Zoe Yu is a Taiwanese-American essayist. As a winner of The New York Times Student Editorial Contest and a 2023 Scholastic Gold Medalist in Writing Portfolio, she writes about culture — what it is, how we shape it, and how it shapes us — for places like TIME Magazine, CNN Opinion, NBC News, and Teen Vogue. At the White House Initiative on AA and NHPIs, she writes policy briefs and reports to the President, and as a media intern at Janet Yang Productions, she works to bring Asian stories from script to screen. When Zoe’s not typing at 182 words-per-minute (her personal record… for now), you can find her curled up with a good book, playing Lana on shuffle, or drinking boba. Sometimes, all at once.