Breaking the "Model Minority" Script
An upcoming workshop for the Taiwanese community, my first art showcase, and research on ADHD burnout.
Hi Burnout BFFs,
Spring is here, and I couldn’t be more excited! As someone who is easily affected by the seasons, seeing the cherry blossoms bloom is the ultimate serotonin boost. For me, the first few months of 2026 felt like treading through mud - a time of deep internal work, reflection, and “hibernating” while brewing upcoming projects. But now that the sun is out, I’m ready to spring into action!
My First In-Person Burnout Workshop!
I’m thrilled to announce that I’m hosting a burnout workshop for the Taiwanese community in the Seattle area on April 18th. You can register for free here.
As a Taiwanese American, I grew up under the weight of the “model minority” myth. It taught me that my self-worth was inextricably tied to my achievements and work ethic. For many of us in the Asian American community, hard work isn’t just a career choice; it’s a survival strategy. But there is a dark side to this work ethic. I didn’t realize how high the price was until my own health began to pay the bill.
In this workshop, I’ll be covering:
The Burnout Audit: Identifying red flags before it’s too late.
The Medical Leave Guide: Navigating your rights and taking the time you need.
The Recovery Toolkit: Practical tools to help you reconnect and rebuild.
If you’re in the Seattle area, please join us for this free workshop! Note: The session will be conducted in Mandarin Chinese - my first language.
From Tech Burnout to Gallery Walls
Last year this time, I was deep in burnout from an unfulfilling tech career and had to take medical leave. I was making the most money I’ve ever made, but I was miserable. I spent years working to get to where I was and had to give it all up because success was costing my mental health.
When I was at my lowest, art saved me. It taught me to embrace my intuition, let go of perfectionism, and trust the process instead of stressing over performance and productivity - all the things we were taught to value in a corporate setting. I felt myself healing as I released all my anger and grief through colors onto my canvas.
Since then, I’ve committed to my creative passions, taking art classes and experimenting with encaustic and oil - mediums that I was too intimidated to try. A year later, it feels surreal to see my own work hanging on a gallery wall. I painted this self-portrait purely from intuition, with visible marks of mistakes made during my experimentation. This piece reminds me that failures don’t make our lives any less beautiful; they are the marks that make the final portrait feel complete.
I’m excited to continue this artistic journey and hope to have my own show one day. A girl can dream big! :)
Diving Deep into Adult ADHD
I first began exploring neurodivergence after chatting with several people who were late-diagnosed with ADHD as adults following medical leave for burnout. This sparked my interest in uncovering the connection between the two.
After receiving my own ADHD diagnosis last month, the patterns of my life finally clicked. I finally understood why I often felt so debilitated when starting simple everyday tasks, why I struggled with executive dysfunction-related anxiety, and why emotional regulation has always been a struggle. I used to label these traits as “lazy” or “low energy,” believing they were undesirable parts of me that needed to be fixed. Now, I realize I’ve been high-functioning and masking for decades - until I hit a wall and burst into flames last year.
Research shows that up to 93% of adults with ADHD experience burnout symptoms, compared to only 30% of the general population. It is especially common for women and BIPOC with ADHD (particularly the inattentive type) to be diagnosed later in life. This is often because our symptoms are internal, and our cultures have socially conditioned us to mask our struggles just to be accepted.
Frankly, research on adult ADHD in women and people of color is severely lacking. Studies on how ADHD manifests in women only began in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and I could barely find any existing data on neurodivergence in people of color.
I’m committed to continuing this research and will share more insights in a later newsletter. In the meantime, I would love to connect with anyone who is diagnosed or suspects they might have ADHD. I believe many more of us are living with undiagnosed neurodivergence because of our cultural conditioning - and awareness and community are the first steps toward clarity.
I’m so grateful to have you all on this journey with me as I navigate these new discoveries. Spring is a season of unfolding, and I’m inspired by the energy of growth in the air. I’m especially excited to bring more of you into this process: I’ll be launching a Burnout BFF Community Creative Workshop series next month! It will be a dedicated space for us to use art as a tool for burnout recovery and connection. More details coming soon - subscribe and stay tuned!
Happy for you,❤️👏👏👏😊💕 and your aims for bringing more self awareness and enlightenment for the community!!
I’m so glad you were able to get assessed for ADHD! It sounds like the diagnosis has been really validating for you!