ADI Ambassadors

Christina Vo created a magazine called “Reclaim Our Bodies,” with the intention of displaying the beauty of all Asian Americans, no matter their appearance. She rejects the stereotype of what a typical “Asian body” looks like. Instead, through her content, Christina calls to attention for the diverse representation and empowerment of all body sizes within the Asian American community.

Christina Yue and Abby Wang focused on the message of destigmatizing mental health in Asian American communities. They used both Instagram and Facebook to post graphics that provided context pertaining to the stigma of mental health, such as facts, statistics, and several solutions to spread awareness.

Emma, Angela, and Drew aimed to correct the misrepresentation surrounding Asian Americans in mainstream media. With the mission to break the barriers, they created an Instagram account, publishing posts pertaining to Asian Americans during today’s current events, thus raising awareness of the Asian American community through different avenues of media.

Gabriel created a blog with the aim to educate others on how the fashion industry and its trends are harmful by appropriating Asian culture. Through his blog, Gabriel included descriptions, infographics, and videos to further enhance his message that cultural appropriation only oppresses Asian culture, and steals due credit. He hopes his blog will combat this issue by stimulating conversations and raising awareness to create momentum for change.

Helen, Nina, and Michelle focused on the issue of multiculturalism in AAPI communities. Using Canva Slides on Instagram as their medium, they sought to help Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders embrace and appreciate their cultures, and also accept it as part of their identities. They aimed to educate others on what it truly means to be multicultural, along with both its perks and complexities.

Through her own website, Jasmine brings to light the “Forbidden Topic,” which is precisely mental health. Often looked down upon, and hushed as a taboo subject, specifically within the Asian American community, Jasmine strives to dispel the avoidance towards this subject, and hopes to communicate the very importance of mental health through her articles and personal anecdotes, which display her own perspective as a high school student. 

As her education developed, Karen noted that all her history classes in the American school system simply brushed past any mention of Asian-American history in the United States. In order to spread a greater word of how treatment towards Asian immigrants progressed throughout history, Karen produced a blog of several articles that explained the gradual journey of Asian-American immigration, in great detail. She referred to specific acts and laws in history to justify how the nation came to slowly view Asian-Americans over the course of several centuries.

Louise developed her voice in the means of creative writing, demonstrating her craft in prose and poetry while simultaneously sharing her story as an Asian-American. Her experiences, successes, and failures are all expressed through her writing, which she has publicized as a collection on Instagram. Louise hopes that her actions will empower other Asian-Americans to share their own stories without being afraid.

“East Meets West” is a podcast produced in lieu of Minji and Daniel, who aimed to highlight their three main points of: raising awareness, fostering empowerment, and initiating change. Their podcast focuses on shining the spotlight on historical Asian-American heroes who fostered significant change in the societal discrimination and prejudice faced among their community. Minji and Daniel successfully paid tribute to the forgotten heroes who changed history for Asian Americans.

Nancy and Christie bring to awareness one of today’s major current events: the COVID-19 pandemic, and the xenophobia that it has brought around Asian Americans as a result. In order to dispel the prejudice targeted towards the aforementioned community, they created a website accompanied with visual, aesthetic graphics, as well as articles, vidoes, and a myriad of resources to educate their audience. 

Natalie, Hilary, and Kelly bring into attention cultural appropriation of Asian culture and tradition, and display the consequences of normalizing such appropriation. Portrayed through the format of a magazine, they used both visual graphics as well as text to demonstrate the extent to which Asian cultural appropriation has expanded, whether it be from today’s media to fashion trends, and even as far as pertaining to the little details in our world today, such as food and tattoos. 

Focused specifically on censorship and extradition in Hong Kong/China, Nicholas created an interactive slideshow to gather support for people in Hong Kong fighting for their natural rights  and protesting against police brutality and immoral legislators. His variety of slides ranges from introducing China’s history to its current government structure, and concludes by displaying points that advise his audience on what they can do to help the situation on hand.

“Doctoring Disparities,” created by Richard and Veronica, is a service that is dedicated to spreading awareness and information about health disparities, particularly within the Asian American community. Curiosity stimulated by strange relations such as how Asian Americans are disproportionately impacted by illnesses such as cancer and chronic diseases, they sought to provide both logical and creative solutions to the issue of health disparities through publishing posts in their Instagram account.

Through the creation of their own unique blog and Instagram account, Shreya and Kyle’s purpose was to destigmatize mental health within the Asian American community. Understanding that this topic is often scorned upon in the typical Asian household, they sought to take the first step in accomplishing their goal by refuting several misconceptions behind common beliefs pertaining to mental health. In doing so, they hope their audience can gradually accept the fact that mental health issues are a reality, and should not be avoided.