Growing up in America, I often viewed the female beauty standard to be tall, thin, and usually blonde with light colored eyes. Needless to say, like most of my Korean American sisters, I possess none of these attributes. So where did I get this idea? Everywhere – television, beauty magazines, film, social media (okay, that didn’t come along until later) and it’s what I heard every day. Although I’m happy to say that American beauty views are evolving and there are now more celebrities and resources catering to other races i.e. African American and Latinos, the question still remains – what about Asians? In the not so distant past, if you typed in “Asian Model” into your search engine, you would likely get a list of porn sites and we all know about guy who have “yellow fever” . Some still think of us in terms of Nancy Kwan selling her “Pearl Cream“.
After a big Hollywood splash in 2018 (Thank you “Crazy Rich Asians”), we’re in the spotlight and others are starting to take notice of the largest growing ethnic group in America. Finally, Asians are being seen not just as the ‘smart’ ones in the room but also the funny ones, the loud ones, and the beautiful ones. My hope for the coming year is that this momentum will continue to snowball until we can no longer be overlooked because we are quiet, compliant, and subservient but seen as the bold, vibrant and beautiful people we are.