Not Your Typical Teen Sensation Tani Lynn Fujimoto
Tani Lynn Fujimoto is both an atypical and typical teenager — atypical because she’s a budding entertainment star, one potentially of the first magnitude; typical because she often describes herself as being “a dork,” “weird” or just plain “strange.”
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Del.icio.usThe soon-to-be 17-year-old (her birthday is March 19) may not yet be blessed with a wealth of life experiences, but she is surprisingly introspective for her age.
“One of the songs on the new CD is called Then Again, No,” she shares. “It’s about thinking outside of the box — about people saying ‘this is the way you must do it or else!’ But I’m saying ‘then again, no.’ I’ve found another way and this way is better for me.”
When she isn’t behind a microphone or in front of a camera, Tani Lynn can either be found doodling (“I love to paint and draw, although I’m really not good enough to be a successful artist.”), perfecting her photography skills (“I take a lot of photos and plan on taking photography classes.”), or immersing herself in literature.
Go Ask Alice, the best-selling book based on the diary of a drug-addicted teen whose life is spinning out of control, is the last book Tani Lynn has read cover to cover. “Everyone should read that book,” she suggests, “although personally, I don’t really think it was a real journal. A lot of it seems contrived.”
Currently, she is struggling through Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis — not because it’s some sort of school assignment, but because she believes it will somehow boost her I.Q.
“Yeah, it’s boring,” she admits, laughing. “But this is just me immersing myself in the classics and trying to be smart!”
An honor roll student who carries a respectable 3.5 GPA, Tani Lynn admits that her rather hectic lifestyle makes it difficult to give Sacred Hearts Academy her undivided attention.
“I’m so involved with things outside of school,” she explains, “that it’s hard for me to focus completely on it.” (Two of those “things” are her work with D.A.R.E. Day on Oahu and Adult Friends for Youth Program, in which she performs before thousands of her peers, all the while encouraging them “to stay off drugs and stay in school.”)
“Maybe if I had the patience and self-control and all the other things that I don’t have,” she continues, “I would be better at school.”
She thinks about what she has just claimed for a few seconds before once again adding, “maybe.”
The oldest of five children born to Darryl and Lauren Fujimoto, Tani Lynn is rather proud of her genes. She claims to inherit her “outspokenness, stubbornness and ambitiousness” from her father, while her “creativity, free-spiritness and generosity” hails from her mom.
“My parents have always treated me like an adult. I mean, I can remember getting the sex talk when I was just 4, and I’ve been pretty open with them ever since. Because of our close relationship, they trust me and, most of the times, they allow me to make my own decisions.
“I was always given a lot of room to be strange in my childhood,” she continues. “In school, I was the loner and someone who was always trying to figure out where she belonged. I’ve always been a different kind of thinker. But at the time when I didn’t fit in with my peers, I knew that I could always go to my parents.”
While she credits genetics with many of her talents, however, singing isn’t one of them. “No one in my immediate family sings,” she claims. “In fact, no one in my extended family sings!”
In Tani Lynn’s case, her vocal prowess is a prime example of nurture trumping nature.
“My grandmother used to play musicals in the house all the time, like Phantom of the Opera,” she explains. “I think I was about 6 and I would just sit in front of the stereo and try and follow what the singers were doing.”
By age 7, she began taking voice lessons and soon afterward entered a talent show at St. Elizabeth, where she wowed classmates and teachers with her rendition of Memories. Unfortunately for her, however, she didn’t win. Still, the confidence she gained propelled her to victory the following two years. Four years later, she won three consecutive shows on the TV show Destination Stardom, then made her recording debut on Darryl Hill’s Brown Bags to Stardom 2000: Stars of the Millennium — the youngest artist ever featured on a CD for the local contest.
Since then, her life has been one non-stop performance. And despite all the attention that has come her way, she remains fairly well grounded and thankful for all the gifts life has brought her thus far.
“I’ve received so much support from so many people, and I am thankful for that,” she says. “I’m also thankful for all the people who love me unconditionally and who put up with all of my crap.”
There is a lengthy pause as Tani Lynn turns her thoughts upward. “And I’m especially thankful for God for making me in a way that I’ve felt that I could always be and do what I wanted.”
Like being strange, maybe even a little weird? “Oh, yeah,” she says with an infectious smile. “I love being a dork.”
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