project asian girls

meet the admin | picassoing

hello everyone! it's lovely to meet you all again :)

i'm tessa miyazaki, admin and one of the two recommenders of #projectasiangirls. 

a little bit about me:

sixteen, struggling high school student.

dancer. poet on alternating days of the week. musician. artist. suffering from writer's block 24/7.

sunshine and southern California born and raised. american-born Chinese.

massive seventeen stan.

why #projectasiangirls?

As someone whose family hails from Wuhan, China, this recent coronavirus outbreak has really impacted me and my perception of my identity as a Chinese person. I used to be confident; now, there's this uncertainty as to how much I reveal to keep myself safe. Do I want people to know these things, knowing I make myself vulnerable to their ever-shifting perceptions and possibly even danger? Or would I rather stay safe, a ghost among the crowds?

Ultimately, I still haven't decided, but I know that I will never deny being Chinese or being from Wuhan, because integrally it is a part of who I am. I joined this project long before this pandemic hit the world, and I believe that as an Asian woman with the kind of access to this technology and information, I have the privilege---the right, the obligation, even---to stand up for who I am and defend it proudly. There is no shame in being an Asian woman, an Asian girl, and if you feel shame in it or shame others for it, my job here is to change your mind.

I hope I do justice to it.

with matcha love, tessa ;)