“I used to feel like my Asian identity wasn’t something to celebrate,” said Sarah, a high school student in an Asian Girls Ignite (AGI) program. “But after hearing from the women and other girls in the program, I realized my story matters, too. It’s amazing to be around people who just get me.”  

Shifting mindsets and addressing harmful stigmas that persist within and about the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community is a big part of the motivation behind AGI. The organization was founded in 2020 in Denver, Colorado, and exists to “create spaces for AANHPI girls and gender-expansive youth to explore and define their identity on their own terms.”  

Co-founder and CEO Joanne Liu grew up in Massachusetts, where she was one of only two Asian girls in her class. She remembers feeling invisible and as an adult realized she hadn’t had a way to explore her identity outside her home. Co-founder and COO Mehgan Yen grew up on the other side of the country, in California’s San Gabriel Valley, but also felt isolated despite living in a community that was nearly 60% Asian. She was bullied and depressed, and when she was 13 years old attempted suicide.  

Mental health issues, Yen said, are “swept under the rug” in her community, but she was lucky to connect with a mentor who helped her find a way through her depression. She and Liu experienced very different challenges in their school years but as adults recognized the need to reach AANHPI girls to help them develop a strong sense of self during an age when so many of them really need it.  

Yen and Liu vividly remember the struggles they faced during those years, including racism and microaggressions. Yen’s middle school years were plagued with bullying for “looking like a dragon.” In her mostly white high school, Liu remembers feeling like she’d succeeded in blending in when a friend told her “Sometimes I forget you’re Asian.”  

It was years later that she recognized the toll that needing to pretend to be something she wasn’t had taken on her. After working in middle and high schools as a teacher and an assistant principal, Liu had a strong desire to reach students at this formative time in their lives.  

Imagine the answers you might write in response to these prompts: “People see me as . . .” and “What they don’t know is that I’m actually . . .” Now imagine being a young girl who has felt unseen and is given the chance to delve into who they are and how that differs from the way they’re perceived. Writing and storytelling exercises like this are some of the tools AGI uses to help students make sense of their own experiences within the larger context of family and community.  

AGI reaches students through programs through workshops, retreats, a summer program for middle schoolers and an outdoors resiliency program for grades 6-12. Built into all of these offerings are four core elements:  

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’re glad to share the work of this great organization. If you’d like to help Asian Girls Ignite support AANHPI girls with programs designed to develop courage, compassion, curiosity, and connection, here’s how you can get involved: