When Lisa Lee was 18, her parents enrolled her in a weight-loss spa in Taipei, Taiwan.
Over the course of that summer, primarily throughsevere food restriction, Lee lost 20 pounds.
Wracked with insecurity, she started shrouding herself in layers of clothing and suffering frominsomnia.
Lau Suet Yin/EyeEm/Getty Images
What makes it even harder?
In many cultures, food is a way to show love.
Their mission: to shine a light on Asian-American people’s experiences with body image.
Lisa Lee. Photo by Selena Davant
who feels like youre alone when it comes to obsession with both food and body image?
Trust us, youre not."
‘Eat this,’ [said] some.
Lynn Chen. Photo by An Rong Xu
‘You look gorgeous with your tan, olive skin,’ said Americans.'"
Suddenly, I wasnt too skinny anymoreI wasnt skinny enough, Sheth says.
I discovered a very special slice of the absurd….
I will probably always be too skinny for my family.
And will probably never be skinny enough for Hollywood.
Like Lee, Chen has wrestled with herbody imageanddisordered eating.
Becoming an actress only exacerbated her eating disorder, from which she has now recovered.
She’s now committed to sharing her storyand getting more people talking about eating disorders in the Asian-American community.
(She would rather not reveal her age due to potential age discrimination in Hollywood.)
They didnt think that was a valid way to get better.
Asian-Americans are about one-third as likely to use mental health services than non-Hispanic white people, according to theU.S.
Department on Health and Human Service’s Office of Minority Health.
“Professional treatment is really important.”
This is precisely why Thick Dumpling Skin matters.
“Ive heard from many others over the years.
Many people…[have] benefited from knowing theyre not alone.
Earlier this year, Chen stepped away from the blog to focus on other projects and responsibilities.
She also hosts a podcast called The Actors Diet, which discusses food, lifestyle, and body image.
Whenever I feel those things, I can go on the site and read other peoples stories.
Whether or not its positive, I can have a place to put it and leave the thoughts there.
Rosalie Chan is a software engineer and freelance journalist living in the Bay Area.
Her work has appeared inTIME, Teen Vogue, Racked, Inverse, VICE,and more.
In her free time she enjoys reading, running and cooking Asian food.
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