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Michelle Yang, Writer & Activist for Mental Health Wellness
Michelle Yang is an advocate whose writings on the intersection of Asian American identity, body image, and mental health have been featured in NBC News, CNN, InStyle, Shondaland, and more. When not writing, she loves exploring new areas with her family and smoking up the kitchen with spicy recipes. Other projects: To learn more of my story, please see my writing here or see press features here. Please see here to listen to my story at upcoming conferences, classes, nonprofits and podcasts. For writing inquiries, podcast interviews, or other collaboration opportunities, please contact: michellehyang@gmail.com
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2020, balancing good v. bad in the new year
As the new year opens, I struggle to balance immense optimism and gratitude with the horror taking place in the world.
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Michelle Yang, Speaker
View this post on Instagram OPAWL showing up for the Ohio Asian Mental Health Conference! @michelleyangwriter was the best part! #OPAWL #cincyOPAWL #asiancommunityalliance #ohioasianamericanhhealthcoalition #michelleyang #mentalhealth #AAPI A post shared by OPAWL (@teamopawl) on Oct 19, 2019 at 5:32pm PDT I cannot begin to express how it felt to tell my story in front of a large audience, especially one of predominantly Asian Americans. Though I had done many podcasts and online interviews as a mental health advocate by now and done some smaller speaking engagements, this Ohio Asian American Mental Health Conference was the first one for which I was being flown halfway across the country as a plenary.…
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"Everything is still possible. You can have any kind of life you strive for. Bipolar disorder is a health condition that can be managed with medication and treatment. This is not the end. It is still the beginning of your story."
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learning. reading. writing.
I’m still trying to read as much as possible. Below is a highlight of what I’ve read in the last couple of months. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – I had to check out what all the fuss was about. It really took me back to watching Korean dramas with my parents as a kid, but in the form of an epic novel. Becoming by Michelle Obama – who can say anything bad about Michelle Obama? I can’t. This was a great example of a famous person’s memoir and I think I’ve learned a lot from the writing of it. The Leavers by Lisa Ko – Whoa. Read this book.…
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When your boss has unrealistic expectations, but the boss is you.
In late July, I set a goal for myself that I would finish the remaining 6 chapters of my memoir manuscript in the month of August. Reason? I had put it off enough, I told myself. I started out with the goal of writing this book in late January, wanting to get a full manuscript done in 3 months so I can go back to working a normal job. I hadn’t imagined that my freelance writing would take off and find an audience. I didn’t expect to find myself with more projects than I can manage. I feel extremely grateful, more professionally fulfilled than ever before. But between the speaking…
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When Headlines Affect Mental Health
There was yet another shooting in America yesterday. https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/us/gilroy-california-food-festival-shooting-victims/index.html? This beautiful 6-year-old, Stephen Romero, was at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California with his mom and grandma when he was killed by a random shooter. This photo could be of my little boy, who is nearly the same age. This is my worst fear about living in the US. When I worked at a large liberal corporation in a landmark building in the PNW, I lived in perpetual fear of a shooting at work. My child was attending daycare in that same building. Panicking any time there was an unexpected drill, I’d fly down 7 flights of stairs, heart pounding,…
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Social Media in a Time of Political Upheaval
My social media feeds have been all over the place lately. Normally a smattering of mental health-related posts, some good articles here and there, but mostly pictures of my kid or my dog — but now, during the border crisis, it all seems ill-fitting and jarring. The images of migrants seeking asylum locked in cages, caked in filth, haunts my mind constantly. As I live my charmed life in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, my guilt continues to grow. Why should I be able to carry on, while innocent children at our border suffer? This is a drop-everything-and-scream-for-action type of emergency, yet we carry on. All of us look away sometimes…
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This 4th of July, I’m Furious
I have been a patriotic American since I have naturalized at the age of 16, after immigrating with my family when I was 9. Though my politics have always been progressive, I often shrugged off criticisms of the US government. “People don’t realize how good we have it and how bad it could get,” was my philosophy, happy to be among the privileged relishing in my civil rights and human rights. Before immigrating, my family ran a bathhouse in South Korea near a university. I remember when the Wanted posters went up. They posted one in our entryway. I studied the photos that were clearly college student ID pictures. Fresh…
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Devouring Words
One of the greatest luxuries of writing full time is my renewed ability to devour words. When I was growing up, my nose was always in a book at the corner table of my parents’ restaurant or I’d sneak in pages in between taking orders. All the librarians knew me by name. The library had been my sanctuary. Life had temporarily taken me away from reading. My job and being a parent of a small child and the long daily commute had drained me so much each day that I told myself I had no energy or time for reading. Now, as I set my own schedule for writing, though…
