Growing up Korean American & My Struggles

I wanted to share a little bit about my experience growing up Korean American in the midwest amongst very little diversity and some of the struggles I experienced as an Asian American.

TAG QUESTIONS:
1. Which ethnicity are you? 2:58
2. Which generation are you? 4:35
3. What is the first experience where you felt that demarcation of being a minority/different? 4:58
4. Were you always proud of your heritage or was there a time you rejected it? 7:46
5. How has being Asian American affected your relationship with your parents? 9:52
6. Can you speak your language? 14:32
7. How do you feel about your heritage now? Do you identify with it? 16:04
8. What is your favorite thing about being Asian American/your heritage? 19:12

[Crismsu]

Hi Jen! My mom is half Japanese, and I also experienced some of things you talked about experiencing while being in school. I grew up in the South. So, like you, there weren’t many children that looked like me. Thank you for sharing your story. ❤😊

[wawawalrus]

You were the first youtuber I really followed when I was in my teens (I am 30 now). I loved your makeup tutorials because they worked for me and our eye shape is pretty similar! Other asian makeup youtubers either had deeper eye creases or were too monolidded. I have that “single + 1/2 lid” so it’s somewhere in between. I also loved that you did korean style and kpop makeup. I still use a lot of your recommended products to this day (like UD primer potion). I’d love to hear more of your korean american stories. It could be a series. I’m still waiting for that Flower makeup tutorial! Hope you post it soon 🌹☺️❤️

[pauline]

Hi Jen, I am Chinese and I live in France and I wanna thank you for making this video.
I went through most of the things you talked about and I feel understood. Please make more content around this topic!!

[nahkajima]

I'm Japanese Brazilian and can relate to all your struggles. Thank you so much for opening your heart and making this video, Jen!

[ellec]

You’re the first person I watched to learn how to do make up on monolids, before that I had no clue what to do! So thank you!!!!
A slightly different perspective though - being 1st generation immigrant myself, I do not get offended when people asked me where I was from, because I actually came from another country. My experience has been that most people had no ill intentions when they asked me that question. It’s certainly a different burden for subsequent generations who are born and raised here to be asked that same question repeatedly. I can see how that can be annoying and even hurtful.

[tandykwon]

Hi Jen, I'm a 1.5 generation Korean - just wanted to leave this comment for the first time to thank you! You were the first youtuber that allowed me to feel "seen" while growing up in an American school; I remember following your make-up videos for prom (I'm 30 now) since the "trending" make-up at the time never really catered to our eye shapes. It just means so much to hear you openly speak about your experiences growing up as Korean American - here to support 10 more videos like this if you end up making them! 🥰PS. Your Korean is great!

[stephh]

I can relate to this so, SO much as a Korean American. Thank you for making this and sharing this. I pretty much went through everything you did. The micro aggressions started since middle school for me. I was bullied so bad to the point I hated being Asian. Apparently if you’re not white or black, you don’t speak English and can’t be born here 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve matured from that and absolutely feel proud to be Korean American!

[Jenna-mwnr]

Wow, Jen. Thank you so much for being vulnerable and sharing your story! I am a Korean adoptee and could relate to your experience with people asking “where I am from.”

[janinenakazawa]

Hi Jen! I am Japanese American 3rd generation, married to a Japanese American, and we live in California. I can relate to much of what you said but California is more diverse. I appreciate your open, honest perspective on being Asian that you shared with us. I enjoy all your videos and am glad I found your channel! Thank you !!

[Marimo_-qjkb]

Thanks for sharing your story. My boys (3 and 5) are German-Japanese and we live in Germany. I loved when you said, you want your kids to feel full of both cultures. We try really hard to integrate Japanese culture in our daily life and meet up with other families like us❤

[stephanied]

Thank you for sharing! I was adopted very young and ignored the fact I'm Korean American for a very long time. I never told anyone I was "bullied" in elementary school because I didn't even realize it was happening until I was older and looked back and realized how bad it was sometimes. I even considered getting eye surgery when I was in college. I try now to embrace it and also trying to learn more about the Korean culture! I hope to visit someday.

[AllisonNicoleOrganics-ipdb]

Thanks Jen, appreciate you making the distinction between a Korean American reared by Korean Immigrant parents vs Korean Adoptees. Because there’s a HUGE difference. ❤️💓💕🇺🇸

[윤-tn]

I'm Korean and I live in Korea, Seoul. Really funny thing is I'm studying English by your video. I wanna say thanks for your a lots of amazing contents and your frank stories. ❤

[Lafalot]

I love this video so much and thank you for being so open and honest about your personal life. I'm adopted from China and I grew up in Montana, so I related to a lot of what you said. I hate when people ask where I'm from, and when I say "Montana" they say "no where are you FROM?" Like just ask me what my ethnicity is. Why don't people know how to ask that question in words of what they actually mean??? There were barely any Asians in my city, and luckily there were two other Chinese adoptees who I knew, but I was homeschooled so I didn't have many friends. Now I go to school in California and no one asks me where I'm from because there are so many Asians and I want to stay because of the diversity

[SavannahVu]

I admire and appreciate you so much! ❤thank you for sharing your story. I am Vietnamese Australian and I can relate 1000%! I can speak Vietnamese but only just normal conversations, not in depth or as much as I would want. I also talk to my mum in broken Vietnamese and it gets so frustrating at times. I was born in Australia to immigrant parents who barely speak any English. I know exactly what you are trying to say/portray. In the end, you are a beautiful soul, selfless and loving/caring and that’s all that matters. ❤

[terrakazama]

I have that exact same shirt! I’m half Korean/half Filipino and benefited from growing up in the SF Bay Area, where Asians were already prevalent in the 90s (I’m just a few years younger). This was such an interesting video and really appreciate hearing about your experience.

[lifeofash]

Jen, I've been following your channel for a very very long time. My first video was your No Makeup Makeup Tutorial from 9 years ago. For the record, I'm 47 years old and I have no idea how to apply makeup on my hooded monolid eyes back then. There aren't many video tutorials for my type of eyes, apart from those that shows how to draw thicker eye liner or smoky eyes. Since then, I've learned so much from you...from bronzer to blushes, etc.. I'm still watching you till this day 🥰

[miasohns]

I love all of your videos, but this one is my favorite. I could relate to so much of this, as a half Korean born and raised in another place with no diversity at the time (New Hampshire). The daily "Where are you REALLY from?" could get so exhausting. I'm also excited that the rest of the world has finally caught up with so much of what Korean culture has to offer. K-Drama, K-Beauty, K-Pop, and of course the delicious Korean food that used to be difficult to find in American restaurants. Thank you for sharing the pictures of your kids in their Korean clothing. They're adorable and they will grow up proud of their heritage. You're an awesome mom. Thank you for this channel and for giving other Asian Americans someone to look up to.

[poppopz]

Thank you for sharing, I can totally relate to a lot of what you said and I think you really voiced it well ("it" meaning the issues that a lot of Asian Americans go through and typically keep under the wraps). Most of us aren't good at saying it out loud, so this is really appreciated! There are definitely a lot of different struggles, especially with the generational gap + cultural gap with our parents. Though I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese because my parents only spoke it at home, as a child I was conversational only and my thoughts were only in English. As a high schooler I often walked the halls of school not thinking about what I looked like, but when I went to the bathroom and saw myself in the mirror there was my Asian face staring back at me. I struggled with identity for a long time and I still do, but over the years I've gotten to know myself and my culture better, and now I think that I'm quite fortunate to be bilingual and really appreciate having 2 cultures. People who are monolingual with only American culture are really missing out on the strength, beauty and depth of cultures that have persisted for thousands of years. In school we were taught to be the same and color blind, but what they really should have been teaching was how to appreciate each other for all of our differences, and that people don't want to be ignored for that part of themselves that makes them unique. Anyway, I could go on and on. I hope you can make more videos on this, I think it would mean a lot to others who are or have been in the same situation.

[IchigoHimeTV]

Hey, Jen
I have been a follower to your channel for almost 10 years now! I started being into asian beauty gurus around 2012 looking for info and tutorials from people who looked more like me. I am japanese brazilian, and up until my 10-11 years me and my brother were the only asian kids on a very small town. Needless to say, I was also bullied a lot and there were times when I also wished I was caucasian, blonde with blue eyes (I know it sounds weird to think the beauty standard in Brazil was blonde with blue eyes, but the 90's had very little diversity indeed). When I was 11 I moved to a slightly bigger city, where there's a japanese community and during my teenage years me and my friends (non-asian) loved to go to the festivals (matsuri) and I had a lot more contact with the culture. After college I went to São Paulo, where it is said that the biggest japanese population outside of Japan is located.
I am very happy to witness how different things are now compared to when I was a child. My daughter (7yo) never once experienced bullying regarding her appearance and I also try to break the cycle of toxic behaviours my parents, mostly my mother, have and had (my father is not asian). It take me a long time to realize that my parents could have hurt me AND done the very best they could. I can also be grateful AND do things differently than they did.

Thanks for sharing. Lots of love to you and your beautiful family.