Personal essays from other Asian Americans just like you.
It is no exaggeration to say it’s taken me about one-third of my expected adult life to feel comfortable in my own skin. It’s comical to me that I found my most natural state while fighting through the physical discipline of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a methodical yet...
I remember being called fat from a very early age and ‘fat’ became so much a part of my identity. Looking back at childhood pictures, though, I’m surprised to find that I was far from fat. I was mostly a lollipop mop of permed frizzy hair on stilt-like, bony legs. An...
This month we are featuring coming-out stories from the LGBTQIAA+ AAPI community. We chose a variety of stories because “coming out” can mean a lot of things, and each story is unique and valuable. We also acknowledge that for many AAPIs, “coming out” publicly is...
Most of us are born into our Asian American identities with great expectations strung neatly along our shoulders. If our parents are immigrants, those expectations weigh heavier as we carry the unrealized dreams of those who came before us. We are asked to repay our...
“Come quick! There’s an Asian on TV – hurry, before they’re gone!” my mom used to holler across the house on the rare, exciting occasion. I grew up in Maryland and went to a small school where I was the only Chinese American student in my grade for most of the 12...