Who else is sick of receiving text messages and app notifications on “It’s women’s day, and you are special so we are offering you an exclusive discount"? It seems that this holiday's special treatment for women only calls exclusive discounts.
As people continue to exploit these commercial festivals, by using various advertising slogans starting from "female first, female needs,” are we creating more regressive ideologies to commodify women?
So instead, we want to do a shout out to a few women we discovered and obsessed over this year that truly inspired us. They embody courage, pave the way in different industries and drive purposeful narratives while doing it all.
While we believe you have had your fair share of ‘inspiring women” from various sources, we thought it might be fun to double down on “inspiring Asian women from home and all around the world.”
Puno | Digital entrepreneur and Girlboss Podcast Host
- Korean American based in LA
- Digital creative who started an entire business giving online design courses & opening up job boards on her site that connects digital creators with employers
- Why we love her? She carved out her own path by not following the norm and love what she’s doing while helping others! Also, she’s hilarious as hell!
Luo Yang | Chinese Photographer
- Chinese photographer, known for her photographs of women
- She worked on her series GIRLS from 2008 until 2017 focusing on Chinese women, highlighting lesser known subcultural elements with her candid photography. Also have a super cool recent work called “YOUTH.”
- Why we love her? She authentically captures and documents people she encounters in China. Not only girls, but also boys, gender-fluid and transgender people. Also, we were so inspired by her body of work in our own shoot too.
Sophia Li | Journalist & Climate Activist
- Chinese American multimedia journalist, climate activist and film director
- Ex-Vogue fashion editor who decided to use her platform to raise awareness about climate change, social political issues and raising awareness against Asian racism and violence.
- Why we love her? Another girl power that carved out her own path and used the platform she created to DO GOOD.
Vivienne Shao | Illustrator
- Chinese illustrator based in London
- She explores common subjects through her personal female-related experiences from periods to sexuality to love. She usually creates illustrations using herself as the character with highly saturated colors and a sense of humor. Her goal is to provide new and different perspectives for her audience.
- Why we love her? She is daring with her illustrations and captures female-related pains that are not commonly discussed in such a fun and humorous way. We loved her so much we slid into her DMs for a collaboration for our female wellness workshops in Shanghai.
Jennifer Rubio | Co-Founder Away Travel
- Filipino American businesswoman who founded the aspirational travel brand “Away"
- She started her career as social media guru at Warby Parker, continued to become innovations director at All Saints and then decided it was time for her start her own brand — Away, a DTC travel and luggage company.
- Why we love her? She is a true girl boss leading a new wave of female-led businesses while being outspoken against racism, hate crimes and supporting female led businesses.
Yuan Bao | Building tracks for underprivileged schools
- Beijing gal who founded Playground
- She is an ex-United Nations employee who started a workout group in Chao Yang Beijing during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. She then started a foundation to build a track for underprivileged schools in Dali, Yunnan.
- Why we love her? She is an inspiring community leader who motivates people to sweat together! She also uses her network to raise awareness and support underprivileged kids to become more active with the new tracks at their schools.
To all the essential front-line female workers, doctors, nurses, caretakers, researchers and everyone else who have sacrificed their time with family and loved ones during 2020 and this year.
Thank her for being in your life and being the inspiration she has been to you. If you don’t feel like calling your mom — call your sister and/or your best friend. Asians normally don’t score high on the Words Of Affirmation scale, but get out of that comfort zone and try it for today.
