Savor Beauty founder Angela Jia Kim sits down with fellow female Asian American entrepreneurs to discuss what #AAPI means to them in a conversation on belonging, burnout, and beauty.
"It's what made me brave enough to become an entrepreneur. I had to create my own sense of community and belonging, and do things my way. My childhood was the training for 'I don’t care what you think of me.'"
Table of contents
The Women in the Room
Lisa Michaelis is the CEO and founder of Live Love Spa, a platform that has redefined community in the wellness industry.
She was joined by her daughter, Alexa Michaelis, an astrologer and ritual curator based in Mexico City.
Dr. Stephanie J. Wong is a psychologist, speaker, and host of The Color of Success podcast. Her platform is devoted to mental health, identity, and what it means to thrive as a woman of color.
Amy Goodman is a nationally recognized lifestyle expert, TV correspondent, and author whose warmth and candor have made her one of the most trusted voices in wellness media.
Angela Jia Kim is a Korean American beauty entrepreneur and author of Radical Radiance. She hosted this conversation.
On Being "Different" and What They Did With It
Every woman in the room had a story, a moment when, in no uncertain terms, they were different.
For Angela, it was the day her father, a math professor at Iowa State University, came home visibly shaken and announced the family would only speak English at home. He would pay her a nickel for every time she corrected his grammar.
Only later would she recognize what her father was navigating at the time: the grinding pressure of assimilation in front of a non-diverse class of students.
Lisa remembered flipping the script by answering cruel comments about "slanted eyes" with wit about their "rounded" ones.
Amy grew up surrounded by a Japanese mom and grandmother who honored tea ceremonies and dressed her in kimonos as a baby. Her heritage was something that was highlighted, not hidden.
Stephanie grew up in the Bay Area, where she was surrounded by a large Asian community and shared ambition. In college, hearing a classmate say racism no longer existed was a stark reminder that not everyone saw the world the same way—and that a strong sense of knowing who you are carries weight.
Alexa, who is half Korean, grew up with other mixed-race friends in California. But when she moved to Korea, she was surprised to be seen not as Korean, but simply as American. This is a reminder that identity is often more layered and complex than what is seen surface-level.
What emerged from their stories was a portrait of women who had each, in their own way, decided that difference was not a deficit.
On Belonging and Building Community When It Doesn't Exist
Representation was a motivating factor for the women to build community rather than long or wait for it.
Dr. Wong spoke about the shift for marginalized communities she hopes to see, and is actively working toward with her practice and podcast, for younger generations of Asian Americans.
Alexa, who grew up in California where Asian Americans are more visible, still spoke to the gap between visibility and recognition. Even in a diverse community, she found herself searching for reflections of her particular, complicated self and learning to create them when they weren't there.
Angela put it simply: growing up without Asian representation, she built her own world. Entrepreneurship, she said, was partly an act of defiance and partly a survival strategy. If the existing structures don't have room for you, you make new ones.
On Covid, AAPI Racism, and Refusing to Stand Down
The pandemic brought to the forefront something that had always been present, underlying and often overt racism towards the AAPI community.
Angela recalled the Friday in March 2020 when one of her Asian employees came to her shaken because people were treating her poorly in the subways. She no longer felt safe. It was that moment Angela decided to temporarily close her spas for what would become the worldwide pandemic.
Soon after, while standing in line at the grocery store, she heard racial slurs aimed at her that she hadn't heard for many years. She was able to hold her ground and articulate why the comments were ignorant and racist. She thought, afterward, of every Asian woman who doesn't have the language or the safety to do the same.
"What about the people who don't speak English," she said, "who have every right to be there just as much as we all do?"
Alexa shared her own experience of walking down a New York City street and hearing strangers' slurs. The particular disorientation of being targeted for simply existing, especially in a city filled with diversity was jolting.
These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a pattern that predates the pandemic and seem to outlast it. What these women model is refusal to back down and rather "stand up" through their platforms and life's work.
On Burnout, Ambition, and the Cost of Proving Yourself
The model of success that many Asian American women inherit can feel demanding. Work harder. Take up less space emotionally. Excel in ways that are measurable and visible. A method that seems to work... until it doesn't.
Alexa experienced this when, as she described it, her body stopped cooperating. An autoimmune condition forced her to ask what suppression had cost her, and what changes her healing would actually require.
Dr. Wong described the stark difference between her father's will to show up to work while sick and the revolution of a generation learning to call out burnout as a systemic problem, not a personal failure.
For Lisa, CEO and founder of Live Love Spa, the path to self-care came through the spa. She eventually redesigned her own home to have a spa built in for rest-on-demand.
For Angela it's daily acts of care, like her morning ritual: lymphatic facial massage, breath-work, and a single word she meditates on for 90 days. This season, her word is expansion, and she's learned it doesn't always mean outward growth. Sometimes it means slowing down to accept support.
She challenged everyone in the room to choose one word to live inside for the next 90 days and experience the transformation.
What We're Still Working Toward
What resonated with the group was a powerful point made by Dr. Wong. She explained that she holds hope for a world where ethnic differences are understood rather than flattened. Where no one is ever asked "Where are you really from?" as a way of being told they don't belong here.
Conversations like this one; honest and between women with shared experience, are how we get closer to that more inclusive, accepting, and 'hoped for' world.
This conversation took place in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month. If these stories moved you, share them. Representation grows when we pass it forward.