Django Testing - loading data into the database before loading the apps

I'm currently writting some tests for a Django app (+ REST framework), and having some issues loading the test data into the database.

Let me explain with some (very simplified) code :

I have a django view which is something like :

view.py

from myapp.models import Item
from myapp.utils import MyClass

# need to initialize with the set of items
item_set = {item.name for item in Item.objects.all()}
my_class_object = MyClass(item_set)

class MyView(APIView):
    def post(selfself, request):
        result = my_class_object.process(request.data)
        return Response(result)

So basically I need to initialize a class with some data from the database, and I then use this class in my view to process the data received by the endpoint.

Now the test :

my_test.py

from rest_framework.test import APILiveServerTestCase
from myapp.models import Item

class MyTest(APILiveServerTestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.URL = '/some_url_linking_to_myview/'

        # load some data
        Item.objects.create(name="first item")
        Item.objects.create(name="second item")

    def test_myview_return_correct_result(self):
        post_data = {"foo"}
        response = self.client.post(self.URL,
                                    data=post_data,
                                    format='json')
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
        self.assertEqual(response.data, {"my_expected_result"})

When running the test, what currently happens is that view.py is loaded before the setUp() method get excecuted, so when I instantiate the class with these two lines :

item_set = {item.name for item in Item.objects.all()}
my_class_object = MyClass(item_set)

the database is still empty.

I'm wondering if there is a way to either get the data into the database before view.py get executed, or maybe somehow force reloading the app after setUp(), or instantiate my class somewhere else so it gets called after loading the data ?

thanks !

Although this question is very old, for people who might wonder now, the best way to manage this is to use fixtures: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.1/howto/initial-data/