Overachiever Magazine: MARCH I ISSUE by Overachiever Magazine

NDER & EIC U O F

Rehana Paul OUT & D E SI G N LAY

Chloe Sun & Francine Cayanan CONTRIBUTORS ZOE KIM / MADDI CHUN / KATE ANDERSON-SONG / A. MANA NAVA / CINDY HSIEH / REHANA PAIL / SHREYA RAJAPPA / CHARLOTTE DRUMMOND

1 | Overachiever Magazine

C o f o n te e l

03 interview with joon park 11 a year of reflection 13 interview with alex porat 16 it starts with teeth 17 self love 19 interview with laura gao 35 interview with jade darmawangsa 39 the international translation of roe v. wade 49 secretary chao’s self-inflicted sinophobia 51 interview with patruni chidananda sastry 59 interview with genesis magpayo

Int

k r a P n o o J

w w ie rv

ith

3 | Overachiever Magazine

K by Zoe

Joon (they/them) is a cultural strategist at sparks & honey, where they consult tech, beauty, and F&B clients on how to future-proof their business. They are one of the founding members of GLAAD’s Campus Ambassador program and is a recipient of GLAAD’s first Rising Stars Grant, which annually honors LGBTQ+ changemakers across the nation. Since then, they’ve been featured in publications like Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Vogue, where they continue to bring visibility to the next generation of leaders. Joon is an alum of the ADCOLOR FUTURES program and is the first transgender, non-binary Mx. ADCOLOR. They have spoken on stages like Cannes and ADCOLOR about topics like precision data, ethical design, and workplace diversity. Instagram: @joonyoungpark

Introduce yourself! My name is Joon Park. “Joon” like the month, also born in June—I am a Gemini, and I use they/them pronouns. When I do introductions, I do like to include that I am a child of immigrants and heavily resonate with the immigrant experience. And I don’t believe that the fact that I’m trans or the fact that I’m an immigrant exists in vacuums. A lot of my development up until this point has been informed by activism on campus. Of course, now that I’m working in a professional setting, that looks very different. But genuinely, if there was a “North Star” for me to keep running towards, it is that I lead a life with young people in mind. Specifically young people who come from more underrepresented and underserved communities. So that is me in a nutshell! You’ve said that you prefer the term QBIPOC because it feels more inclusive of your identity as a Korean person. How do you feel connected to that label personally? That was kind of at the peak of when my identity as a trans person was starting to crystallize. So before then, it was much easier for me to describe myself as gay. This was around 2016-2017 when I made that video the kind of nuances behind queer identity was not as explored back then. That was also when

the word “gay” was starting to become a lot more conflated with whiteness. Specifically, I remember there was a lot of energy around what “Hell’s Kitchen gays” look like. Increasingly, I think I was starting to realize that although we do share experiences under a common “queer umbrella,” it would betray my identity as an immigrant, as a queer person of color, to use a word that has been so conflated with whiteness. Because of that, I do prefer calling myself a trans person of color now that my identity’s a lot more fixed. But obviously, “queer person of color” also works. With that said too, I know that specifically being Korean and a queer person. I personally have never come out to my parents as nonbinary or trans just because there are certain words within our language “oppa” [오빠, ‘older brother’ from a younger sister], “addeul” [아들, son] that hold a lot of relative meaning. I don’t necessarily want to renegotiate my relationships with my mom and my sister because it would betray the entire relationship I’ve built with them. I think that even within transness, there are a lot of factors informed by my immigrant identity where I’d rather be my mom’s son through the lens of an immigrant experience than try to force a lot of language that I’ve learned from elite academic institutions. Who am I to try

to explain that gender is a performance to my immigrant mom, who works a blue-collar job? What has self-acceptance meant and looked like for you? If I’m being honest, I, gratefully so, never had as much as a tumultuous relationship with coming to terms with my queerness. Mainly because I was also in the liberal bastion of Bergen County, New Jersey, where because of its proximity to Manhattan, queerness was kind of a cool thing. Talking about whiteness again, I just remember this was a time when Glee was really a big thing. The trope of a gay best friend was really starting to crystallize itself in American media and the cultural currency of being a gay friend. And back then, I associated a lot of that with proximity to whiteness. So for me, I actively performed “gayness” because I thought it meant closer proximity to whiteness. For me, I think a lot more of the shame was rooted in my racial and immigrant identity than it was my queerness. With that said, it was kind of a positive feedback loop where becoming more comfortable in my racial identity would then inform how I felt about my queerness, which would then inform how I felt about my race once again. I think the bigger moment for me to unpack was the implications that being a person of color had within queerness and the other way around. Being Asian, there’s very limited real estate we have to explore identities in the way white people can. Having to do that as an extracurricular on top of the filial obligations expected of me was a very tumultuous process. What’s something you wish more people knew about you and/or your identity? I think this is a very context-driven

5 | Overachiever Magazine

“Being Asian, there’s very limited real estate we have to explore identities in the way white people can. Having to do that as an extracurricular on top of the filial obligations expected of me was a very tumultuous process.” question, but in my current stage of life, I want people to know that I am more than just the” token trans person.” I think a lot of that is informed by the relationship I have with my industry, where there really haven’t been too many trans folks. And because of that, there’s a lot of excitement from the larger industry to kind of use me as a representative for the larger community. And that gets really uncomfortable, also because now I’m realizing that I’m not going to achieve liberation through this industry. I really want to divorce my personal politics from how the industry wants to spotlight me as this harbinger of trans rights. What advice do you have for young LGBTQ+ BIPOC about navigating identity and life today? This is going to be really trite, but it’s also something that was passed on to me when I was younger too, which is that we are in an era where young people hold a lot of capital—more so than earlier periods. I think that young people should really navigate life with

Top left picture taken by Mark Clennon.

a newfound level of self-efficacy and self-determination than we’re used to seeing specifically because there are so many institutions that historically have held power that are now grasping on to it because everything is being shattered by the young voice. As uncomfortable as it is to step into power when we’re not used to it, I would encourage young people to own their voices in ways that we haven’t been taught in traditional settings. And that’s such a trite answer, but it’s the best that I can give. I see how young people are also disrupting professional industries and how HR departments and leadership and people who would have never given a shit in the past are now cowering at this changing tide. I personally think that young people are the shit. They’re the way to go. Just keep going on that path. One thing that I’ve been thinking about a lot: At least with my generation, there was a certain desire and aspiration to weld a lot of our personal interests with career aspirations. There was a lot of energy around how we could use careers to be the vehicle for change. Like, “Let me enter the world of marketing and try to use that as a vehicle of change.” From my vantage point today, I honestly don’t think that career and social good are reconcilable. Under capitalism, a job is a job, and a career is a job. I think there needs to be a lot of disillusionment around the concept of career. My kind of aspiration for young people is to rethink strategies of how we could still secure the basic requirements for living respectable lives while understanding that, perhaps for radical transformation, a career isn’t necessarily the way to get there. And that’s coming from someone who’s recently like,

7 | Overachiever Magazine

“Fuck. I don’t think ‘media representation’ is the way to liberation.” What do you think is the biggest challenge facing LGBTQ+, and specifically trans and/or nonbinary Asians today? Hot take: once again, I don’t think we’ve had as much real estate or the license to explore our identities. Perhaps because of the way we’re socialized with filial expectations or the constant and slow-burning worry of, “How can I reconcile my personal liberties with my family life?” I think family life is a very unique aspect of Asian identity that is hard to navigate sometimes. And because of these constraints, I just haven’t seen as many Asian folks allowing themselves the liberty to explore, and play with, and debunk gender. That’s my hot take: that we can be more expansive in our understanding of gender, and I’m not quite seeing that. There are just so many other forces tethering us away from exploring identity that identity becomes a less salient part of who we are. These are very sweeping generalizations, so I’m very careful in saying this, but I do think there’s an element of self-sacrifice that is a little bit more pronounced in our communities and perhaps is one of the bigger barriers to us understanding ourselves. I think it also manifests in our understanding of racial identity. A lot of Asians are also very quiet about it or don’t have as resolute perspectives on that as well. Thoughts on allyship within the Asian community? J: Are you talking about us as allies? Z: No, more like cishet Asians. J: Perhaps this is internalized racism, but I just don’t give a fuck about what cishet Asians think about me. That said, I think we are just now entering a prec-

ipice where even cishet Asians have to reckon with Asian identity. You might have seen on TikTok, there are a lot of blunders from Asian influencers being like, “Y’all supported BLM, where’s the energy now?!” It’s just, they’re getting there, but they’re not quite there. It’s a certain type of nascency that is just now starting to blossom. I don’t want to fault folks—at least they’re in the process of learning and unlearning. But when it comes to where I have expectations for who’s gonna be my ally, number one on my list is not the larger Asian community, if I’m being honest.

can maneuver queerness through those lenses-- I think it speaks to how we’re doing a great job reconciling our queer identities with other things we cannot ignore that are very central to Korean identity. The next move for you is to divorce your career from active liberation. What’s the plan? In my day job, I work as a cultural consultant, which pretty much means that I help brands like PepsiCo develop new products that respond to culture. So if there’s a cultural zeitgeist around mood effects and what it means to elevate people’s moods during quarantine, I’d recommend that Pepsi starts creating new products around CBD ingredients.

“I think we’re doing a really great job of codifying what it means to be queer and Asian and also understanding that it’s very complex and large.”

What do you see for the LGBTQ+ Asian community in the coming years? To be honest, I think we’re doing a fucking great job. And I don’t know, I might be a little biased because I live in New York, where there is a huge blossoming of queer Asian life that is so new and very palpable. I think we’re doing a really great job of codifying what it means to be queer and Asian and also understanding that it’s very complex and large. Three years ago, in 2018, I was essentially in the court team of the first-ever Korean-Trans conference. It hosted about 300 people from the entire Korean diaspora, so it wasn’t U.S.-specific. Even at that conference, we had pillars that were very specific to Korean identities, like family values, faith, and fellowship, or something like that. But even just the manifestations of how those tenets are actually very critical to larger Korean communities and how we

My thought process right now is that a job is a job. Let me get my check, and then once I get the money, figure out how I’m going to redistribute that or spend that or reallocate that. I think the larger homework is also considering that because of my immigrant experience and Korean identity, for so long, there’s also been expectations for me to use that money for my family back home and buy my mom really great gifts as a tribute to all the sacrifices she made for me. So figuring out how to budget my personal money so I can still commit to those filial obligations but also extend that kind of filial obligation to communities that aren’t blood-related. That’s one thing that I’m working on at a very micro level. OM.

9 | Overachiever Magazine

“During these difficult times within the Asian community, music has been my source of Asian joy. I made this playlist to amplify Asian women who are slaying and shredding it in the music scene: past, present, future, and beyond. Maganda is a Filipino expression for all things good and beautiful - a word I express within my community. Have a listen, music heals.” “hello maganda” by Abigail Aguisanda IG: abigailuna_ Spotify: abigail_luna Medium: mixed media

Scan Here

A Year of Reflection BY A. MANA NAVA @BOOKS.WITH.MANA

A. Mana Nava is a freelance writer and a dog-walking-while-reading hazard. Their fiction has been nominated for the Best American Short Story anthology. The nominated piece can be found in The Hopkins Review (issue 13.4). Currently, they are an editorial coordinator at Overachiever, contributor for the Drizzle Review, and editorial intern for the Macmillan Economics Team. Nava has received support from Kundiman, Asian American Feminist Collective, and Representation Matters Organization.

year ago, our lives became so unpredictable, so unknown. The COVID-19 pandemic is an undeniable tragedy that has changed all of our lives. As time passed, we lost so many lives. Everyone’s lives have been upended, and a new social etiquette is in place.

We continue to collectively yearn for our lives from 2019 and collectively grieve for what we lost in 2020. These are normal reactions. However, after a lot of reflection, I want to acknowledge another facet of the pandemic: gratitude. Before the pandemic, my

life was busy and comfortable. I graduated college, saw my human companion every day, was finally able to jog after foot surgery, and worked with my best friends at a bookstore that connected me to the local creative community. There were problems with our clients and the corporation: endangerment, emotional abuse, exposure to dangerous substances, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, colorism, and more. At the time, I just dealt with it. My human companion hated listening to me complain about the physical and emotional abuse I endured as a bookseller. He grew tired of my soapbox diatribes and begged me to quit. He wanted me to be challenged,

earn more money, feel respected, and grow. I responded with a slew of excuses: “I need health care.” “These are my friends.” “My writing isn’t ready.” “I’ll apply for grad school next year, I promise.” I was in an abusive relationship with my day job. I had normalized middle-aged white women screaming at me because I couldn’t buy their scrapbooking guides from 2007. I shrugged when finding thin, folded sheets of burnt foil inside video game cases. All of that was okay because I got to see my friends every day and got a killer discount. The truth was: I had outgrown my job. I was no longer happy working at the bottom of the bookstore’s labor hierarchy. When I watched the early American news coverage of

11 | Overachiever Magazine

the COVID-19 outbreak in China, I thought this would fizzle out. I grew up during the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s. I am also accustomed to measles and smallpox outbreaks since being an anti-vaxxer is popular amongst upper-middle-class Californians. Obviously, I was wrong. On March 14, I picked up the phone at the bookstore. On the other end? A recording from my county’s office announced the official lockdown, which started in twelve hours. That’s when everything changed. A month into the lockdown, I was laid off in a group call with a dozen other people—a callous, albeit anticlimactic ending. While that experience was dehumanizing and alienating, this was my wake-up call. I became so grateful for my community: my immediate family, friends, and romantic companion. Spending time with them mattered more than a retail job that ate my time and energy. Working at my childhood bookstore was a dream, but I have other goals: Working on a magazine. Get an MFA. Be published in a top-tier literary magazine. Be nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Working at a publishing house.

I bet on me. And it worked. I’ve snatched several honors, my work has been nominated for awards, I Teach a writing workshop. have relationships with a couple of The rhetoric surrounding COVID-19 publishing houses from my work as has been dire. After all, death could a reviewer, and I have a handful of be lurking in a grocery store or mentors who provide me with emohouse party. I would not risk my life tional support and feedback on my at a nonessential retail store where work. My writing career looks so customers refuse to wear masks, pee different from a year ago, and I can’t on floors, and start physical alterca- say I would be here if I still worked tions during a global pandemic. (Yes, at the bookstore. all these events happened in 2020.) Strip away the brilliant, kind staff at Cultivating my writing career has that bookstore and it is just another been a great privilege during one of corporate entity that refuses to pro- the worst years in the 21st century. I would not have been able to do this tect its employees. without my beautiful community, Being laid-off bought me time. I which continues to grow each day. If could take on more freelance work it wasn’t for the amazing people in than before. In the past, I’d taken up my life, I wouldn’t have found these the occasional gig: editing a college opportunities or have the mental paper, tutoring, writing product de- fortitude to show up every day ready scriptions, transcribing PDFs, etc. to kick life in the ass. Living through Now It was time for the big leagues. a global pandemic had me appreciate my life more and forced me to move out of my comfort zone because evunsplash-image-hopX_jpVtRM.jpg I dove headfirst. I wrote and wrote. I erything was uncertain. applied to everything that appeared in my feed. I attended dozens of mas- Collectively we’ve lost so much. terclasses and workshops on scholar- Many of us are still struggling to make ends meet (especially in the ships. United States). However, we can It wasn’t easy. The market was more take a moment to appreciate what competitive than ever before. Legit we still have, especially to acknowljob listings disappeared after a day. edge our resilience. Because if you’re So, I started pitching to magazines. here, regardless of what you’ve lost I wrote essays and articles even or how you feel today, you’re resilthough I identify as a fiction writ- ient. We’ve made it. er. I broadened my writing identity OM. and sharpened my nonfiction skills. This was out of necessity, but I love a challenge. Publish a novel.

13 | Overachiever Magazine

Kate Anderson-Song is on the editorial team at Overachiever Magazine. She is a NYC-based writer, artist, and performer, with a background in Cinema Studies & Drama from New York University. You can find Kate on Instagram @k8andersonsong and @thek8pages where she posts her art, and you can find more of her work (and tons of other great stuff) here at Overachiever Magazine!

Introduce yourself! Hi, I’m Alex Porat. I’m a musician from Toronto, Canada and I write pop music that sounds like it’s straight from the pages of my diary.

Sonically I think it’s four corners of how I feel when it comes to a breakup so they all sound very different from each other. I think of it almost in phases and each song represented it’s own feeling in the world of “breakups”.

Your newest single, “girlfriend” was just released on February 24, 2021. What is this song about? The song is about a girl who doesn’t want to be labelled as a “girlfriend”. It’s a comment on the double standard that exists when a guy can get away with acting like a boyfriend and go free of judgement when he doesn’t want to take things seriously versus when a woman does it and is judged for that same behaviour.

As a young female artist of mixed Asian & white descent - how has your mixed identity affected your creative upbringing? Your music? Your career? Growing up in North America I was deprived of artists in media that looked like me. I struggled to relate to the people who I saw being successful in music and entertainment. I think I tried my best to feel like I belonged in a place where I knew I didn’t fully fit into. It somewhat forced me to be a bit of a shapeshifter and made my dreams feel very far away and almost unattainable. As the years passed by, I found a love for media in different parts of the world, like K-Pop, and then over time I gained more confidence in myself. With that confidence came a very strong urge to push the message of the lack of Asian representation in media as far as my voice can go because I think it’s important to eradicate the feelings I felt as a

“With that confidence came a very strong urge to push the message of the lack of Asian representation in media as far as my voice can go...”

Introduce your new EP, “bad at breakups.” What inspired it? What is it about? And sonically, what is its sound? The EP is about a phase in my life when the songs I was writing all revolved around the idea of an end to a relationship. I really struggle with forgiveness and so I can hold a grudge for the longest time, which ended up helping when it came to writing the songs.

kid in today’s youth.

Byrne.

Where do you find inspiration for your songs? Inspiration for my songs usually come straight from my life and experiences. This past year was pretty sparse when it came to life’s adventures and so that forced me to step beyond my first hand experiences and find inspiration in other issues that exist in society.

Is there anything you wish you knew when you began pursuing music? Any piece of advice you have for others pursuing their musical dreams? I wish I knew that I would be okay. I always had this fear that things could somehow spiral and my life would be over if I made one wrong decision but that’s never the case. My advice to anyone who is pursuing their musical dreams is to keep going. Just keep goHow has this time of COVID-19 affected you and ing. There will be 100 “no”s for 1 “yes” - but that “yes” your music/career? How have you been coping? will feel so good. It’s been very interesting for me to see how I’d feel emotionally being stripped from a lot of social inter- Here are some rapid-fire questions: action I’m used to having. I’m a very social person and Your go-to coffee shop order? I love people and being around people. The few times Doubleshot on ice!! in the past year that I’ve been able to go into a studio are so cherished in my mind that sometimes I dream Any special or secret skills (i.e. wiggling your about those days. I’ve been coping through sunlight, ears, etc.)? daily phone calls to friends, and attempting to drink Sleeping at 5am. more water. Music you’re listening to right now? “Susie Save Your Love” - Allie X & Mitski “r u ok” - Tate McRae

“I wish I knew that I would be okay. I always had this fear that things could somehow spiral and my life would be over if I made one wrong decision but that’s never the case.“

What does self care mean to you? How do you take care of yourself? Self care to me is taking care of your mind and body. I’ve recently found a love for pilates and it’s really helped me feel better in my space and body. I also started journaling every morning/night and reading books - currently reading “The Secret” by Rhonda

15 | Overachiever Magazine

Ultimate comfort food? Curry, sushi, or pasta - don’t make me pick please! What has been the highlight of your day today? Highlight of my day today was hearing a mix of an upcoming song. What is upcoming for you and your work? More music! I’m excited to put these next few songs out and hopefully some fun visuals to go along with!!! OM.

It Starts With Teeth BY ANONYMOUS

he week before you grad- trip for a few weeks. uate high school, you get your wisdom teeth re- At 116 lbs, you decide you are much too heavy and that you’re moved. going to lose 20 lbs by the time You vomit out your first dose of you see Mama again. medicine, and Mama decides it’s You start running every day— up best you didn’t take them again. to six miles. All you eat is a packSo you spend the better part of age of Belvita crackers. two months gargling salt water and eating nothing but clear When your brother offers you a broths and gravy— and naturally, bite of his taco, you yell at him. you lose about 10 pounds from it. And when you fall off the treadWell at least one good thing came mill at the gym, you tell the paof this, Mama says, now you just tron that makes you drink chocolate milk that you’re just out of need to keep it off. shape. The next summer, you do a twoweek juice cleanse. One of those You go to California the next week cleanses you get from an Insta- and gorge yourself on food. gram post that requires a $40 book, but guarantees you’ll lose When you see Mama the week after that, she says you’ve gained 16 lbs in 14 days. weight— you already weigh so For two weeks, you made smooth- much more than she ever did— ies that made you shit constantly— and are getting too old to not but all that comes out is water, watch your figure— at your age, because those smoothies are your she was already working out twice a day and eating once. only source of food. You have so much discipline. Mama smiles at you proudly as your head grows light. A few days before winter break, you get a stomach bug. You spend two days vomiting and another two not eating. When you get home, Auntie gets a pizza from Costco, and it’s the best pizza you’ve ever tasted.

After Christmas, Mama says she’s worried about you. That you’re discarding your health and will soon become fat. Healthy girls attract good men and get good jobs. And if you keep gaining weight, you won’t have either. She doesn’t think you find value in yourself. She starts to cry because she just wants you to have an easy life, and you start to cry too. Mama calls you gaunt when you return home from a brief trip. She looks at you with concern in her eyes as she bombards you with questions: Did your friends not feed you? They did, you ate any and everything in sight.

Did you feel sick? Not even a little. You go upstairs and look at yourself in the mirror; your waist has turned inward and your stomach has flattened— age has done what You stare at a box of pink pills— no amount of starvation ever your roommate has already picked could. up on your hesitance to eat breakfast and dinner, you can’t have her She fusses over you like you’re a fragile doll— pushes food your pick up on this too. way constantly and watches you For the most part, you’ve stopped eat with nervousness instead of obsessing over quick fixes because resentment. of her. But you’re going home for You know she’s scared for you, but Thanksgiving soon. for the first time in a long time, it Every day for a week, you pop a feels like she’s calling you beautiful. laxative.

You eat four greasy slices before When nobody shows concern Mama shouts at you— over your weight loss, you do the Stop! You’ve had enough! same before winter break. That summer, Mama goes on a

OM.

Self Love

BY CINDY HSIEH @_CMXHSI

Cindy Hsieh is a proponent for minorities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). She has been involved in advocacy and entrepreneurship groups on university campuses, as well as American Mensa Leadership workshops to foster new ideas and growth for equality. Her love for the arts has continued to shine through her volunteer work as a piano performer in hospitals and on a daily basis through her drawing and writing. Cindy is working towards further connecting with her Asian-American identity and sharing her experiences with others. Dedicated to the Most Important Person “How are you?” It’s such a simple question that I often ask others. It’s a question that we have all been taught to ask as the polite thing to do. Of course, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that not many people care for the answer to that question. However, there will always be a few people who do ask out of the kindness of their heart and will sympathize with your response if you answer genuinely.

From my adventures through singleness, one of the most important lessons I have learned is that living in the present doesn’t just mean acknowledging my physical feelings, but also my internal ones. I started noticing my consciousness would never address my emotions until they got to be an overload on my system. This became an issue that built up. Slowly, I realized I had a choice when I felt a certain way. I could build up my self-esteem and give myself encouragement instead of pushing myself away. After all, no one else would do it for me. It dawned on me that in my past relationships while I would give and give, I would think that those actions were enough for someone to choose me as a partner. What I didn’t acknowledge was that my internal actions towards myself were manifesting into reality. Often, our external environments mirror our internal ones, and how was I to expect someone to choose me when I neglected to choose myself. I neglected my own needs. I neglected my own happiness. I neglected my

“One of the most important observations was how my self-judgment prevented me from truly being open in a relationship.”

Though, what never dawned on me was how little we ask ourselves this question. We aren’t taught to check in with ourselves, and we aren’t taught to sympathize with our responses. Instead, we often critique our own emotions and judge ourselves for how we feel. I am a culprit of this as well. How ironic is this response, though, right? I know I would never respond in the same manner towards another person. So, why is that? Why do I treat myself so differently?

17 | Overachiever Magazine

humanity. The more I recognized my feelings, the more I noticed I struggled with acceptance of them. I realized that it was easy for me to judge my emotions with thoughts like “there are other people who have it worse than me” and “it’s not a big deal, calm down.” Yet, what I needed to hear the most from myself was: “No, it is a big deal. “ “You are allowed to feel however you want to feel.” “You can resolve this with as much time as you need, and you will be able to do it in the best way possible.” I noticed that it wasn’t until I let myself sit in my emotions that I felt free enough to pursue my goals and the rest of my life. The judgment I gave myself was unhealthy. I was invalidating my own feelings and assuming that the more I dismissed them, the more they would go away. However, all I was doing was building up an arsenal of grief and resentment toward myself. Learning acceptance and non-judgment towards my emotions has given me the ability to reframe my thinking and view of even the most unexpected, maybe disappointing situations, into hopeful and self-affirming ones.

with and thrive through my specific trauma. After all, as said by Teddy Roosevelt, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Through the reflection of all of my experiences as an Asian American, I believe my cultural upbringing has subconsciously ingrained the idea that I should mind my own business and not ask for or expect help from others. This mentality seems to have seeped into my understanding of relationships, especially romantic ones. This concept, compounded with the preaching of “you shouldn’t do something with an expectation of someone else’s actions,” became branded in my mind. While I agree that we should never do something that turns relationships into transactions, I also disagree. Expectations of others’ behaviors can be crucial in making sure you are not being taken advantage of. The concept of giving and giving can easily be taken to an extreme. An extreme which I had unknowingly implemented in my life. I was unfair to myself. I was letting myself be put in a position of hurt by others. I forgot about the most important person in my life, myself, and how to protect her. After reflection on my past relationships, I realize now that yes, I am an amazingly loving person, and yes, it is okay to have others’ expectations. I possess the ability to observe others and decide how much power they yield in my life. I can question if they have the level of courage and strength I needed.

One of the most important observations was how my self-judgment prevented me from truly being open in a relationship. You could argue that I just never felt safe enough to feel like I could fully express my thoughts, but I knew deep down inside I was ashamed of embracing who I was. I was afraid that I would taint the image of I understand now that what I feared was never about “having everything together” if I showed someone else finding another person but about never finding myself that I was human and made mistakes. (Like what was completely. past Cindy even thinking?? Such a foolish mentality.) OM. I understand now how detrimental that mindset is. I would beat myself down for not meeting the shallow attributes that others desired. I had and still have a hard time understanding that externally attributed qualities about me do not dictate my character and how capable I am as a person. Where I decide to go to school or what I decide to do with my life is wonderful as long as I am happy and satisfied. And even though there will always be someone else with better “external attributes” than me, I know that I have and will live my life to the best of my abilities. I’ve been the only one on this planet to deal

19 | Overachiever Magazine

e Kim

by Z o

with

ra Gao rview

Lau Inte

Laura Gao is a comic artist and writer based anywhere with good wifi, espresso, and bread! Born in Wuhan, China, Laura immigrated to the U.S. and grew up in Texas. Her work has been featured on NPR, PBS, and her parents’ fridge. Laura’s debut graphic memoir, MESSY ROOTS, about her identity search as a queer Chinese-American in conservative small-town Texas, is coming out in January 2022 with HarperCollins. Instagram, Twitter: @heylauragao Website: lauragao.com Introduce yourself! Hi, my name is Laura. I am currently 24. I grew up in Dallas, TX, but I was born in Wuhan, China. I’ve kind of moved all over the country and the world at this point, but I’m currently in Taiwan, Taipei. My current day job is as a comic artist. I’ve been working on my own graphic memoir for the last year, and I have another book coming out after that. And yeah, that’s how I spend most of my time! Otherwise, I love biking. And I love dogs, brownies, and bread. Tell me about your first graphic novel! This time last year was when kind of like the peak of the [pandemic] was hitting. It really hit close to home because, as I said, my hometown is Wuhan, where everything started. All of my family besides my immediate family are currently still in Wuhan, and I’m very close to my grandparents and cousins over there. It was very jarring to see the suffering they were going through and feel so helpless about being on the other side of the world but also have so many people here hating you for what they think happened and blaming you for what happened. So this book is based off of my emotional reaction to a lot of the trauma going on at that time. This first book is called “Messier Roots,” and it’s a memoir about my life immigrating from Wuhan and growing up in a small, conservative, very white town in Texas. I was one of the few people of

color and was working on my identity not only as a Chinese American but as a queer Chinese American too. This was spun out of a viral comic I made back in April 2020 called “The Wuhan I Know.” It was all the feelings I was having at the time around the xenophobia, racism, and a lot of the hurt and worry I had for my family. I wanted to not only give a tribute to my hometown and like how brave I thought everyone was over there, but also shed light on how terrible the situation is and why it’s unfair to blame this group of people for what’s happening. After the comic went viral, I was very lucky to have a couple of publishers reach out and want to turn it into a book. “The Wuhan I Know” was how I discovered you on Twitter, and I remember that despite an overwhelming positive response, you were still getting attacked by a handful of bigots on Twitter. I imagine this is something happening more frequently to Asian artists because of the pandemic. What’s your suggested method for handling it? Well, for one thing, I think I was pretty ready to handle it given that at the time, my job was working for Twitter on their anti-abuse platform. So my role itself meant I had to look at the worst of the worst of the internet to figure out how to work against it. So I think for myself,

I’m pretty used to knowing what kind of cesspool Twitter can be sometimes. When I first posted the comic, I expected a way worse reaction, just given what was going on at the time. Any kind of tweet that mentioned Asia or China— you can guarantee at least half the comments were very racist in some form or fashion. So I was pretty ready for a lot of the racist comments to come, but I was also very glad that for every racist comment, there were at least fifty positive comments on that thread. And so I kind of just used selective filtering. Another thing was reminding myself about why I made this comic. It’s very easy to get caught up with “oh, so-andso said this, and that really hurt.” But I remember reading this one comment from this Chinese mother who said, “Thank you so much for making this, because I finally have a digestible, easy way to explain to my two 5-10-year-old daughters about what’s going on and why they should still be proud of their heritage. Even if kids at school are bullying them for it.” And I remember screenshotting that and keeping that saved for every time I felt bad about something or every time someone made me mad with a comment. I’d just be like, “Hey, this is why you made this. This is who you’re trying to help, and this is the positive effect you actually have.” I absolutely love getting comments like that because it’s great having thousands of likes, but at the end of the day, it’s just a number. You never really understand the human connection behind it, so seeing something tangible like that makes my whole week. As for my advice for other creators: remember that posting something publicly that is incredibly personal and emotional is already so brave in itself.

21 | Overachiever Magazine

And always have a good group of support around you, like friends that will boost you, no matter what other people say on the platform. And use blocking very liberally! One of my favorite comics you’ve done is about your parents’ reaction to your coming out and how their anxieties spilled over to your brother. A lot of your comics, including this one, take on heavy topics with humor. Tell me about your rationale behind that approach. For this one—yeah, I had just come out to my parents, and it was an extremely poor reaction. I was very prepared for it. I have known for my whole life that my Scan here to read the comic

parents would not be accepting of me being queer. Afterward, I wasn’t feeling too down because I had prepared for the worst. But I also had a lot of emotions around how they were reacting and the ridiculous things they were saying, especially to my brother, who, God bless, stayed home to field all the ridiculous questions, so I didn’t have to. It’s a great way for me to share my emotions with others to also uplift them if they were feeling the same way. There are times in which I do want to just be sad and have others feel sad when they read it. I think that’s fewer of the comics I make, but there are a couple that I do want people to cry when they see it. But then I typically try to add a bit of both. Like “okay, you can cry, but also laugh at how ridiculous the situation is.” Like, “Hey, like, you know, here’s the funny

stuff they say to your brother, and you know it’s just so obvious how ridiculous they’re being about the whole situation. And it’s not you, it’s them.” I hope other people who are also coming out to very conservative immigrant parents can just look at it and relate and laugh—and then hopefully, it just makes their day a little better. There’s a really big gap between our perceptions of being LGBT+ and our parents’ perceptions—especially in terms of what it means to be LGBT+ or why we are. What’s your personal approach to that gap? Do you feel a need to attempt to bridge it or would you rather leave it be? I’ve always had a very messy relationship with my parents, not just on this topic, but most topics when it comes like politics and the way we think. That generational gap is so real for my family. Anytime we do talk about politics or something really sensitive, it ends up turning into a huge fight. I think generally, my family is the worst at communicating. No one talks about their emotions or how it makes them feel. As a result, I’ve learned to just be a bit more avoidant and prioritize my own mental health over trying to “brute force” their understanding.

personal experience with my own family (and this is probably different from other families), I’ve learned that sometimes it is better to take a step back, distance yourself, and prioritize your mental health. Do you have any specific sources of inspiration when making comics? I picked up comics as a way of really focusing on storytelling. Comics are like storyboarding in a way. I get my ideas through a kind of internal narration or monologue of like, “Something funny might happen here.” And then I’ll be like, “Oh my gosh, this sequence is a really funny scene. I should turn into a comic so that other people can laugh about it too!”

“I want to be able to share this thing I just realized about myself and my identity—and not only as a way of me figuring out myself, but helping others do so too. ”

I would say that’s probably not super healthy for the long run. I do think that ultimately, we will have to have these hard conversations to try to understand each other. But just out of my own

23 | Overachiever Magazine

Or maybe something kind of profound clicked in my mind like, “Oh wait, I just made all these connections between my childhood and why I’m this way with my parents.” And immediately, I want to be able to share this thing I just realized about myself and my identity—and not only as a way of me figuring out myself, but helping others do so too. This past year, you made a huge switch from a tech job to being a full time comic artist. What pushed you to make the jump? Yeah, I guess that’s such a drastic move from an outside perspective, right? Friends and coworkers will often say it’s a big jump, and it’s funny because I feel like I’ve been jumping almost my whole

life. In college, I jumped majors almost every semester. I have so many different interests, and I hope one day when I’m 80 I can look back and, you know, some people like to look back and say, “I did this one thing and excelled at it for 50 years,” but for me, I want to look back and be like, “I did 50 things, and maybe I didn’t like fully excel at each, but I got to try all of them and have so much fun with them.” That’s how I really want to live my life. It’s not an easy thing to say, “let me give up my incredibly cushy, paying job with health insurance to be self-employed, with unstable income.” And I also have a lot of imposter syndrome because I never went to art school or did all these things that other people have to do to even get a book deal. But I always tell myself, you should always take the jump because you’re always going to regret not doing it. I think for me, that took a lot of fear out of it. I was like, “Hey, you’re just here for the ride, and you’re seeing where it goes.” What’s coming up for you? You mentioned another graphic novel coming soon. I’m planning on finishing it within the next month, so I’m really excited, but my next one will start afterward. I haven’t gotten the full premise of it, but I kind of sold it as a happy queer female love story just because there are barely any out there! I thought, “Well, if people aren’t gonna give it to us, I’ll just make one.” I haven’t decided if it’ll be about my life yet, or if it will be a bit more like a fictionalized version. But that’s all I can reveal for now. OM.

Each issue we feature pieces of prose and poetry from Asian women and non-binary writers around the world. Here are this issue’s pieces!

“Today” by Reeti Roy // IG: reetiroy Today took thewind out of my sails, under a jagged sky. What followed was a shifting gaze a hapless haze atop a half-moon tree. The skywas painted midnight blue a surrogate for rainbow hues scars against the hard-won fights. today took thethe owl from its delight of watching other feathers fly. you came inbursting at the seams. And dreaming many half-dreamt dreams an antidote for fireflies.

25 | Overachiever Magazine

Poetry by m.m Broken Clocks. I’m stuck in a moment. I’ve lost track of time. I can’t move forward and I can’t rewind.

Chaser They wonder what it’s like to taste a sip of Gin as it drips from those cherry lips.

Icy She looked like an Angel with a voice soft as snow, but she could freeze hell over with a whisper that Could make the Devil Cold.

Baby’s Breath An empty garden. A seed that would not bloom. A spring this heavy always stays with you.

Butterflies Meeting you made me want to change my colors for the better. With a hint of love we blossomed into something rare and special.

Sunday Brunch There’s something so divine about that sunday type of love. where you cuddle in bed with champagne on our tongues. Making avocado toast while we hum along to records of our favorite songs. Holding each other close as we make sweet love. taking in these moments where we become one. As the day moves forward we’ll hold on until next sunday comes along.

“bien affectueusement” by Khushi Ramnani underneath the cool linen we watch as the light escapes from our silhouettes on the wall. let the swirls of the rose-tinted clouds dissipate in to the blue. paint me with your lips. let your words contour my shadow. soften my edges with your broken breath. kiss my palms warm, as our thoughts swim untethered. spill your secrets into my hair, while you trace the patterns of the rays. name the streetlights after me, when you remember my scent. lock your lips with our hushed wishes and our duvet talks, spin what we had to silk, and dress me with that gold. i would tell you how beautiful the sunset was but the window was too dirty and the sky’s blushes all blended behind this summer’s white cast. my plants no longer listen to me though i raise them with love and my violet playlist on shuffle, their leaves flicker yellow too often as they twist and turn around their pots as though i sheltered them naught. should i be free them? but what of the heatwaves and the beetles and the cars that would strain their hearts? perhaps they don’t know how grateful they should be, under the set a.c as they sip on filtered water. or maybe they’d find solace amongst the ruthless jungle that festers within our city, fighting for shade and basking under bridges that lead across rather than beyond. for now i’ve named them like i’d name our children who’d grow to be just as relentless and chaotic. from clementine and jerry lee, names that would scare my brown family. i suppose each plant documents a different time in my life where i felt lonely without you, and now they’ve grown to be such beautiful earthlings with their six leaves and more. i can’t seem to let go of the thought that someday these plants will be a home i once forgot.

27 | Overachiever Magazine

“Being Nervous” by @hsouen on IG [2/3/2021] Eyes perk open at 7:27AM on a Tuesday morning. Blast! Blast! Blast! Blast! Blast! Dogs simultaneously woof! Woof! Woof! The air is filled with thicker than usual fog. Or is that smoke? What is happening? Those were not gunshots, were they? Those were not loud and long enough to be gunshots. How can I be sure when nobody knows? Do I sense something unusual? Has someone just committed a crime? The water in the kettle on the stove has not boiled. The lights and circuits inside flickered suspiciously, According to my family just moments ago. No internet connection to check what has happened. Residents asleep at an otherwise quiet time. The electricity office did not know till informed. The murders have begun their daily cawing. When there is nothing that civilians can do But carry on with their routine while in impatient wait. Oh wait, I hear loud sounds again at 8:19AM. No, that was someone washing their sarong. Electric power is restored at 8:22AM.

“Adrift” - Spoken Word Track by Christy Ku (Prod. Nush) Transcript: My first breath was the sea I’ve been drifting ever since. I live in borrowed rooms and rented time, no walls will ever remember me but my body carries the memory of every place as I sleep. These houses borrow me too names, hands and bodies they’ve been through, fingerprints and atoms from every move. Do rented homes make their souls from everyone they knew? I leave homes better than before dance in their dark on the kitchen floor. I clean and care and adorn and restore order in every corner. They’ll hold me for a tenancy, but it’s always temporary, we’ll move on to another somebody. I disown the past like dead weight to make space and keep sailing but I can’t explain why these boxes feel heavier leaving each front door. So much of me left in houses I no longer know, how much of me is left is an unknown. It doesn’t get easy, I’m still grieving. How many goodbyes until I find my home? I can’t forget my childhood bedroom where the ghosts and the past are buried where I hid the real me beneath the mattress and drawers where I locked the doors knowing what I locked in with me where I believed the world must be bigger than this, better than this. One day I ran, I didn’t look back and I’m still that kid with a backpack trying to disappear by the train tracks

29 | Overachiever Magazine

taking the batteries out of my phone. And that house is long gone, only dialtones, everyone’s gone on to their time zones. But at night I think I’m in that room. I used to dream of getting out now in dreams I’m in that house. With each move I don’t know what I’ll hear. Locals think only they have rights to live here. And you know what? They probably do. I move into neighbourhoods they put years into their feet are more rooted with lived truths of systematic misuse and generational issues and I just want a roof before I move. Instead I’m under scrutiny racism and misogyny coming to bother me like I’m an unwanted anomaly, a novelty. Local warfares never cease or desist there’s distrust and unease no neighbours want me. You know they used to follow us? Throw slurs or rocks is this how you’re supposed to grow up?

Scan here to listen to Christy Ku perform this piece, alongside music by Nushiee Productions and animation by Carolyn Cheng.

Your kids are still staring at me. When will I stop having to move? We’re unrooted unanchored untethered trying to get it together it’s breathless up here. We are indefinitely Generation Rent we’re left bereft in debt except for those inheriting wealth instead of traumas. I’ve been asking why I don’t have survivor’s guilt. But it’s because I’m still adrift.

“Disoriented” by Bona Park Who interrupted the quiet buzz in the streets Of downtown Laredo? Who drove a hole into the window of my father’s store with rocks and contempt? I left Michigan in a frenzy to return to the haven of this Texas border town, and found that the music of discord greeted me here. An air of paranoia entered the country with the arrival of the pandemic. Mislabeled as a Chinese virus, blame shifted toward East Asians, regardless of our country of origin. People now come charging after us with their words and their fists. They don’t know us,

our histories or our struggles, but they glare at our slanted eyes, and brand us as Other. Long ago, my eyes met those of a young Mexican kid, through a wired fence that divided both our homes. She greeted me strangely. She called me Chinita. But she was wrong. She couldn’t see how the rivers of Tejano, Korean, and American cultures merged within me. I didn’t feel very different from her, but she called me by another name, and I felt myself receding. One afternoon, my grandmother came into the house soaked.

31 | Overachiever Magazine

She was gardening, when two teenage girls shot her with toy water guns. Unable to speak a word of English, she sprayed them back with the garden hose and they bolted towards the pavement, laughing. After hearing this, I was so angry, my tears tasted metallic. I remember following her to church early one morning. Church was the one space where I did not feel out of place, where my silence was not an act of fear, but of solemnity. With our heads bowed down, the parishioners, my grandmother, and I recited the same prayer in different languages: 저희 죄인을 위하여 빌어주소서.

Ruega por nosotros, pecadores. Pray for us sinners. Although the world starts to skewer us, fracture our bones, target our businesses, the sun can never set on our Asian heritage. Despite the hailstorm of bigotry, we will land on the soft ground of hope. We will regain our dignity, and not rest until we are rightfully seen. Moving forward with my faith as my armor, I ask for that salve, compassion, which does not discriminate. I ask that He allot each of us our portion.

“Broken Parts” by Joan Marshall-Missiye We found each other and we forgot to heal our broken parts. We forged a journey and drank happiness too soon too fast. We ran through corn fields laughing, drenched under the heavy rain, and drunk from millet beer. We sped down red dirt roads on your motorbike, my head resting on a cozy dent at the base of your neck, our skins collecting the Harmattan dust. We looked up at the sky in the darkest part of night, stars beyond stars, as if forever could never catch up. We stood together on a hill, in the middle of nothing and everything, looking across a hazy landscape bathed in rosy dust blown in from the Sahara, to the horizon we will never reach. We could have soared to the setting sun. And then you found yourself in a car with me on the other side of the world. My fiery anger melting the frozen road. The unhealed parts of me showing themselves. You took me in your arms, held me close to quiet the rage, your heart beating against mine. But there is a little boy crouching inside you, Hugging himself in his loneliness, Wishing for someone to wipe the tears falling on the empty floor. And he holds on to you in a dark spiral. And I am again your enemy, the one you cannot trust. You hear voices that I cannot. You believe in truths that I cannot. I would move mountains to set you free, From this spiral that is drowning you. I throw myself in just to be with you, but I hit a wall again and again. I reach out and feel nothing. Once in my loneliness I asked myself if I could still love you. And I saw you walking up a hill on a path of wildflowers under a never-ending blue sky that shimmered in the sun. Your shoulders hunched over the stroller where our daughter lay sleepy in the languid summer breeze. I put a hand on my chest to soothe the clanging ache inside me. I love you still and maybe that is all I can do.

33 | Overachiever Magazine

“Lock In Moisture” by Tess Harold Not since I was a teenager have I had so much time to moisturise. Hours spent exfoliating as if I could scrub my way to a new me. A glowing me. Trying fake tans, each promising that airbrushed model bronze, to hide my bumpy chicken skin, my blue veins drawing maps on my legs. Sex feels like something that happens to other people again. Nights wasted messaging guys who frankly set a low bar for both effort and conversation. Waiting for life to start. Breathe it in. This second adolescence. At least this time you have booze. And the internet. Workout videos at home trying to get abs. Always with the abs. Looking at coupled-up people, wondering what they know. I feel 15 again but this time with grey hairs. I live in my head again, biding my time. Making plans and going for walks -- but never touching. I’ve never spent so much time moisturising.

35 | Overachiever Magazine

Jade is a social entrepreneur and current CEO at X8 media, an influencer marketing agency that works with tech platforms and civic movements. She also founded an incubator program CRE8, an organization that recruits and mentors early staged creators to generate jobs and stimulate entrepreneurship. With over 500k+ fans and followers, her personal brand focuses on social media growth and motivation. Her content exceeds 15 Million views via YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. She started the millennial entrepreneurship podcast The Raisn Brand in December 2017. Then received the “Creator on The Rise” feature on YouTube Trending Worldwide. Her beliefs include, human centered influence and wealth distribution in the creator economy (the 20% solution). Instagram: jadedarmawangsa Website: www.jadedarmawangsa.com Jade Darmawangsa is the co-founder and current CEO of X8 Media, a social media marketing agency that works with influencers and brands to further their platforms. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Jade started her youtube channel at 9 years old and began selling dolls online shortly after. Growing up inspired by creators like Bethany Mota, Jade wanted to create content herself. Due to eczema, Jade could not walk for a lot of her fifth-grade year, which made making friends difficult. “The camera was my friend,” said Jade, while describing finding joy “talking to the camera.” Fast forward to when Jade was 16, she began to realize that brands needed help marketing their content/services and became a consultant for social media strategy. Jade had no intention of turning content creation into a career, but “due to an accident,” or fate, she is now a 19-year-old CEO working with brands like Netflix and Shopify . X8 Media works mostly with tech companies to work on their tik tok and social media marketing strategies. Growing up in the world of social media,

Jade “realized how it (social media) enables anyone to do anything,” and “you can do whatever the f*ck you want.” Citing her move into surf content on tiktok, in comparison to her marketing content that is normally produced on her youtube channel. “Surfing is a form of meditation,” and “it has no rules,” unlike a lot of more traditional sports. Jade also finds a lot of parallels to her life in surfing, such as “sometimes you go out there and you catch no waves, and in life sometimes you go out there and make a youtube video that gets no views.” Jade, like all people, still struggles with confidence, especially when going into important meetings with big companies. She suggests imagining a friend when it comes to releasing a video or getting ready for any type of big event in life and is looking for advice. Her words of wisdom: “dude chill, you’re amazing.” But now, “replace that person with yourself,” Jade’s therapist told her. Her main advice on confidence is to find “the things that you think are somewhere else within you.” Jade most recently launched a social media course that took 9 months to

create and finish, “it is literally my child.” Growing up Jade found school really boring, claiming to have the attention span of a tik tok, an issue I think all GenZers relate to, she wanted to make her course fun. The courses showcase how to grow and make money on tiktok and instagram and they are only $7.50 per month, making them the cheapest marketing courses available. So, “If you are someone that has Asian parents and they’re like you can’t make money (on social media platforms) well my courses kind of showcase how you can use social media to start a business and a product to make money.” Unmotivated by the monetary aspects of this project, Jade really just hopes to help others follow their dreams. Jade also has a subsection of X8 Media, called CRE8, where they invest into starting influencers to give them a better chance at making money in the long run. This allows creators to buy things like cameras, so their content can be higher quality. One of the ventures she wants to work on next is a surf camp that will be a non-profit for those who can’t afford traditional forms of therapy. “This was an idea I had this morning,” Jade is always thinking about what is next for herself. When I asked Jade what she thought the biggest struggle Asian and Asian American people face, she said careers in the arts and humanities. “You can literally do more than just STEM. [. . .] I was a musician, and my parents always told me ‘this is cool but this is only to get into college.’” However, Jade has plans to get back into music because she wants to “create freely.” With parental support and hesitation,

37 | Overachiever Magazine

Jade dropped out of high school at 16. Jade described looking for validation on her success and choice to drop out when the only validation she needed was her own. But if she could go back in time, she would tell herself “that what is meant for you will stay, and that everything you are looking for is within yourself.” That “everything is going to be okay.” “[To] give less f*cks,” and “give her[self] a hug.” “Teenage female entrepreneurs/creators are very competitive,” Jade says. She also pointed out that it is not the most welcoming community, but that she is guilty of some of those competitive traits too. She thinks it is more subconscious than purposeful, for most people. But that it is hard to not be competitive when the reality is that most creator communities are all white. “I have a lot of Asian friends [. . .] but in terms of the media space it’s definitely hard to have Asian friends.” We talked about how growing up Asian American you have your main, typically white, friend group and then you have your Asian friends. And while there is no reason to label Asian friends as Asian, we all do. “As an Asian person, hanging out with white friends helps you feel more fit in with society [. . .] it is almost cool not to like Asian people.” We also talked about how, “you are more accepted,” the less stereotypical Asian traits you identify with. “The female Asian community is very competitive, I don’t think it is very supportive at all.” And while Jade, nor I know the solution to that I think we can all make an effort to support each other more. Lifting each other up rather than leaving each other in the dust. OM.

THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION OF ROE V. WADE BY SHREYA RAJAPPA @SHREYARAJAPPA A high school student living in sunny California, Shreya Rajappa enjoys writing creative non-fiction and impassioned Op-Ed articles. She credits her intersectional identity as a bisexual, feminist young woman with Indian and Sri Lankan parents for her desire to become involved in journalism to represent others who share aspects of her identity and to bring awareness to social issues involving marginalized communities. In her free time, she watches movies, takes pictures, tie-dyes clothes, and plays basketball.

22, 1973, ON January Norma McCor-

vey’s lawyer stood on the U.S. Supreme Court floor to fight for her bodily autonomy, her right to an abortion. Norma McCorvey, then known as Jane Roe, won that case, prohibiting states from restricting abortion before the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. A landmark decision making Roe v. Wade a case frequently cited on the news and known to many Americans, the legalization of abortion improved women’s health, preventing women from needing to seek out illegal, unsafe backstreet abortions or dangerously using hangars and other objects to abort their fetuses themselves at home, and furthering the modern women’s rights movement. Women in America now had decision-making power over their own bodies and lives, a power they should have had from the beginning. The good news is that America isn’t the only country finally giving women the right to choose. While occurring years and decades later, there

39 | Overachiever Magazine

ment recognized by its green handkerchiefs, symbolizing solidarity with the movement. Just as these green handkerchiefs have popped up on the After 12 hours of nail-biting bodies of people in other Latand knee-bouncing on De- in American countries like cember 30, 2020, abortion was Mexico, here’s hoping that legalized in Argentina. The Argentina’s new abortion law bill passed with a Senate vote will spread to further the proof 38 for and 28 against. The tection and rights of women bill’s passage demonstrates the in South America. unrelenting commitment of Argentina’s pro-choice sena- Inspired by Argentine legaliztors to their values since, prior ing abortion after a 15-yearto their vote, they were forced long battle, Polish activists to witness their opponents continue to build up a masdecked out in baby blue with sive protest movement in a massive fetus doll doused in post-communist Poland to refake blood in front of Con- peal Poland’s almost-complete gress. With strong support ban on abortion. Even though from the conservative nation’s Poland ruled in October 2020 progressive president, Alber- that even abortions of fetusto Fernández, the bill permits es with congenital defects or abortion for any reason up to those that are predicted to 14 weeks of pregnancy and in die upon birth or shortly afthe cases of rape or health is- ter were illegal, Poland’s prosues afterward. Even though choice activists are demanding the senators stepped up to the legalization of abortion the plate to deliver the posi- for any reason up until the tive change Latin American 12th week of pregnancy and women needed, the real credit the financial contribution of goes to Argentina’s feminist the national health system to and abortion-rights move- fund the medical procedures. have been abortion rights movements in other continents— and they’re gaining speed.

On February 3, 2021, the activists proposed their plan to legalize abortion at a press conference right outside of Parliament, but it needs to gain 100,000 signatures from Polish citizens to reach the assembly floor. This protest is Poland’s fifth try at legalizing abortion since a 1993 law restricting abortions only allowed in cases of rape, incest, medical danger, or fetal defects. Now, even if the fetal defect is fatal, abortion is prohibited because of the October court’s decision. While the Polish activists have acknowledged that real change is impossible with the country’s current conservative stronghold on the assembly, they hope to reignite the fight for abortion rights in Poland so that later on, when they have more of a chance, they will have the foundation they need to finally peel back these discriminatory laws. 61,000 people had signed the petition to legalize abortion in Namibia, Africa by November 27, 2020. The current abortion law at that time prohibited abortions for women unless there had been rape, incest, or other danger threatening the woman, girl, or unborn child. However, Namibia’s feminist movement knew that women deserve better and fought for their bodily autonomy and agency. They knew that pregnancy itself was a danger to women with 810 women dying per day in 2017 because of avoidable reasons associated with pregnancy and childbirth, so they advocated for women’s right to decide for themselves if they wanted to go through with those risks. On July 18, 2020, their petition turned into protests with hundreds of Namibian pro-choice supporters demanding the abortion law be reformed to give anyone 10 years and older access to abortion for any reason, comprehensive reproductive healthcare improvements for Namibian women,

and improved sexual health education as wells as virtual protests under the hashtag #LegalizeAbortionNA. If Namibia wins their fight for more progressive abortion rights, they will join other African countries like Mozambique and Ethiopia with laws that allow girls under and over 18 to receive abortions for pregnancies up until 16 weeks. South Africa, an example for the rest, gives women of any age access to abortions for no reason up until the fetus is 13 weeks old. In Thailand, the Parliament legalized abortions at the end of January 2021 of pregnancies resulting from sexual assault or in harm to the mother’s or fetus’s health in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy with a Senate vote of 166 to 7 to repeal and replace the previous law that had penalized those acquiring abortions with up to three years in prison and those providing abortions with up to five years in prison. However, pro-choice activists and supporters in Thailand say that this isn’t enough. Instead, they are concerned about the penalties still in place for those in Thailand who get abortions after 12 weeks: fines and jail time of up to six months in prison. The main reason for these activists’ discontent with the new law is that there were no women with experience with abortions or abortion-rights activists included in the deliberation process. Thus, the law was made without consideration of all of the other reasons why a woman might need an abortion and of the time it takes for a woman to learn of her pregnancy and then to learn of any health issues that may stem from the pregnancy. Some prochoice supporters in Thailand are worried that backstreet abortions will continue even with this law, posing great danger to those who want abortions after 12 weeks or for other

reasons not allowed by the new law. These activists have also taken to the streets, protesting in major cities like Bangkok. In September 2019, abortion was legalized in almost all of Australia after New South Wales, the continent’s state with the highest population density, repealed a 119-year-old ban on abortion and made legal abortion accessible for up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. The 119-year-old ban had penalized abortion with up until 10 years in prison if the woman hadn’t received confirmation from her doctor that her health was in jeopardy as a result of the pregnancy. After the repeal of this law and replacement with a much better one, women in Australia can now terminate their pregnancy up until 22 weeks without a physical or mental health reason. This improvement in legislation is a result from the abortion-rights protests in June 2019, like one in Sydney, demonstrating how the abortion-rights movement in Australia is steadily become a movement with 0 losses. Now, all that’s left before abortion is legal in all of Australia is for South Australia to follow suit. Even with such big wins for countries in each continent concerning abortion rights, there are still countries in the world, like Malta with the most restrictive ban on abortion in the EU and little hope for a reversal of this ban, with women who aren’t as lucky to be given governance over their own body, unobstructed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s time that abortion-rights grow into movements spanning each continent from top to bottom, left to right. It’s time that women everywhere finally feel in charge of their own existence on Earth. OM.

y m

written b , d e b y

Div

ya Chh

i n ota

Author’s note: spring is almost in full swing! the weather is getting bigger, the sun is shining brighter, serotonin levels are high, and it’s time for amazing festivities ahead. spring is also something that can signify the start of new beginnings, where things bloom without interruption, where you can let your imagination roam free. it’s when walking around in the breezy cold turns to stop every five minutes to admire your surroundings and the new flowers that bloom alongside the sidewalk. it’s also remembering that although times are tough, flowers still grow in the cracks and crevices of the sidewalk and are just as strong without support, it’s all strength from within. times have definitely been uncertain, it’s been a year since we had to wear masks, a year of just staying inside and dwelling on the past or having FOMO (fear of missing out). the one thing that’s been constant is that we’re doing this together. even if sometimes you feel alone, I assure you you aren’t at all. though times may be difficult, having some hope and faith can go a long way. this is a time to cultivate new relationships and friendships, time to take that step and do things you never imagined you could do. I believe in you so so much, regardless of how you feel about where you are, and if you feel at an all-time high or low, I love you and I care for you. you have so much to live for. thank you for pushing through this past year, you did that... nobody else did but you. congratulations on surviving one of the roughest times probably in our life.

you matter and you are loved.

Scan here to listen to the my bed playlist

41 | Overachiever Magazine

my bed my bed is something that remains constant, sitting in my room waiting for me to fall into it my bed holds me and keeps me safe in a home where I’m blinded by the noise my bed embraces me like an old friend who I haven’t seen in a while but we strike up a conversation we talk about my dreams and ambitions and how I fell from a tree in the second grade my tears staining pillowcase after pillowcase whenever I feel like the world is too much I know my bed will always be there for me it’s like mother nature, the one that I come from, It swallows me in and keeps me warm in the middle of the night my bedrocks me to sleep like a baby who’s an insomniac, driving her parent’s crazy but my bed also has legs that uplift me and hold me up when my body feels weak and feeble it holds me like a coffin when I feel dead inside, holding my soulless body, my skeleton my bed is something that I can fall into when I’m feeling bored and want to rest my eyes and escape into my dream world it’s something that has a hold over me it’s like my grave where I just lay still except I’m breathing struggling to find answers between the sheets in between sips of wine drowning out my thoughts, intoxicated and free my bed is so fuzzy and is like my jungle of softness where I can discover myself every night I can stay afloat on my bed because my bed won’t swallow me whole and spit me into an environment I’m not prepared for on nights like these, where I cry and cry and think about where I went wrong with my AirPods in, I can escape into my world and drown it out with the sounds of others going through the same things I have, letting me know I’m not alone, telling me I’m here to stay I’m here to breathe and run around late at night to feel the wind on my face in the cold months of December and to fall in love a little more and more every day with the thoughts of you and i I’m here to go to gas stations and cross country and roam the four corners and go far and wide I’m here to stay, in my bed Thinking about where I went wrong in my past yet not realizing I’m right where I’m supposed to be turning my head to see not just a notification on my phone but a beautiful angel next to me lost in duvets and falling into hotel beds pillow talk and escapades I’m here on this earth to go far and wide with you by my side but for right now, my bed is collecting my thoughts in my pillow of dreams where I can dream big without anybody shooting my dreams down in my sea of dreams, I can swim and explore where I want to go and how I’m going to get there I’m on the right track and for now, my bed knows my pain and sorrow until I turn my head tomorrow and look at the sky and smile look at the flowers blossoming and say hi to what I have in store in the future or even tomorrow my pillowcase stained with past tears one day and flipping the pillow to get the colder side the next day turning my head to seeing you my happy place, my home

G e l a a z e m e F

ture some of our re ssue we fea aders Ea c h i to hig hlight th

e diversity and stories

Christy Ku Christy Ku is a Hong Kong born, UK based poet, performer, facilitator and actor. She is an alumna of the Barbican Young Poets, the Making Lemonade young creative leadership programme, National Youth Theatre and New Earth Academy. She is also a BBC Words First 2019 finalist and has headlined events across the country. Christy worked on various poetry commissions involving short films, spoken word tracks and theatre shows with organisations such as the BBC, Sour Lemons, Apples & Snakes and the Barbican. She is the founder of BESEA Poets, an online platform for British based East and SouthEast Asian poets. In addition to poetry, she is also a short story writer, podcast creator, and photographer. Christy is currently working towards her debut poetry collection and various other projects.

43 | Overachiever Magazine

a men o w n of Asia

r na i b no n

div n i y

wo d the n u o s ar l a u

rld. Here are these

issu e’s Ov er ac hi ev er s!

Harini Hi! I am Harini. (IG: deskidharti) I study Community and Population Health Sciences in Canada. In my program, I learned to examine systems of oppression, develop interventions that remove barriers for different marginalized groups of people to reduce health inequities. I feel strongly that any work that I am involved in must have an anti-oppressive lens, and an intersectional approach. I wanted to share the things I learn and study, because they affect every single one of us. I also craved a creative outlet for myself, so I began writing about systemic oppression and health inequities on my Instagram at the beginning of the year. I also create digital art depicting South Asian women.

45 | Overachiever Magazine

“Puntan & Fu’una (a CHamoru creation story)” by Danielle Manibusan IG: @artblokk.exe Medium: Digital via Procreate

47 | Overachiever Magazine

Golden Hour, a digital photo and collage created by Jules Chung to announce the launch of Unattended Bags, a creative collective. Unattended Bags, whose members are visual artist Min Sohn and writer Jules Chung, are a creative collaboration spanning more than 30 years. Their name takes a sexist trope for older women and reclaims it as a playful symbol of freedom, danger, and combustible creativity. While each member pursues individual projects, the collective mines work, family, domestic arts, and immigrant female identity as material to be examined and transmuted into joyful creativity. Unattended Bags are the recipients of the Icebox Residency with The Cabins. Explore their work: unattendedbags.com Find them on Instagram: @unattendedbags @minpullan @glorifyandenjoy And on Twitter: @MinPullan & @andthewordwas

Secretary Chao’s Self-Inflicted Sinophobia BY REHANA PAUL @STYLISHPENNE

Rehana Paul is an Indian-American journalist and food blogger. She founded Overachiever Magazine in 2018 to give a voice to Asian women from all over Asia, living all around the world.

laine Chao has come under public scrutiny recently, first making national headlines for resigning as Secretary of Transportation under the Trump Administration in the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol. Born in Taiwan, she immigrated to the United States at the age of 8. The Chaos appear to be the classic Asian-American success story - Chao’s father founded the Foremost Group, which would grow into a major shipping company (and a center of controversy in her political life). Chao grew up on Long Island and attended Mount Holyoke University and then Harvard Business School, before working in a number of financial institutions, eventually rising through the ranks of the Department of Transportation under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. After making history as the first Asian-American woman and the first Taiwanese-American to be appointed to a cabinet position, Chao married the notorious U.S. Senator, right-wing extremist

49 | Overachiever Magazine

and oligarch Mitch McCon- any other politician - is a pubnell. She served as Secretary of lic servant, even in the makeLabor under President George shift oligarchy masquerading W. Bush and then Secretary of as a democracy that many are Transportation under Presi- proud to call the United States dent Donald Trump. A fan- of America. What is partictastical, trailblazing life, filled ularly unforgivable was the with historic firsts, going statement her office released: where no Asian-American “In defense of her actions, woman had gone before. Chao’s office sent a memo That is, until she threw her dated Sept. 24, 2020, citing community, culture, and her- “filial piety.” The memo states, itage under the bus to justify “Anyone familiar with Asian her alleged corrupt and illicit culture knows it is a core valbusiness dealings. While serv- ue in Asian communities to ing as Secretary of Transpor- express honor and filial retation, the Inspector General spect toward one’s parents, of the department found sev- and this ingrained value of eral instances of Chao abusing love, respect, and filial piety her office, using her power to always takes precedence over promote and advance her fam- self-promotion and self-agily’s shipping business. The grandizement.”” Inspector General released their report, which cited Chao It went on to say, “As the elfor four types of ethics viola- dest daughter, she is expected tions. She had committed such to assume a leadership role in offense as holding on to stock family occasions that honor she had pledged to sell, and her father and her late mothdirecting the media attention er.” that came with her office to If Chao’s actions violated poher family’s business. litical and corporate ethics, I Despicable, under any circum- don’t think that saying that stances. Elaine Chao - just like she has violated every moral

boundary is a dramatization. In one apathetic statement, Elaine Chao has undermined the credibility of every Asian-American woman. She has confirmed every stereotype, crudely painted over all the women before her who have fought for our community. To excuse her blatant corruption with filial piety - a Confucian principle that has parallels in most Asian cultures - not only degrades the concept of filial piety, but conveniently excuses her actions. She’s not just another overpaid, corrupt D.C. bureaucrat with the morals of a squirrel and the greed of a magpie, she’s part of the other. Filial piety is, in essence, a creed to respect your parents. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that she’d do anything to get herself out of her trouble - the circumstances under which she is under scrutiny have proven that doing the right thing isn’t high on her list of priorities, if at all. But this weaponization of her culture is particularly atrocious. Elaine Chao has gone through life as an albeit privileged Asian woman - but she knows, firsthand, what it is like to be an immigranvt in this country. To look different, to have parents who speak and live differently from those of your peers. Many of us know that the only allies we have are other Asian women - and without knowing anything about her social or professional circle, I know that Elaine Chao reached the heights she did on the backs of other Asian women. Those who mentored her, nurtured her, supported her, recommended her, defended her. Not only has Chao pulled the ladder up behind her, she has stomped on the hands holding up the ladder, and then burned the ladder for good measure. Her words are particularly galling considering the massive wave of anti-Asian sentiment that has gripped the country since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen a frightening surge in the past two months. At a time of intense public mistrust towards Asians manifesting itself in oft-fatal hate crimes, characterizing them as untrustworthy and deceitful is akin to incitement of violence. “Since the start of the pandemic last spring, Asian Americans have faced racist violence at a much higher rate than previous years. The NYPD reported that hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian sentiment jumped 1,900% in New York City in 2020. Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting database created at the beginning of the pandemic as a response to the increase in racial violence, received 2,808 reports

of anti-Asian discrimination between March 19 and December 31, 2020.” https://time.com/5938482/asian-american-attacks/ We strongly condemn this sinophobic, xenophobic, atrocious statement from Secretary Chao. OM.

“Not only has Chao pulled the ladder up behind her, she has stomped on the hands holding up the ladder, and then burned the ladder for good measure.”

51 | Overachiever Magazine

Interview with Patruni Chidananda Sastry BY CHARLOTTE DRUMMOND

Patruni Chidananda Sastry is a Classical Dancer, Intrapreneur, and Customer Service Expert. Patruni started dancing at the age of 7. Patruni Sastry’s unique style called “Expressionism” is a new way to tell stories of awareness to society. Patruni has also been performing Tranimal Drag under the drag name of Suffocated Art Specimen (S.A.S). His style for drag brings unique footprints of the anti-art queen. Tranimal Drag Art has been given a new Indianian approach with his style. With S.A.S, he presented multiple performances in spaces like Hyderabad Lit Festival, Kitty Su, and Kitty Ko. he has also been listed as a top performer in Pink News and co-founded DragVanti, an online website for the drag community in India. Social profiles: Youtube & Facebook sas3dancingfeet Website: www.sas3dancingfeet.com On Friday, February 19, I sat down over video chat with Patruni Chidananda Sastry, 29, a genderfluid dancer and drag performing artist specializing in tranimal drag and expressionism. Currently based in Hyderabad, India, Sastry goes by the name Suffocated Art Specimen and uses drag as a way to add to conversations surrounding political and social issues and movements. Sastry has recently released their latest photo series called “Images of Tagore’s Heroines with Drag,” which is described as a way to “personify and represent the gender-neutral forms of strong women with drag and dismantle the gender binary approach to fashion.” Sastry collaborated with other artists to celebrate the complexity of the women of Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali literature. Sastry realized their love for dancing when they were 5 years old after watching a film by Rajnikanth. “There is a heroine—a female protagonist—and she has been rejected by the hero,” Sastry says. “This woman is so raged that she got rejected, she screams out loud and dances. So for the very first time as a kid, when I saw this, I thought if you have to show your anger, you have to dance...And since then, I kind of picked [it] up. Whenev-

53 | Overachiever Magazine

er my mom was not giving me a chocolate or whenever I was not getting what I wanted, I used to scream aloud and dance...That was... how it became a kind of an expression.” Soon after watching the film, Sastry was put in classical Indian dance training, learning Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, both of which still heavily influence their dance style today. “I always [saw] my body as a kind of canvas,” Sastry says. “Literally using the body as a part of a movement—a movement is a canvas...When I pose a certain way or when I’m just posing in a different way—escalating my body into a certain form—it automatically creates a canvas. It automatically creates an art.” When Sastry does a shoot, they allow their emotions for that day to influence the project, making room for spontaneous creativity. “I don’t want it to be something which is curated,” Sastry says. “For example, if I’m sad on that particular day, my output and my everything would be sad. That’s what I wanted—to show off true self [rather] than create something out of hiding.” Sastry strongly believes in the concept of expressionism, which according to their web-

site, is “a new way to tell stories of awareness to the society.” Sastry infuses expressionism into the photo series in many ways but specifically focuses on emphasizing real and raw stories that aren’t sugar-coated. “I started presenting the context of anti-beauty [after seeing how Indian art spaces love to romanticize their stories,]” Sastry says. “I always ensure that I go ahead and show my [body] hair. I don’t want to shy away from anything...We are talking about real issues, not a hypothetical story like Romeo and Juliet or any other stories of mythology. [We’re] talking about people who are right next to me who have been suffering for a lot of time, about the transgender women who are being killed, or about any of the other social causes that are happening.”

But the arts have also made many wonderful impacts on Sastry’s life, especially emphasizing how empowering it makes them feel. “It has given me a lot of power and courage,” Sastry says. “And that’s something which art enables anybody irrespective of whatever art it is like—music, dance, theater. So whatever art we have, it’s always something that empowers us. These are our callings. These are like superpowers, and artists are superheroes. So they don’t have wings, but they still can do a lot of things which are really important for the world.”

Sastry has a lot of plans for the future, from contributing to India’s first drag-specific blog DragVanti—which they created—and continuing with their project to start the first drag school in India to planning many more photo series. Overall, Sastry wants As a drag performer, a small but slowly growing to spread the messages found within expressionism community in India, it can be frustrating to deal to people of all ages, genders, and sexual orientawith the clashing, transphobic perspectives. “There tions. is a kind of deviation where people came [to shows] and said, ‘Okay, you are doing drag. This is not “Embrace ourselves and embrace our bodies,” Sastry good...This is against our ethos. This is not some- says. “Embrace our sexuality, embrace our thoughts, thing which we would promote, or this is not the and embrace our processes...Once we start being correct place or why are you dressing up in the first ourselves, or once we start being who we want to place. You are just happy with your body. Why can’t be, we will be ensuring that we are also doing the you just do the performance how you are born, as if part. If I am unapologetically myself, I have already it should be done?’ [...] That is the most regressive done half of the work to change the world.” thing you can say.”

55 | Overachiever Magazine

“Ritual Objects for Disordered and Displaced Bodies” by Lux Habrich IG: lux.sparkledust Medium: porcelain, polychrome glazes, seed beads, thread

w i

Gene

Interv iew

M is agp m Ki

e Zo by

ST OF HO CO

57 | Overachiever Magazine

Genesis Magpayo is a 17 year old girl living in the Chicagoland area and is one of the podcast cohosts of Dear Asian Girl. Besides being a podcast co-hosts she loves reading, hosts her own on-air radio show, and loves thrifting. You can find her on @dearasiangirl or her personal account @genmagpayo with her Linktree to see her work and things that she does! Instagram: @dearasiangirl / @genmagpayo

Introduce yourself! Hello! My name is Genesis Magpayo and I am a 17-year-old Filipino-American girl living in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. I am one of the co-hosts of Dear Asian girl! What is the Dear Asian Girl podcast and how did you begin it? Dear Asian Girl is branched off of Dear Asian Youth, a student-led 501(C)(3) that strives to lead Asian Youth into intersectional empowerment where we uplift marginalized communities, encourage engagement in societal issues, and celebrate each other and ourselves. A podcast for Asian girls, by Asian girls, we are focused on uplifting, highlighting and supporting Asian women everywhere. With the lack of representation amongst Asian girls in social media, we started this podcast because we believe in the power of supporting one another.

they had a following but I also saw that they were accepting applications to be on the national team! So I went on a whim, applied, got an interview, talked about my experience in radio, podcasting, management, and more, and fortunately they allowed me to pitch the idea of a podcast! Shortly after, they got Alina Rahim, my podcast co-host and we recorded our first episode, “The Model Minority Myth, who is she?”. Now it’s spiraled to 25 episodes, two more podcast cohosts, Naina Giri and Melissa Yu, to a full on campaign! As for the name, Dear Asian Girl was a campaign that Dear Asian Youth did in May, celebrating and highlighting Asian Girl stories. Our founder, Stephanie Hu, thought it’d be a great idea to name our podcast after this campaign.

“With the lack of representation amongst Asian girls in social media, we started this podcast because we believe in the power of supporting one another. ”

As for how Dear Asian Girl got started, I was scrolling through my Instagram around June 2020 and happened to find Dear Asian Youth’s Instagram. At the time they only had 5,000+ followers so

The podcast touches on a range of topics, such as representation in media to college pressures to imposter syndrome. How do you craft these episodes and choose these topics? Since our show now is very guest centric, we tend to either think of topics in which we could find guests or we find a guest and we center a topic around

what they could be knowledgeable on. Sometimes it’s a topic we’re very passionate about and we know a lot about or even a topic that some of our listeners want to hear. An example of this was “Adopting into the Asian Identity” since a lot of our listeners wanted to hear about the Asian Adoptee process since a lot of them are adoptees. Our podcast is very flexible in that way in which we can have a wide array of topics that always interconnect with one another! How has this time of COVID-19 affected you and your work? How have you been coping? Honestly not that much. Dear Asian Girl and Dear Asian Youth is a fully remote organization to begin with since we live in so many different states and so many different countries. Podcasting is also super flexible in a way because all you need is a mic, zoom, and good stable internet connection. But honestly, this podcast has really helped me during these times; a positive thing that came out of this COVID-19 experience. If I wasn’t on lockdown, I probably wouldn’t have had the time to fully dedicate myself because of other activities but this podcast and the organization was a blessing in disguise and has helped me in so many ways! It has been a really good, productive distraction from the world around me. I also made so many new friends and connections through my time working. It’s crazy considering I never thought I would make friends online two years ago but here I am! You are open about your own mental

59 | Overachiever Magazine

health struggles, and are the founder and co-director of Mental Note - what is this project and how did it begin? Mental Note is an online magazine run by a group of teens from the Chicago suburbs. Our goal is to counter the stigma around mental health through literature, photography and art. Very similarly to how I came to join Dear Asian Youth, I was bored in quarantine and wanted to make productive use of my time. My friend, Lillie George, also was trying to find ways to be productive. So we kick started Mental Note with a bunch of my friends and it’s been really fun! Given our certain circumstances however, we’re all seniors and applying to colleges, scholarships and more, we have become inactive on the account but when we do work on it it’s such a fun, collaborative experience. What does self care mean to you? How do you take care of yourself? Self-care in essence to me is listening to your body spiritually, physically, and mentally, like having an intuition on your worth and well being. For example if I feel burned out or over worked, I will listen to myself and take a break instead of ignoring it. Self care is something that needs to be practiced; you’re not just gonna magically be able to discipline yourself to listen to your wants and needs. Especially in this age of social media where you see everyone working, it’s hard not to want to work 24/7. So for me, when I experience this, I am a creature of habit and I like to establish a set routine that allows me to work in those self care things. I love doing yoga, dancing in front of the mirror to Ariana Grande, READING especially, or just talking to my best friend. I also love driving in my car and listening to Taylor Swift, podcasts, and Olivia Rodrigo. I don’t think there’s a set algorithm to self

care, it really depends on what you want and what you like! Here are some rapid-fire questions: Your go-to coffee shop order? Venti White Light Iced Chocolate Mocha with oat milk instead of whole milk Favorite color? Definitely periwinkle blue at the moment Any good films/tv shows you’re watching right now? iCarly just came back on Netflix so I’m rewatching all the episodes Ultimate comfort food? Hummus and Pita Chips What has been the highlight of your day today? The highlight of my day is that my mom got Chipotle without me asking so I’m so happy!

What is upcoming for you and your work? Currently Dear Asian Girl is in it’s second season and it’s the Power of Politics where we highlight current political topics and our latest episode (2/6) was essentially about Affirmative Action. Our next season, in March, is about Asian women so be on the lookout for that! OM.

Scan here to listen to the Dear Asian Girl podcast!

(L to R) “Working ‘Til Sunset” & “The Scent of You” by Liz Zheng IG: @ripliz.png. Medium: Digital Art

61 | Overachiever Magazine

63 | Overachiever Magazine

(L to R) “Lucky Red” & “Takeout” by Liz Zheng IG: @ripliz.png. Medium: Digital Art

Overachiever Magazine: MARCH I ISSUE

Articles inside

interview with genesis magpayo

interview with patruni chidananda sastry

secretary chao’s self-inflicted sinophobia

interview with laura gao

interview with jade darmawangsa

the international translation of roe v. wade

it starts with teeth

interview with alex porat

interview with joon park

a year of reflection

self love