You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

What do you do when the life your parents built for you doesn't fit the life you want?

Filmmaker Desire Akhavan has spent a long time sitting with that question.

When does your life get to be your own and not your parents or your communities?

As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, I was raised to believe the answer is never.

In her 2023 talk, she traces her journey from the kind of daughter she thought she had to be

to who she actually is.

She makes the case for why disappointing the people you love most might be the most honest

and important thing you can do for yourself and your community.

I let go of my idea of good and trying to fit into it, other people's notion of good,

and I ended up finding my own.

My parents are the heart of me.

They built me.

But they don't get to determine the rules of my life.

That's coming up right after a short break.

And now our TED Talk of the Day.

I was five years old when the Little Mermaid came out, and I was convinced it was a work of genius.

My mother did not agree. To be fair, she had a point. In the film, The Mermaid Disobey's Her Father to chase some guy

and put her entire species at risk.

And to my mom, she was the ungrateful, spoiled product

of the very worst in American culture.

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