Growing up, I always thought I’d be a doctor. It wasn’t a choice, it was what my parents wanted me to do. My mom’s ethnic Chinese by way of Burma and my dad is from Hong Kong. They met in NYC and here I am. I think anyone growing up the child of immigrants can relate — you’re really living out the dream that they wanted but didn’t have the opportunity to. I did everything I needed but I never actually applied to medical school. From going to Cornell undergrad to getting a masters at Harvard to boost my overall GPA to working as a research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital, it was all the “right” steps. I even took my MCAT and taught classes at Kaplan for some extra cash. But I always knew deep in my heart that it wasn’t the career for me.  

I loved magazines growing up and then I fell into the world of fashion forums, namely The Fashion Spot. It was like a second college education for me. Every thread on that site taught me more than any of my years of education did about the industry. There were pages dedicated to stylists, models, photographers, and of course designers. Diving deep into Rei Kawakubo, Inez and Vinoodh, etc. gave me the right vocabulary to talk the talk when I decided to pivot to fashion in my early 20s. I went from an unpaid intern at a fashion PR firm to freelance at Lucky and Domino before landing at New York Magazine. I stayed there for over 11 years and sometimes I feel like a part of me still haunts the halls there!

I think if you look at me now, you would think I came from a privileged background and it couldn’t be further from the truth. My parents definitely didn’t make a ton of money so I was basically fending for myself since college. But I think having that sort of experience made me both great at code switching as well as informing my work ethic. When you don’t have the luxury of a safety net, you do everything in your power to ensure you don’t fail. I guess that’s partially growing up the daughter of immigrants and partially growing up wanting desperately to live a very different life that I was born into.

New York City is definitely my home and I find that culturally I’m a classic Asian American kid that grew up here. That means most of my friends growing up also happen to be Asian American kids who commuted to high school daily so it was commonplace to hit up K-Town, Chinatown, or Flushing as our hangout spots. I think it’s actually a really common experience if you grew up in a city with a significant Asian American population — I find that there’s a common Asian American culture overall. That said, I’m also extremely a New Yorker, or at least that’s what people say when they meet me. I’m not nice but I’m kind as they say with very little patience for slow walkers and a hearty sense of mind your business on the subway. Very little phases me and I like to tell people it’s completely normal to take the train by yourself at age 12. I guess having this fearlessness has definitely seeped into the rest of my life trajectory! I like to jump first, ask questions later and do my damn best to make sure I don’t have a hard fall. But on a more fun note — New York does the best bagels and pizza while culturally I love being Chinese. Give me all the rice and noodles!

I like adrenaline rush sports — snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing, etc. I think there’s something so calming about all of these activities. Your brain shuts off because it’s so focused on the task at hand. There’s nothing more euphoric than going down a steep, fresh powder run or seeing the Great Barrier Reef at 70 feet below the surface! Also I guess I like the idea of subverting the idea of what a fashion person should be — I may like nice things but I’m not afraid to tough things out either. If it doesn’t terrify me a little, there’s really no point in doing it.