Originally raised in an all-white town with a black step dad running a Thai restaurant made me very confused about my identity as a child. I didn’t even realize I was Asian until about 3rd grade; that realization made me feel very insecure about my place in my community and soon made me feel very lonely.
I remember being the only seven year old in my town that knew what Dragonball was because it wasn’t on television at the time in North America. It was a foreign show and I was a foreign child; it felt like it was made for me.
Japanese cartoons and games started to become a part of my daily routine and I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.