Indian American YouTuber Michelle Khare took on the internet’s toughest challenges. The Emmys noticed

Khare’s self-assignments are often so outlandish that you almost don’t consider what it must take to get permissions from organisations like the US military, NASA, F1, Disney and the FBI. “I write a lot of crazy emails,” she laughs. “As the show has grown, so has our legitimacy. Opening those doors now is smoother than it used to be.” When she wanted to do an episode at the FBI Academy nine months ago, she went to FBI.gov, called the number on the website was connected to ‘The Hollywood Guy’–a real person at the FBI responsible for ensuring that portrayals of the security service on screen are accurate. “He thankfully said, ‘What the heck, let’s try it.’”

Whether in Delhi or London, Karachi or New York, South Asian girls grow up being told to stay safe, not draw too much attention and not do anything that would shame the extended family. Most of us are taught to protect ourselves first and dream later. Even among well-travelled, ambitious diaspora women, there’s often the fear of endangering the life our parents and grandparents worked so hard to give us, often surviving through war, partition, poverty, migration or toxic marriages they couldn’t leave. To many, it would seem that Khare is risking her life for views but she insists it’s “what will impact other young girls to go after their own goals.”