I started dating and felt consciously discriminated against for the first time. Coming out of a long term relationship, moving to a bigger city and really putting myself out there, made me realize that I look different and I do not like it.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and as a person of color, there are times where I find it difficult to see myself being represented. I’ve realized that the lack of Asian LGBTQ+ representation has impacted the way that I feel about myself as a young woman.

Kinetic is an Asian-American advocacy group whose primary goal is to dismantle the model minority myth via targeted action. Essentially, we serve as a public forum to facilitate an open dialogue about what it means to be Asian-American, discussing both the privileges and disadvantages that come with this identity.

Two years ago, when I was twelve years old, the United States had its presidential election in which the winning candidate was sharply against immigration. As the granddaughter of a Jewish-Mexican immigrant, the election hit close to home.

Are dating apps racist? I’ll admit, this title is clickbait. But do dating apps, which in many ways I am indebted to for liberating me from the drudgery of feigning enthusiasm when engaging with strangers, serve as a vehicle to exoticise women of colour and further our oppression by imposing racial stereotypes onto us when we are least expecting it?

As far back as I can remember, I have always been fond of stories. My parents used to read to me as a kid, and I picked up that habit early on. When I joined school, we had “20-mins per day” reading assignments which proved quite easy to me. I spent more than an hour in a day reading my favorite books, both fiction and non-fiction