みかんMikan

:Not to be confused with Japanese animation channel, MIKAN.
Vina Murad, known online as みかんMikan or Mikan Mandarin (birthday: October 8)https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1711009086458966374 is an Iraqi Kurdish-Swedish YouTuber who lives in Japan. She makes a variety of videos that usually center on Japan and fashion.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1597621362943987713
==Content==
Mikan's first videos were vlogs, though she later transitioned to making content about fashion. Due to moving to Japan, she has made many videos about Japanese culture, Japanese snacks, Japanese history, learning the Japanese language, tips for living in Japan as a foreigner, Tokyo's Koreatown, nature vlogs, her jobs, and her time in Japanese school. She has also made videos about her cats, her fashion inspirations, her skill in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, singing and IKEA. Sometimes, she will discuss heavy topics in her series "Talk with Big Sister Mikan".
Mikan's fashion videos usually are of pastel and harajuku fashion, wigs, Japanese "kawaii" culture, 1980s Japanese fashion, Korean fashion, thrifting, school uniforms and photoshoots. She has also made videos where she cooks Calico cat cookies, gingerbread houses, earl grey cupcakes, chocolate truffle balls, Japanese sweets and Swedish choco balls.
Many of her videos feature her Japanese classmates, her British friends, fellow foreigners in Japan, her boyfriend, fellow harajuku influencers and on occasion her family, who once sent her a care package in a videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WegQh2JDCN4.
Sometimes she will compare Japanese and British snacks and highschool.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f05R_FG83wYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOJ1edv7XNM
==Collaborations==
Mikan has featured drag queen worldofxtra on her channel twice. Other YouTubers she collaborated with include Tokidoki Traveller. She has also collaborated with fellow Japanese lifestyle vlogger Pretty Pastel Please, in the video $100 DAISO SHOPPING CHALLENGE!!! 100 YEN STORE HAUL ft. Mikan Mandarin! Japan 2019.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SeIqoqgJ5Y
==Other channels==
==Personal Life==
Mikan is of Kurdish-Iraqi descent.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1596516613498421248https://64.media.tumblr.com/4fed60207b2bf2d288cfe3d3db1ebe3e/8897c5eafa9ba6a5-18/s540x810/d49e8009a8535636efb246886b8412740017a399.pnjhttps://64.media.tumblr.com/aaabd1784928e0b468160f11a78390b2/8897c5eafa9ba6a5-07/s1280x1920/dc645c1d15338b4130f8a8bd6b1a7e209a3f5b08.pnj She was born in Sweden after her family arrived as refugees due to the current state of Iraq at the time. Her mother is a hairdresser and her father is a driving instructor and they resided in Husby, Stockholm.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1605206082959605761 While he was in Iraq, her father was supposed to be drafted into the Iraqi military as a pilot. Six years later, her mother left her father and moved to the United Kingdom, and Mikan would stay with her father for years before moving to live with her motherhttps://youtu.be/8uH6jZ0u-Qw?t=86https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1583110560178397185https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1588696424208007169. There, she attended the school Sixth Form College, Farnborough in Hampshire.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1601407211875762176
She moved to Japan on a student visa, through GogoNihon.https://gogonihon.com/en/ Later, her father moved back to Iraqhttps://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1554067290928295938.
She has one younger brother, Vair, and one older sister.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1602758497900167168 Her older sister also moved to Japan at one point but currently lives in Sweden.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-S8dNt8r9M In 2019, her youngest sister, Arin, was born. Arin is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, which their father is of denial about. On August 21, 2022, Vina tweeted "My oldest sister thinks the reason they moved to Kurdistan is because my youngest sister (3?) was diagnosed with autism in Sweden and they can’t accept it so they moved somewhere she can pass off as neurotypical. Insane they’re still doing this when every single kid born to that man is clearly neurodivergent"https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1554078976947015680. Vina herself suffers from ADHD and bipolar disorder.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrJ0SlaL4Gc
According to another tweet, her parents continue to deny Arin's autism and took a doctor in Iraq who claimed that she was neurotypical.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1554080240132972545/photo/1
On her Twitter she mentioned struggling with being a victim of racism/xenophobia and being confused for a Muslim.
She has worked for Yorozu Chaya Omayage Ten in the past.https://www.instagram.com/yorozu444_038/?hl=enhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FowbwfAgrQ She also used to work at McDonalds', and described it as the worst job she ever had. She also worked at Sainsbury's.https://youtu.be/8uH6jZ0u-Qw?t=460
She attended Bunka fashion college, but later dropped out.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgfZTne4AGohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTaPiprndJchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twYGaLcH4MY
===Relationships ===
She used to date Hirokazu Anami, who appeared in a number of her old videos.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biIeEMeKxkIhttps://www.instagram.com/hirokazu_anami Currently she is dating a man named Yasuki. Yasu is half Filipino and half Japanese.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiGm1HKRQSs
===Other work===
In 2022, she launched her own fashion brand inspired by all sorts of J-fashion and kawaii aesthetics, Vina of the Valley.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KPuX58h1ls
She has done volunteer work for the homeless of Tokyo.https://twitter.com/citrusymikan/status/1594732607928815617
==Trivia==
*Mikan speaks English, Swedish and Japanese.
*She is 5'3.https://64.media.tumblr.com/4169516365420606b9ae41291e197a13/114d26ce2ba2dd60-0d/s2048x3072/ce0f05094f007a1f43f911d19e4918eaf10d7a1f.pnj
*Mikan calls herself a "weeaboo" and admits it is the reason she went to Japanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpys-NLRkcQ.
*She once used imovie to edit a videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A17QubvxX98.
*Though she resides in Tokyo, she has been to Osaka and Shinjuku.
*She watches Call Me Kevinhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCTkDyC1aEc
*As a child, she was a huge fan of the Bratz dollsline and television show.
==Gallery==
==References==
Category:Iraqi YouTubers
Category:Gaming YouTubers
Category:Swedish YouTubers
Category:Cooking YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:Music YouTubers
Category:Beauty YouTubers
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2017
Category:ASMR YouTubers