8 Asians

ABC US News | World News

Back in January, I had blogged about the co-founders of the mobile dating app company Coffee Meets Bagel, Korean American sisters Arum, Dawoon, and Soo Kang. They appeared on the popular reality TV show Shark Tank trying to convince the Sharks to make a $500,000 investment for 5% of the company. Mark Cuban theoreitcally asked if the sisters would be willing to take a $30 million offer to buy the company. Without any hesitation, the sisters turned the offer down.

So the other night, I was watching ABC’s Nightline and saw that they were going to do a profile on them and the company. From the story, Coffee Meets Bagel has doubled its user base. On the Shark Tank show, I recall the sisters said they had between 500,000 to 1 million users. The online / mobile dating market is very competitive, so it’ll be interesting to see if the sisters can really grow their business to capture a good portion of the $2 billion a year annual industry.

Part 3 – Emily’s Story: Finding Hope in Support Groups

By Emily Wu Truong

In honor of July as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, Guest Blogger Emily Wu Truong, who received a fellowship from the Entertainment Industries Council’s Mental Health Journalism Fellowship, created this three-part series on Asian American mental health. This is the third article of the three-part series about perfectionism and mental health. 

While seeking affordable means to help myself, I was privileged to meet Dr. Eliza Noh, Cal State Fullerton Associate Professor specializing in Asian American suicidology.  She reported that having a strong support network was a common theme among her interviews with Asian American women who had attempted suicide. After I opened up to her about my depression, she encouraged I work on building my support network, and I took her advice to heart.

For myself, I found hope when I learned about the world of support groups. The groups I attended were from Recovery International, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the Asian Coalition, and Kaiser Permanente’s Depression and Anxiety group therapy.

As I attended these groups, I found myself feeling relieved and far from isolation because I saw that I was not alone. These groups were safe places where I could openly share my experiences of depression without shame. Group members commended me for having the courage to share. We learned techniques to become more cognizant of our own thoughts, feelings, and bodily reactions in response to circumstances that were out of my control. I became more self-aware of my daily thought patterns and began to develop more attitudes of gratitude. To top it all off, fees to attend these meetings were free or nominal! Overall, the more I attended these meetings, the quality of my life improved. They reinforced the messages of hope where helplessness is not hopelessness, and emotional healing is possible.

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