Thick Dumpling Skin: Food & Body Image Website for Asian Americans

Posted on February 17, 2011 by jozjozjoz

In June of 2010, Lynn Chen started a food blog, The Actor’s Diet, after years of battling eating disorders. At the beginning of 2011, she stumbled upon an interview on NPR with Lisa Lee, in which Lisa discussed the story she wrote for Hyphen magazine about her past struggles with food and body image. Lisa found herself doing extreme dieting to cut weight and found herself losing control when the pounds started coming back.

What made Lynn perk up her ears was that Lisa talked about how being Asian specifically played into her obsession over being skinny. After listening to and reading Lee’s story, Lynn immediately knew they had to connect.

Thick Dumpling Skin was formed by their collaboration but seeks to become a space for Asian Americans to share and discuss their unhealthy quests, past and present, for the “perfect” body. The site includes a growing resource list and will soon feature user-submitted stories. They’re also collecting questions for future discussions and FAQs.

I love Thick Dumpling Skin’s tagline — “It’s what’s on the inside that counts” — and their call to action: “Together, we’ll grow some thicker skins, and learn to love them as well.” I know that the Lynn and Lisa’s honesty and bravery in sharing their stories will be an empowering example for others in our community.

About jozjozjoz

jozjozjoz is a taiwanese-american gal who lives and blogs underneath the hollywood sign and who doesn’t clean her fishtank unless the fish starts to do the backstroke. she is also able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but cannot stop from bumping into door handles, cabinet doors, and anything else that protrudes or has a sharp edge. she does not run with scissors for this same reason. she can pet the fur off a dog but don’t ask her to go anywhere near a horse. or a moth. or a roach. her dealings with L.A.’s finest (aka the parking violations department) are legend, as are her giant sneezes. Other than the two too many joz’s, jozjozjoz is a perfectly normal, relatively sane individual who defies the odds, reaches for the stars, and carries moonbeams home in a jar. She’d rather be a fish… but not in her own dirty fishtank. http://www.jozjozjoz.com
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