A designer traces their path from struggling with reading comprehension to building mental-wellness apps, shaped by a teacher's support, a dyslexia diagnosis, and studies in sociology. They built Hugsy, a gift app centered on human insights, and now work on inclusive design through CoCreate.
Hello. One thing I've learned about success is that it rarely comes without perseverance. For me, perseverance has always looked like self-motivation and holding on to self-belief, especially when others didn't. In grade school, I struggled with confidence. I wasn't failing because I didn't try. I simply needed more time to understand concepts, especially in a language that wasn't my first. A kind teacher noticed and suggested I speak with an adolescent psychologist. That experience led to a diagnosis for reading comprehension challenges and gave me the tools to grow, not just academically, but personally. That's when I became interested in how people think, learn, and experience the world, which led me to study sociology. My shift into UI/UX design was not random. It came from a mix of things: a love for the arts that began in my liberal arts grade school, my desire to help others as an empathetic person, and hands-on coding experience from informatics electives. When I joined a professional design fraternity in college, I finally had the space to take design seriously and connect with others who shared my curiosity for problem-solving through creativity. A key moment for me was working on Hugsy, an app that makes gift-giving more meaningful. Collaborating with designers, product managers, and engineers showed me how much I enjoyed turning human insights into thoughtful, usable design. I wasn't just building features. I was contributing to something personal and emotionally resonant, and it confirmed what I value most: making products that feel approachable, inclusive, and user-centered. After graduation, I received a critical language scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan. As a Taiwanese American, immersing myself in the culture and language of my heritage gave me a new lens on identity, communication, and belonging. Experiencing moments of both connection and exclusion made me think more deeply about accessibility and inclusion. I saw how design can either open doors or quietly close them, and that understanding continues to shape how I build for users today. Currently, I am creating a mobile app for mental wellness during my free time. It is a passion project focused on emotional self-awareness, access to resources, and reflective tools that meet users where they are. I also recently joined CoCreate, a collaborative design group that allows me to work on meaningful projects with other designers, professionals, and founders. I am a designer who thinks like a sociologist, communicates like a language learner, and creates with a memory of what it feels like to be left behind. That is what drives me to design digital experiences that are not only functional, but human.
