Sheena Yap Chan is an established keynote speaker, podcast host, and life coach. While listening to other shows herself, she realized that there were no stories by Asian women–and there had to be someone who did something to change that. She then took the steps to create her own podcast, which at first featured women of all ethnic backgrounds, until she remembered what she started her podcast first. She then began to focus on hosting Asian women and share their stories, and The Tao of Self Confidence was born.

She recently completed her book, Asian Women Who Boss Up, that shares the unique stories of Asian women who overcome the adversities in their life with strength and confidence. Her book was written to empower and inspire other Asian women who find themselves looking for community stories they relate to in their own identity and background, and thus be empowered to persevere through their own lives.

On this episode of Asian Voice Radio, Sheena Yap Chan brings attention to the lack of representation for Asian women in media, and what steps need to be taken to bring their stories into the mainstream. In order to represent the experiences and lives of Asian women, all of the stories–whether they are joyful and optimistic, or sometimes tragic–need to be shared so that other community members and future generations can hear that they are not alone and that these experiences do happen for others.

In today’s time, when Asian representation in media is increasingly becoming a topic of interest in light of campaigns like Stop Asian Hate or with the release of movies like Crazy Rich Asians, it’s important for individuals like Sheena to continue to share the stories of everyday Asian American women. Empowerment does not only come from extravagant stories or tragedy, but also reminding other community folks that there are others like us.

If you enjoyed this episode on representation for Asian American women media, you might enjoy Episode 14 with Rasha Goel on Asian Representation in Hollywood.