If you haven’t caught wind of the #veryAsian hashtag, you would soon learn how one shocking voicemail resonated with millions of people which then turned into a movement that ended up celebrateing Asian American heritage. I know that I was outraged when I watched the video of the caller’s voice.

Michelle Li is a news anchor in St. Louis that did a 25 second piece on air for New Years, where she acknowledged foods that people would eat. With the permission from her producer, she simply added that she ate dumplings for New Years.

What happened in just a few weeks, was an outpouring of support for Michelle and also the conversation about how problematic this voicemail was.

During our live interview with Michelle Li, we will talk about how the #veryasian hashtag and movement has become a beautiful source of pride and community over the love of sharing our culture. You can join us on Zoom and I would love to simultaneously raise money for The Very Asian Foundation, with 100% of your donations going towards there.

Within days of the incident, I had started following Michelle and found myself reflecting on how I don’t always feel comfortable sharing much of my heritage and traditions online. But with this movement, I’ve felt inspired to not fear judgment any longer. And a few days ago, I mustered up the courage to reach out to Michelle as we gear up for the 2022 Lunar New Year celebration to have this important conversation and she said YES! Michelle also has a toddler is half Korean and have Caucasian and I have questions about raising her little as a mama.

I soon learned Michelle’s adoption story, so I am so looking forward to meeting her. As a mom with 2 kids who will be judged simply because they are Asian American, we still have so much work to do in accepting one another and not being offended when we share our heritage and culture.

So I’ll be over here dying until we meet on Monday, I hope you can join us!

In the meantime, you can find Michelle

on Twitter

on Instagram

The Very Asian Foundation

Listen to how Michelle handled the situation here