Hello! My name is Sophia and I am currently a high school junior in Pennsylvania. As an Asian American student, I have had my fair share of school anxiety and depression. There have been many times where I felt like I was only the grade I received. However, through therapy, I realized that’s probably the most untrue statement that could be said about anybody.

I got the idea for “Outrun the Tiger” after an almost year long hyper-fixation about Asian American mental health. As it turns out, the topic of Asian American mental health is filled with racial stereotypes that have had long term effects on generations of Asian American students. However those effects haven’t been explored or talked about outside of the niche.

As I went through therapy and started to talk to others about my mental health struggles I realized that school anxiety, especially about grades, was seen as either silly (it’s not a big deal) or helpful in a twisted way (use it as motivation which might work for some people). The anxiety I had about school made me obsess over assignments that usually resulted in an A so on the outside it seemed like everything was going well for me. Yet, this made me feel really alone in my struggles. It made me feel like my struggles weren’t actually struggles, it was just a little side effect of trying to be a perfectionist.

My hope with “Outrun the Tiger” is that I can help other Asian American students who might feel alone in their mental health journey, for others to see that there is at least one person out there who feels the same. And by spreading awareness, I can help break down the taboo that surrounds Asian American mental health and show that life is so much more than just a grade.