Stephanie Hu

Intro: (00:00:00) Hey guys, welcome to Asian Hustle Network Podcast! My name is Bryan and my name is Maggie, and we interview Asian entrepreneurs around the world to amplify their voices and empower Asians to pursue their dreams and goals. We believe that each person has a message and a unique story from their entrepreneurial journey that they can share with all of us.

Maggie: (00:00:23) Hi everyone, welcome to the Asian Hustle NetworkPodcast! Today, we have a very special guest, her name is Stephanie Hu. Stephanie is a high school senior from Southern California and the founder and executive director of Dear Asian Youth and the co-founder of CUSD against racism. Her identity as a Chinese American has pushed her to passionately uplift marginalized voices into intersectional activism. Stephanie’s organization, Dear Asian Youth currently has over 180 chapters around the world and 400 works of literature. Stephanie is also the co-executive director of the Women of Color Conference, which united 4,850 plus girls of color to engage in a two-day virtual conference with career-oriented panels from 31 renowned speakers and $4,000 in scholarships. In addition, Stephanie is the education policy director of the California association of student councils, which seeks to equip California students with tools to directly influence the education system, as well as the media director of empowerment, collective, which works to engage and mobilize youth in every step of the legislative process to pass groundbreaking legislation in California. Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephanie: (00:01:37)  Thank you guys so much for having me. I’m super, super excited.

Bryan: (00:01:43)   That is quite an impressive introduction, right. And I’m pretty sure you hear that all the time, but we just want to say it one more time. Stephanie, you are crazily impressive. We’re so excited to have you on the show. I think I mentioned to you beforehand that I talk about Dear Asian Youth a lot. Every time I speak in front of the company, I’m like, have you guys heard of Dear Asian Youth, they are just killing it. Now, here we are, we have you here, and we definitely want to hear your story. So what was the inspiration behind Dear Asian Youth, and how do you get inspiration for creating this organization?

Stephanie: (00:02:18)    So I think my story with DAY, was definitely a very spontaneous process. I didn’t think that I am creating a nonprofit. I didn’t ever imagine that it would turn out to be like an organization because everything really started off as a personal, passion project for me. I think it was April of 2020, there was an increase in Asian hate and anti-Asian violence across the nation, as well as across the world. I was very affected by that because seeing people who look like yourself, your grandparents, and your parents being victims of violent crimes on the news is really traumatic. So I really needed a place where I can express myself creatively, and essentially hash out my thoughts because I felt like I had a lot in my head. I had so many questions surrounding my identity. I’m living in a predominantly white community and seeing all this happening on the news, I just had no idea what to do. For me, it always helps to write things down, especially in the form of poetry. So I started doing that. I started writing a lot of poems surrounding my Chinese American identity. And then a couple of my friends started joining and contributing their literary pieces as well as their stories.

And then I think from there, it kind of turned into this literary magazine, Then we started doing all these other things like promoting our literature on social media, or hosting virtual events, and then it kinda just spiraled into the organization that it is now.

Maggie: (00:04:14)   Wow. That’s amazing. I think it’s so inspirational just to hear the moment that you experience. And it reminds me of Asian Hustle Network because it kind of just spiraled into something crazy too. And to hear that the same thing happened to Dear Asian Youth. I think it exemplifies the need for Asian stories to be told. We’re often told that we shouldn’t be sharing our stories. We should always be quiet. We should always just keep to ourselves and stay in our lanes, but we shouldn’t. We’re living in a generation and a time where we need to use our voices. Especially after what happened during the pandemic, I think a lot of people had figured out, ‘I want to share my story and share my voice.

Bryan: (00:04:53)   What you’re doing is very impressive and it fits the need. As I mentioned before, I kind of wished that this organization existed when I was still in high school. And for me, it’s so impressive that you realize this about yourself and you decided to take action. When I was a high schooler, I kept thinking like I’m too young to make a difference. I can’t do it. People won’t respect me. I just want to hear some of your challenges and hurdles, like growing this organization, because it essentially mobilizes the Asian youth for a bigger change. And that’s not an easy feat because I feel like there are so many different personalities. And when you talk to other entrepreneurs who are much older, the first thing you say is, I look for entrepreneurs with more experience. But here you are running a very successful organization.  I don’t want to be like an ageist in any way in any way, but at 17 that’s super impressive. So what were the challenges and hurdles that you face? Did you have any mentors that sort of helped you along?

Stephanie: (00:06:57)    Yeah. I think I faced a lot of challenges while growing this organization. I think when you’re able to plan ahead and then have a clear vision in mind as to the path of whatever you’re doing, it’s a lot easier because you’re able to account for potential fallbacks and how to address them. But for me, because everything was so spontaneous and everything was so organic. The moment just kept on coming. I had to address those hurdles as they came. So personally one of the biggest challenges I faced, especially very, very early on was that sense of imposter syndrome.  Because we are a student organization. We have a lot of college students undergraduate students, graduate students; People who are in their early twenties or their early thirties who are full-time professionals. And then I felt really unqualified at times leading the team because I started this organization as a sophomore in high school. I didn’t feel like I necessarily have the credentials to lead this team. These people here are with their degrees in Asian-American Studies or Ethnic Studies, and I haven’t even taken AP US history yet. I felt under-qualified a lot of the time. Time kind of healed that for me. I started recognizing my own ability and recognizing that it’s not necessary that I must have a lot of leadership experience to be a good leader. I realized it was my ability to listen to my team. The ability to be humble, flexible, and adaptable especially when it came to sharing the needs of my team. That made me a good leader. So I think it was like actively realizing that and then also just having an amazing support system, I’ve met some of my best friends in Dear Asian Youth and they live across the continent. I’ve never met them in person, but I’ve stayed up until 3:00 AM on calls with them just playing games. So it’s also just having that support system and then reaffirming the fact that  I can do this. I think that helped me get through that sense of imposter syndrome. As for mentors, I’ve had a lot, I think I reached out to a lot of older high school students or college students who are also in the student activist space. I was able to hear from their experience leading a team, or especially their experience dealing with burnout when it comes to racial justice. I think that was something that those students helped me with because something that isn’t talked about enough is when you are fighting for racial justice when you’re fighting for equality and equity, but at that same very time, you’re also being oppressed by those very systems that you’re fighting against, it’s like a double-edged sword. It’s like you’re being hurt on both ends. That’s something that not enough people talk about. So I was able to reach out to a lot of those mentors and they were able to tell me to be easy on myself, that you don’t always need to be constantly scrolling through news media and absorbing all of this traumatic information, that it’s okay to take a break.

Bryan: (00:10:10)   Yeah, I think that was good advice. There is a lot of information out there that it’s really heavy. It’s very emotionally draining. Just understanding holistically how the world works. It’s just a very sad place. Everything revolves around race, racism, money, power, or whatever. And for you to be able to absorb that while focusing on your schoolwork, how, have you been taking care of yourself? We know firsthand that running an organization is very difficult. Especially running an activist-based organization is very ungrateful work. A lot of people are the first to blame you. There’s a lot of criticism with the things that you’re doing. A lot of tough conversations to navigate. So how to, how do you take care of yourself? Because at the end of the day you have other priorities, right? 

Stephanie: (00:11:33)    This is definitely that I’m still working towards as well. I’m still learning how to take care of myself. Especially with DAY, honestly, it was just like a full-time job. I’ll be in class and I’ll be like responding to messages and like dealing with emergencies. And then my teacher was like, ‘what are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘nothing’. I remember a lot of the times last year, I would double Zoom. Cause it was online school, I would be on my computer, I would be in like math class. On my phone, I would be in a DAY meeting. So I’ve done ridiculous things for this organization. But I think, I have also kind of learned how to take care of myself more and more through my time here. So for me, I think it looks like just turning off messages for a while.  It’s communicating with my team that, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be available from this time to this time because I’m doing X, Y, Z. and I’ll check back on my phone once I’m done with that’. And I feel like my team is amazing, they’re understanding when I need to set those boundaries. I also encourage them to set those boundaries because it’s exhausting to constantly have to work. And it’s also exhausting to constantly have to ponder on inequity and inequality. For me, what really s taking care of myself by spending time with the people that I love. I think oftentimes when we think of self-care, the first thing that comes to mind is oh, let me have a spa day.  I’m gonna put on the face mask and stuff. And I tried that for a long time where I was let me just not check my phone, just be home and read a book, and I feel like that wasn’t always helpful for me. So I think self-care looks different for each and every person. So for me, it’s just spending time with my friends and family and then going back to work. And then it’s also just like a matter of setting boundaries when it comes to not taking meetings at a certain time. I remember the Woman of Color Conference, I think because we had East Coast.  I used to wake up at 6:00 AM or something on a Saturday to take meetings. And now I’m able to set a hard boundary and say, I’m only going to be taking meetings from like 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and I won’t do any time other than that. It just looks like knowing your limits and then having other people respect those limits.

Bryan: (00:14:36)   Yeah, that’s really good advice. For everyone who’s listening. Boundaries are really important. It doesn’t matter where you are in life. You need to be able to say no. And being able to say no where you are currently is amazing. It took me a while to say no. I feel like it took me all the way up until my mid-twenties to be ‘this is my time guys, I can’t answer any more emails. This is going to be me. I feel like what you’re creating is such a new entity that there’s really no blueprint for you to follow. As the founder and the person who makes all the decision-making, how have you felt like your personality and perspective have? But I’m pretty sure that everything that’s been built is because you’re curious as a person you’re oh, I probably need this. I need that. And you’ve found that your community does need those things too. Can we talk a little more about your creativity? Like creative organization, the way we do things, we process things, and the way you suggest things and turn those ideas into reality. That’s amazing to hear more about.

Maggie: (00:15:52)    Bryan and I always talk about how when people organize an organization or organize a community, everyone looks to that person, that leader, or that person that started the community. And it depends on how our views and perspectives are. Because when someone looks to the leader or the person who started the organization, they see what our beliefs are, how we navigate the community, how we kind of like set the values and the mission and the vision. So it depends on how we see the world and that affects the whole community.

Bryan: (00:16:24)   Yeah, it’s super impressive that you’ve been doing this for the last two years, right? Because this organization is a reflection of your personality and it’s crazy how interconnected the two things are.

Stephanie: (00:16:48)    Yeah, that’s a great question. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question like that before, but it’s also kind of like making me think too. How my perspectives have seeped into my work with today I think the biggest, well, one of the two biggest things I would say is:  first, the flexibility that we have as an organization. I think something that I value is making sure that all of my team members are heard, and that all of them feel like they have the opportunity to pitch a project, and then lead a project. I don’t think we’ve had someone come up to me for a project idea that I’ve ever said no to. I think it’s always a, yes, that sounds super exciting. I have a few pieces of feedback that maybe we could tweak about this project, let’s do it. I think that is something that is pretty reflective of my personality too because I’ve always been a very ‘You know, fuck it. Why not? Let’s just do it.’ So I think that’s also something that we have with DAY, which is maybe why we grew. The pace that we grow is because I think we just like kept on adding more and more and just kept on getting more excited as new projects came in which sometimes it can be a little bit exhausting and can definitely be oh my gosh, we’re doing so many things right now. But also, it’s a very fast-paced and exciting work environment, which is a work environment that I like as well. And I think the other thing is really our values for diversity and inclusion. And this is something that I’ve learned throughout my time at DAY too. I’ve grown in my perspective of DAY, especially within the Asian community throughout my time as well. And something that I really value is the importance of making sure that all the regions, and all the cultures, everything about Asia is being represented within our organization because I think for a lot of Asian advocacy spaces there only is a focus on East and Southeast Asians.

And then West Asians, Central Asians, North Asians, and South Asians are left out of the picture a lot of the times. So what I’m trying to do with Dear Asian Youth is a new standard for diversity and inclusion and making sure that that is like the one core pillar that all of our projects revolve around. And we see that through like the diversity and inclusion task force. We implemented it in November of last year and they’ve done amazing work since then. And every single social media post that you see come out on our Instagram is vetted by the diversity and inclusion task force and, a lot of pieces of literature, all the podcast episodes, everything that we do is vetted through the diversity and inclusion task force. And they’ve just done amazing work. 

Bryan: (00:20:18)     Wow. I love that a lot. I loved that. It’s one of your core pillars and things. One of the most neglected things out. When people mention Asians, we always think of East Asians, but Asian diaspora is humongous. A lot of people are still very underrepresented. And I really liked the fact that since it’s one of your core pillars, it takes on the model minority myth a lot. We really appreciate the work that you do. I kind of want to switch the conversation a bit to talk about your upbringing. Have your parents prepared you for the work that you’re doing right now? I want to hear from your perspective,  how did your parents teach you? How did your parents prepare you? What do they say about the projects that you’re working on?

Stephanie: (00:21:22)  I think my parents never really expected this because they are, I would say they’re not very socially aware at all. They aren’t political. My dad’s a US citizen, but I don’t think he’s ever voted in his life. My parents don’t get involved with politics or any of that. Once I started Dear Asian Youth and it got bigger and bigger, they always asked me: I wonder how this came to be. And I don’t know either. I think it was influenced a lot just because I, myself. I would say, an empath. So I feel a lot of the things that other people are feeling. And that’s why I’m so passionate about racial justice and activism work. But like my parents, I guess they never really expected me to get involved in activism work. With that said though, my parents are also really supportive. I think they’re a little bit confused. I don’t think they truly know what’s going on.

I think they’re like, she’s just running meetings all day.  I don’t really know what she’s doing in them, but good for her, I guess. My parents also live in China, I live in the States with my aunt and uncle. So they also are seeing this from all the way back home. And I know my parents are also very supportive of my mental health and everything. So they’ve also always told me that I should just chill a bit, relax a little bit. I’m like, guys, it’s fine. They’re pretty supportive. I think what really solidified my work in activism in terms of my upbringing was really when we moved from ShenzhenChina to California when I was in eighth grade.

I was born in upstate New York and then I lived there for four years. Then I moved around my entire life, across different parts of Asia. And then I finally moved here in eighth grade and I think it was just a really big culture shock. And I, myself experienced a lot of racial discrimination, especially, in the school environment and even from a lot of teachers as well. So I feel like that was what drove my interest in being an activist.

Maggie: (00:23:53)    Thank you for sharing that. And I do want to know what was that transition?  Just moving from Shenzhen back to the United States. Did you feel like you had to have a certain identity coming back to the United States and uphold that certain identity? Or did you kind of had a very smooth transition?

Stephanie: (00:24:12)    Yeah, I think I had an identity crisis in eighth grade. It was pretty bad how much I despised my culture. I think I was really ashamed. I would just not want to be seen around school hanging out with my Asian friends.

I would purposefully gravitate towards all my white friends, which is embarrassing now that I think about it. But back then, I was just really ashamed of my Chinese culture. And I wanted really just to simulate as much as possible, especially because I was seen as the new girl who just moved from China, and then everyone would be oh my gosh, but why are you so good at speaking English? And then I would have to explain my entire life story to them. And it just felt alienating a lot of the times. It made me want to separate myself from my culture even more. And I think it was only when I entered high school, around sophomore year or late freshman year, that I finally started to embrace my culture again.

What helped with that, was also just being more comfortable in myself growing as a more confident person, and seeing other people embrace and celebrate their cultures. That really inspired me to do the same.

Maggie: (00:25:44)   Yeah, that’s amazing. I mean, I am jealous that you got through that experience because I didn’t embrace that Asian culture and Asian tradition until a lot later.

Bryan: (00:26:01)     I am a little bit different. My school was like 99% Asian to the point where, when I finally left for college, I was like, wait a minute, I’m a minority. So it’s that different but, I really liked that perspective too. And it’s really crazy for me to still hear that there’s still like the cultural proudness problem where you’re not proud of your own heritage. Cause that’s something that’s very very common among other Asian American friends  But I think that what you’re doing right now, it’s a great word because it’s leading the charge of owning our own heritage and being proud of our own identity. Because you’re not the only one that feels that way, tons and tons of other Asian Americans or Asian Canadians, also feel the same. You’re feeling the impact of your organization around the world. 

Maggie: (00:26:59)     And your story is extremely inspirational and can be an inspiration for other people who are dealing with the same things.  We meet so many people from, let’s say the Midwest who grew up in very predominantly white areas who were ashamed of the food that they brought to school. Their Asian identity, their Asian culture, but they don’t get to experience or embrace the Asian culture until they’re much older. And for you to have this platform and community for Asian youth to learn more about Asian identity, Asian culture, how to speak up, and how to be involved in activism. It’s amazing and I wish that everyone could be able to experience just learning from their Asian youth within your platform.

Bryan: (00:27:41)     So I have a question about your personal. Right, because I’m pretty sure that you’re completely different from the person you were two years ago just by being in this organization and running in and talking to tons and tons of people around the world. But how have you felt yourself changed throughout the last two years? And how do you hope that you continue growing as a person in the next couple of weeks?

Stephanie: (00:28:06)    Yeah, I think honestly being in Dear Asian Youth has made me grow so much as a person, as a leader, as a student, as a fellow activist, and also just as a friend as well. I truly think that it’s really what launched my self-growth. And that if I didn’t start the organization and sustain it, then I wouldn’t kind of be in the same headspace and have the same perspectives that I do now. I feel like the main thing that comes to mind is I’ve learned how to be a lot more kind and a lot more understanding. I think this past year has been tough on everyone, especially in terms of mental health and just like struggles that everyone has been having, especially because of COVID and that like isolation period.

So seeing all of my teammates go through that, and then also seeing a lot of people just being so affected by the discrimination that they’ve experienced and for me to have like conversations with my team members and then they like to share stories of discrimination with me and just start like breaking down and crying and just sharing a piece of themselves with me, I think has just opened my eyes and see that.

Everyone is honestly going through something, and everyone is dealing with some sort of trauma And I feel like, through that, I’ve grown to be a lot more of an understanding person. I’m just here to listen to other people’s stories and have just grown to be a kinder person as well. Another part is with my work, I’ve had to have a lot of tough conversations, especially around diversity and inclusion. Like I can confidently say that my perspectives on DAY, especially in the Asian community was not like the way that it is now two years ago, I’ve definitely matured a lot. And I’ve also just become a lot more knowledgeable about all the different cultures in Asia. And I think at the very beginning of Dear Asian Youth, we definitely were having a lot of problems with diversity and inclusion. It was recognizing that oh my gosh, this social media manager wrote a problematic script about an Asian identity that they weren’t a part of. How do we go about dealing with this? What does this say about our organization and how can we then implement solutions to combat this? So it really is just sitting down. And listening to everyone’s thoughts and ideas, and then coming together to create a solution. 

One major thing I’ve learned from that is just really being open to everything. Also just being open to openly, admitting your mistakes, and be like, ‘okay, this is something that went wrong. , let’s not have it happen again.’ And just taking accountability I think is really difficult, but also just really necessary and something that I’ve learned throughout this journey.

Bryan: (00:31:44)   Wow. I really love her mindset. It’s really wise beyond your years, and I’m pretty sure you heard that over and over. But those things I learned through my work experience when I was working, we used to have this no blame culture, which means that if someone messes up, we don’t blame anyone. And the fact that you talked about ownership as well, that’s, that’s very crucial for any form of success because. Part of a growing is failing and part of failing is taking ownership and realizing what you did wrong. And the fact that you’re able to speak about this openly speaks volumes about how you are as a person and does very admirable to you because to this day, I know a lot of people that don’t have that sense of ownership. It’s kind of depressing to talk about a couple of years at this point in life, but the fact that you have it’s really amazing to hear. And I know that there is Asian youth who continues to grow bigger and bigger. And it kind of leads me down to the next question. How do you feel about the legacy that you’re leaving back for Dear Asian Youth? And I think part of growing a very strong organization is, will this organization survive without me in five years or 10 years? Your systems and processes you’re leaving behind and more importantly, the legacy you’re leaving behind? I mean, have you thought about that kind of stuff you had about how you want to do the handover in the next five or 10 years, or if at all?

Stephanie: (00:33:31)    Yeah, I think this is definitely something that I’ve pondered a lot about, and I definitely don’t have a fleshed-out idea or plan yet. I know that I definitely want to continue doing Dear Asian Youth all throughout college, and maybe after that. But I also do think it’s super important that the organization’s mission is fulfilled and that it’s supporting young Asian people right. And supporting students. And if at one point, I’m not the best fit for that anymore, because I don’t have maybe the same perspectives as a lot of like students in high school or college do anymore, then I think it’s definitely necessary and appropriate for me to then to kind of pass it down to the next people who carry on this legacy. I definitely don’t have a plan so far, but I think, for now, I’m just going to play it by year, but I’m definitely not going to try to be like, I want to keep this to myself because I feel like the most important thing is the effect and impact that this organization has had on other people. And if I am not the fittest to lead that anymore, then that’s totally okay and I will find the next person to do it.

Bryan: (00:34:51)   That’s very powerful. Yeah.

Maggie: (00:34:53)  That is extremely powerful. And I love that you emphasize the mission because that is going to take us to a better place and leave a better world for the next generation and I’m pretty sure the next generation will feel the effects of Dear Asian Youth. I do want to know how have you seen the Asian community change, the mindset of the Asian community change, and within your community ever since you’ve started Dear Asian Youth? Obviously, you had a mission to educate and empower Asian youth to learn more about politics, learn more about activism, right? And with that mission, you’ve seen it grow so large and so fast. I want to know that. How have you seen it grow within the Asian community? And that the mindset was in the Asian community.

Bryan: (00:35:39)    I want to add to that as well. And or what advice would you have for other high schools, early college, early twenties, Asian activists that want to take action? Because it’s not easy to speak about these things, because our parents don’t understand what’s going on. They do, but they just accepted the way it was or the way it is, but it’s really hard for us to speak about it openly, right? Because whenever you speak about racial inequality, people have different takes different upbringings that don’t line up and it causes a lot of friction. So what advice do you have for, people that want to get involved but don’t know how to be involved.

Stephanie: (00:36:18)     I talked to a lot of my team members personally, and I’m like friends with a ton of them. And something that they’ve all shared with me is how this organization has helped them grow comfortable in their cultural identity. And I think sometimes I forget the impact that this organization has had, or like I can’t wrap my head around it really. And I know that Dear Asian Youth had affected a lot of people, especially because like our chapters and everything, but I think most immediately and the one that I’m able to directly see is the way that it has affected my own team members. And they just shared with me, ‘I’m finally comfortable with using like my Cultural name, my name that was given at birth instead of my anglicized name. And when I heard that, it was so amazing. I think that was one of the moments that I was really starting to understand the impact that this organization has had. And I think another way that it has really impacted the way at least my team members think, and then maybe the Asian community at large as well, especially the Asian activism community is that standard of diversity and inclusion because I think still in a lot of Asian spaces, there isn’t necessarily that emphasis on diversity and inclusion. And I think Dear Asian Youth was one of the first organizations to kind of pioneer that core pillar of our organization. So I’ve also seen a lot of people really start to emphasize that more as well. And in terms of like the advice, I would give to high school and college students who want to make a change in their own community are— this is so cheesy, but I think it’s so true— recognize that you aren’t alone in this fight, that there are so many people there, hundreds of thousands of people who are fighting alongside you in this fight for equality and equity. And I think it’s really just recognizing that if you do need support that there is this entire community that’s backing you up and being like yes, you can do this. We are also doing this at the very same time as you are. And I think it’s really just like the idea of across the nation. We’re all different people, we all come from different cultural backgrounds, we all have completely different lifestyles, but we’re all fighting towards the same thing. I think it’s really keeping that at the back of your mind and always remembering that when you’re having a tough time, maybe like speaking to administration or you’re having a really difficult day with like burnout in terms of racial justice, just keeping that in the battle, in the back of your mind. There are so many people across the world that are fighting for the same causes you are that really at least keeps me going. And I hope that it can also inspire others to also keep fighting for this equality.

Maggie: (00:39:46)     Absolutely. I 100% agree with you. I think that even though we have very unique differences in terms of our ethnicity, our traditions maybe some of our cultures are a little bit different in terms of our different Asian ethnicities. We’re actually more similar than we are different.  We all want the same things. We all have very similar dreams and goals, and we have very similar views in terms of wanting racial justice. We all want racial equality and that’s a very, very important lesson that we have to learn that we always after to remember that we’re never alone and that we’re always more successful if we work together.

Bryan: (00:40:26)    Yeah. So listening to you gives me a lot of hope and confidence in the next generation, and it’s very inspiring to hear everything that you worked on. So I want to. Since you have a lot of listeners and listen to our podcasts, we don’t know who listens to it. What is your first college choice?

Stephanie: (00:40:47)      I’m really shooting for Columbia.  I want to be a baddie in New York City and like manifesting it at 11: 11 every night, I’m like Columbia, Columbia. Yeah. We’ll see. We’ll see how that goes.

Bryan: (00:41:00)    Okay. For you guys listening, if anyone is part of the college admission in Columbia, Stephanie’s an outstanding student and she does a lot for the community. Oh, you want to ask one question?

Maggie: (00:41:14)  Yeah, amazing. So I do have one question or maybe two more questions. I do want to know what is your goal for Dear Asian Youth? Your goal is for the next year. I know you’re working on a few programs. I want to hear more about Dear Asian girl as well, and what you’re hoping to achieve with that, and if you have any other programs that you have in mind for the next year for Dear Asian Youth.

Stephanie: (00:41:40)      Yeah. So Dear Asian Girl is a podcast that we have that really works to spotlight the unique stories of Asian women everywhere and they’ve done some amazing things. I’m pretty hands-off on that, shout out to Sunna, my assistant director, and also my best friend for really keeping that entire podcast together and just spearheading the entire podcast. And I think we have a new season coming out that is focused on love.

So whether it be romantic love, familial love, or friendship and just really— I dunno,  haven’t heard too much about it yet, but I’m excited when I heard that. I was like, wow, this seems cool. I’m excited to see where this goes. So, that’s something that we’re working on. For Dear Asian Youth, we’re really working a lot and on a couple of internal things right now. So what we’re trying to do is launch a marketing department and applications are actually open for that right now. So if any listeners are really experienced in marketing and want to join this amazing community, please do. So that’s something that we’re working on and we’re also just working on a couple of other projects, but mine is not working at the moment.

Bryan: (00:43:18)   No worries. I know it’s been a long day and the fact that you’re doing this podcast after a lot of school days. Yeah.  

Maggie: (00:43:24)     Thank you so much, Stephanie. So where can our listeners find out more about you and Dear Asian Youth online?

Stephanie: (00:43:40)      Yeah. So you can follow Dear Asian Youth on Instagram at @dearasianyouth. And then you can follow me on Instagram at, I think it’s  @stephJYHU. So that’s my Instagram handle. And  I get a lot of DM sometimes on like advice for like starting organizations or advice on how to deal with certain things. So if anyone needs help, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m always here to help out. 

Maggie: (00:44:03)    Thank you so much, Stephanie, you are so generous in offering our community help and support. We really loved having you on our podcast today. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

Maggie: (00:44:15)     Yeah. Thank you so much for having me this is an amazing time.

Bryan: (00:44:18)    Yeah. Thank you so much for everything that you do. We can’t wait to see where you’re gonna be in the next couple of years, and we’ll always be here to support you.

Outro: [00:44:27] Hey guys, we hope you enjoy this episode! Please subscribe to the show. We would like to get to the top 10 on iTunes so be sure to leave us a five-star review. We release an episode every single Wednesday. So, stay tuned! Thank you, guys, so much.