I still vividly remember walking out of the theater after watching Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. I was with a group of friends of various ages, and those of us too scared for the horror movie next door decided to watch two stoners on their quest for hamburgers. I left the theater 88 minutes later with residual pains in my stomach from laughing so hard—and a stark realization that I had just watched the funniest movie I’d see in a long time. I couldn’t remember ever hearing an …

It’s been said that life is a series of decisions. Most decisions—what am I going to wear today? What will I have for lunch?—are largely inconsequential, but most people do not expect everyday choices to change their lives, even though it’s almost always a combination of such decisions that do.

Dear readers,

Mistakes are inevitable. Whether it’s something as big as oversleeping the day of a big test or as small as forgetting your umbrella during a rainstorm—like I did today—they’re an unavoidable part of life and should be treated as such. That’s why we’ve chosen to celebrate things that have gone wrong, so to speak, in our “Oops” issue.

Acting, like many professions, is not the easiest to break into. Most aspiring actresses hear “no, no, no” repeatedly before they get a single “yes”—unless you’re Kelsey Chow.

After a stint in community theater got Kelsey hooked on the spotlight, her agent set her up with her first audition ever— a spot on the teen favorite show “One Tree Hill.” “I thought the role was for a cheerleader, so I went in a cheerleading uniform,” says Kelsey, who admits she was an “O.C.” fan and hadn’t seen “One Tree Hill” before the audition. “

Dear readers,

They say youth is wasted on the young—and we’re here to prove them wrong.

A few years ago, the Mochi founders were a couple of college students who dreamed of creating a product we couldn’t find in the mediascape. Since then, we’ve come unbelievably far, thanks to an incredibly talented (and young) group of editors and writers. Together, we’ve put together an issue that celebrates young Asian Americans and the sweeping influence they have on the world.

It’s highly likely that you’ve heard of Jay Chou before—he’s the Taiwanese singer-songwriter behind hits such as “Cute Girl (Ke Ai Nu Ren),” “Simple Love (Jian Dan Ai),” and “Silence (An Jing).” If you haven’t heard the original songs, you may have seen YouTube covers by Mandarin and non-Mandarin speakers alike (our favorite: sisters Riney and Bam, who used Chou’s music to learn Chinese), or heard his catchy melodies while singing karaoke.

In some ways, sisters Knewdles and Sos have what is possibly the most typical sibling relationship in the world—they fight, they squeal on each other, but they also are closer than ever. Yet most sisters don’t grow up, move in together, and decide to start a hip-hop group of their own.

Dear readers,

For me, the Christmas holidays mean one thing—going home to spend time and celebrate with the people I love best. I should probably be thankful all year round, but it’s really November and after when I start to remember how lucky I am to be constantly surrounded by people I love and care about.

Dear Mochi readers,

If I had to narrow down the one thing in my life that influenced me the most, it would be my five summers of nerd camp. Between the ages of 12 to 17, my parents would ship me off across the Pacific (with a lovely, puke-green, airline-sanctioned “Unaccompanied Minor” button on my chest) to attend the Center for Talented Youth, better known as CTY.

Mochi recently held a contest where readers applied to get fashion and beauty tips from our editors. The winner, Alyce Tzue, models clothes from Lower East Side boutique We The People in this shoot.

On long, tedious family vacations, some people get through an entire booklist of vacation reading. Others stay in the hotel rooms, ordering room service and playing video games. When Jon Chu got bored on a trip, he asked his four siblings to act out a scene for him to film. “We’d pretend to be robbing a bank, or go on a Jurassic Park adventure,” he recalled. Some time later, the preteen hassled his father until he bought him an electronic mixer to edit the films with.

Michelle Wie’s parents first recognized the athletic prowess in their four-year-old when she picked up a golf club, swung and hit a ball airborne. After a couple months of practicing in 100-yard baseball fields, one ball flew over the fence and into a house. From then on, practice was held exclusively at golf courses.

Maybe it was my parents’ compulsive need to pack educational experiences into every ounce of my childhood. Or maybe it was a desperate attempt to salvage their sanity by getting my brother and I out of the house as much as possible. But as far back as when I was 10 years old, I was flying across the ocean with a bright green “Unaccompanied Minor” button on my hoodie —spending summers at my aunt’s house in Los Angeles, studying pre-calculus at nerd camp or visiting dilapidated castles in England.

No one wants to go through life known as “the Asian dude.” But for Harry Shum, Jr., it’s a dream come true. The 27-year-old plays football player and show-choir member Mike Chang on the hit show “Glee,” but he’s much better known for being “the other Asian,” a nickname dubbed by Jane Lynch’s scary cheerleading coach character, Sue Sylvester.

I remember the college application process like it was yesterday. From applying early decision in November to finishing the rest of my applications late December (like any good procrastinator, I hit the “submit” button five minutes before heading out to ring in the new year); to the breathless refreshing of my email in the school computer labs in March. I’ll never forget the disappointment of being deferred, then rejected from my first-choice college and months later, the rush of relief that came with accepting a spot at my now alma-mater, New York University.