannot believe how much it’s paid off in just one year. Although we’re still working on getting BABE some financial lifeblood, the social payoff has been incredible. With 1600+ followers, 75+ discord members, 2-3 events monthly, and an all-femme/NB electronic music festival on the horizon, BABE has grown so much in one year and I am so excited to see what the future brings.

If you or someone you know wants to:
-learn how to DJ
-book more gender-diverse DJs
-collaborate for an event
-sponsor an event
-or needs help promoting a gender-diverse event,
you can email [email protected].

Are you already a femme/NB DJ in Austin? Please don’t hesitate to DM @babeatx on Instagram to join the BABE community.

If you’d like to support BABE with a donation, we accept donations of any amount through Cashapp to $babeatx.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

In my humble opinion, I think the best way to support creatives is to spend money in your local creative communities. When you buy a piece of art from Target, you receive decor that you like (hopefully), your money goes into a huge corporation, and maybe a little bit of it trickles down to an employee at the store. When you buy a piece of art from an artist in your city (maybe someone you know), you receive art that you like, your money goes directly to the artist, they can continue their creative pursuits, bringing more beauty into the world, and quite possibly would be interested in supporting you and your creative pursuits as well. Same thing for music, I encourage folks to go on an adventure outside of the global pop that is fed to us and just see what’s going on in your city or state. I’m always amazed at the dope music I find and there’s a higher possibility that you could actually build a relationship with the artist(s) which is super cool!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The way I built my audience on social media was by firstly, making the community the center stage. As a page that gathers and shares information, I would tag the DJs whose shows I was promoting, and they would then share my content with their audience. Then, the next most important thing I would say has been consistency. I post the weekend event roundup at the same time every Thursday (6 pm) and that has really worked well for me in the mysterious algorithm. My last tip is to find pages that you think your audience would also be interested in, look at their followers, and then interact with those folks.    

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.babeatx.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djhipstir/ https://www.instagram.com/babeatx/

Image Credits
Steve Souza