- Like many people,
photographer Alexa Machado
didn't get to celebrate her birthday
with her friends and family this year,
but it didn't stop her from creating
one excellent and giant celebration.
Take a look at this.
She went all out,
making paper versions of her loved ones
to join her in a fantastic shindig,
complete with cake,
a hot tub,
and presents.
Let's get Alexa on the line right now.
What's up girl?
- Hey Kelly!
- How are you doing?
- Me, how are you?
- I'm so good, you're hilarious.
- Oh, thanks.
- (laughs) I love this birthday, so
you've had to be extra cautious
during the pandemic, right?
- Yeah.
So, I have
two different chronic illnesses.
The one I have to be
careful of is called Pots.
It stands for postural
orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
So in a nutshell,
I basically can't control my
blood pressure, my heart rate.
So I've just had to be extra careful
and staying away from
people and stuff, but
but I'm like more of an introvert anyway.
So it hasn't been too much of
a lifestyle change (laughs)
- You're like, so this is
like a day that ends in Y?
(laughter)
Well the, what went into
creating this party?
- So, I actually had the heads
for a,
another project I was doing,
and it was a serious project.
And I was like, "I don't
wanna just throw these out.
I wanna do something
ridiculous with them."
And then I started thinking, I was like,
I'm gonna be really bummed
that I'm like by myself
for my birthday this year.
And then it was like a light bulb,
what if I tape these heads to tripods
and dress them up as people and then like,
document an entire birthday shoot.
So that's kind of what I did.
I loved them all out in my yard
and took pictures and everything.
- So you say there's a
bigger message though,
behind this photo shoot, what is it?
- Yeah, so the main overall goal
is just to make people laugh.
'Cause that's just my personality (laughs)
I have a lot of people in the chronic,
chronic illness community,
like on my Facebook and
so I thought it would be
relatable content, something
just to like give them a laugh
because of our circumstance right now.
But,
with the content that
I like to post online,
I usually like to take a
disappointing circumstance
and see if I can flip it and make it funny
to create funny content.
'Cause basically I just
wanna demonstrate that
you don't have to be like
a victim of circumstance
'cause you might not always
be able to handle what,
what life is throwing at you,
but you can choose like how you use it
or how you respond to it.
So, yeah.
- Oh my gosh, write a book on that, so
hang in there,
and awesome birthday, Alexa.
That was really awesome.
I'm gonna like your post right now, right?
- Okay, awesome.
Thank you so much.
