thanks to...

Hans Yang

Robert Gao

Saptarshi Bhowmick

Alyssa Wong

Brooke Nind

Subhashree Patnaik

Róse Curran

Dora Gan

Amber Zou

Gianna Voce

Al’Awadi

Karizma Ahmed

Sophie Schweizer

Stella Liu

Wiktoria Sadowska

Joles Wong

Luke Tan

Jasmine Saul

Nicole Lau

Hannah Wong

Willow Kang Liew Bei

Kimmi Lynn

Elena Li

Charms Ng

Aren Hakhverdyan

Hailey Wong

Maja Timis

Rebecca Baulch

Chloe Brooke

Houda Saliba

Jed Canlobo

Joy Chen

Time and time again these people have astounded me. I am so grateful for this amazing, exuberant and passionate team of people that I have had the pleasure to work with.

The magazine – from the start to the release of this first edition has been a rollercoaster. From the sleepless nights of typing into the void of an empty Google Document to sprinting from the MTR station at 9pm, adrenaline pumping, to our first interview with someone halfway across the world (shoutout to Louisa Choi!). I will always be grateful to Jed, firstly for his ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. I think I would have given up this idea long ago if he wasn’t constantly appearing everywhere and reminding me of it. His sheer passion for anything he does, or any injustice that he comes across, is something that I will always have massive respect for. I also owe my sanity to Hailey Wong, our Managing Editor who, as one of the first people to join the magazine, always keeps things running. I still remember the first Zoom meeting we had, after which Hailey pointed out that “your password security is weak, we should fix that”. To this day, her attention to detail is still something that I am in awe of and I am so glad I managed to meet and work with such an inspirational person through just a short Google Forms application. Aren, the most talented artist I have ever met, thank you so much for tolerating my hourly texts to shift things on the InDesign document and for being the backbone of our magazine’s design. I know it’s annoying. I owe a lot of gratitude to Maja as well, for always keeping our magazine on track (with her terrifyingly organised mind), and ensuring that everything we do is keeping in with our magazine’s purpose and serving a larger societal good. To Houda for having the funkiest Instagram reel ideas, and for being someone we could always rely on to post / grow our social media, as well as making meetings fun (and chaotic). Thank you to Chloe, our Canva queen / influencer, for creating such beautiful Instagram posts and for instilling such a cool aesthetic into our feed and always bringing your optimism into our team meetings. To Rebecca – thank you so much for being the one to reach out to others.

Thank you to all the contributors without whom this edition would not be possible. Special thanks to Stella Liu, our first contributor, for being our never-ending source of jaw-dropping film photography and everyone we interviewed for the insights, advice and inspirational messages.

Finally, thank you to each and every member of the XinSai Team who put their hearts & souls into bringing this magazine to life. Our core team, editors and designers and their tireless efforts are the “how” behind “Growing Up, Growing Out”.

With Love, Joy