Where is your hometown?

My hometown is Olympia, Washington. I was born there, but [my family] moved a lot. First to Walla Walla, Washington — that’s where my brother was born. And then we moved to Randle, Washington, in the countryside. And then we moved to Sterling, Colorado, and then to Denver, and within Denver, we moved around Centennial and Aurora. After Colorado, we came to L.A. and have been living here for about 10 years now. I grew up in a lot of different places.

We moved to L.A. because my dad had a job here at World Vision, a humanitarian nonprofit for children, where they sponsor children and look after them. He was a pastor and did a lot of different jobs, but that’s the one he found here in L.A. He moved here by himself first for a year before we all came. We went straight to K-Town, and we’ve been in the same apartment for 10 years.

Do you live or work in Koreatown?

I’m a graphic design intern at KYCC. I didn’t get into graphic design right away. I didn’t know what to do in my first year of college. My parents always pushed for some kind of medical background because my dad was an acupuncturist. My dad and brother are really smart, but I guess I skipped a generation or something [laughs]. I tried nursing, hated it, and switched my major to computer information systems. I’m more of a technology person anyway, so I got into that. Computer information systems is a fusion of business and computer coding.

I also like doing art. A lot of my friends are into art. I met this one unni (언니 — older female in Korean), a graphic designer, and she introduced me to everything. One day, I committed, got myself an iPad, and started doodling. I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t change my major to graphic design or art. I thought it was smarter to do something I could fall back on at school and then build my resume and portfolio in graphic design outside of school, through direct experience.

Art school is expensive. I think just working and getting tips from experts outside of school is more worth it. So I decided not to do art in school. I did a lot of freelancing. I started with friends and family, and they connected me with different people. They saw my profile on Instagram, contacted me, and asked me to do commissions for them. That’s how I started; I learned [how to use] Adobe by myself, and then I started working for KYCC.

Every October, KYCC has a costume contest, and you can get movie tickets or something if you win. Moon (Moon Park from KYCC HR) asked me to make her costume, which is now taped around the office. I made this little costume about KYCC, people talked, and Katherine saw my resume and asked me to come in. That’s how I got the internship. I wasn’t actively looking for an internship; it just happened. I’m really grateful for that.  

Now I’m doing a sticker business. I’ve always wanted to make stickers. I was always curious about how to make them. One day, I thought I needed a new hobby. I also started it because my parents were both in the hospital and my grandma had just passed away, so I craved a new hobby, and it’s just fun. It took a long time to launch because of what was going on at home. But it gets my mind off of reality because my reality is too raw, way too real for me. I just needed something to help me have a workflow, and this gave me that.

The theme is just cute! It’s supposed to be happy and lighthearted. Depending on the season or my mood, the theme will change. A lot of it’s supposed to be for bullet journaling because I love it and a lot of people are into it, especially during quarantine, so why not make stickers for them? I’m thinking of putting vinyl stickers for people to put on their water bottles and laptops, but I’m still figuring things out. Literally, I have 200 more orders I have to do. It’s pretty crazy right now. People are like, ‘Please put up the Google form again so we can order.’

What are your thoughts on Koreatown? 

[Koreatown] is very interesting. I have lived here for 10 years now, and I grew up in a lot of different places, but I can confidently say that I really grew up in K-Town. This is where I have the most memories. I moved around a lot and went to three different middle schools, so my [early] childhood was all over the place. I appreciate having spent my childhood [in K-Town]. It’s so fun here. This is my home. I know where everything is, where the hot spots are, my friends and I go to the same places a million times in high school, and I take the bus everywhere, even though it’s disgusting.

 It’s so interesting to me because in K-Town, you can either come out of it very OK, but you can also come out of it sort of broken. Thankfully, I think I’ve been safe all these years, and I grew up pretty well. 

K-Town has changed so much. Everything seems gentrified. Although I love K-Town, there are things that kind of disappoint me. Like when a homeless shelter was being built around here, so many Korean people hated the idea, and that really disappointed me. It’s just so expensive here, and they’re expecting people to pay so much money that they don’t have. People like me — I’ve been living here for a long time, my rent is $1420, and now I have to be evicted because they’re demolishing my apartment to gentrify it. Now I have to go from [paying] $1420 to like $2200. And this isn’t just happening to me, but also to the local people who may be more disadvantaged than I am. It’s a scary time. I have a love-hate relationship with K-Town.