Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Ling.
Sydney, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Rice & Spice culminated in the hot, chaotic start of the summer in 2020. I originally had a mood board account on Instagram(@honeyedboba), wherein the month of May, which is Asian American Pacific Islander Month, I created a series pertaining to the Asian American experience.
Around the same time, I discovered the zine community, a variety of passionate youth creatives who work to change the world through media. As an Asian American creative, it can be hard to start and continue your journey. There’s a lack of representation in culture and media that has only started to shift, and at the same time, the dialogue within the Asian American community pressures Asian Americans to conform to more easily profitable career paths. I wanted to create a space where Asian American youth creatives like myself can create beautiful, powerful work, to break away from being pidgeon-holed and erased into the model minority myth. I originally posted a call for submissions on my moodboard account. I got a positive response and slowly started to build a platform. We’re still a relatively small account, and over the months, we’ve created a website blog, interviewed influencers, and collaborated with other youth-run platforms as well. We finished and released the Color Issue, our first print issue, at the end of January. There are around 5 copies left, $21 dollars per copy. We recently just closed submissions for our second print issue, The Lucid Issue, which is Rice & Spice’s main next project right now.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Creating a magazine as a teenager is definitely a road of twists and turns. I’m a bit of an overthinker, so I tried to set out a clear path and goals of things I wanted to accomplish. A few major struggles were growing our platform and time management. As a high school student, especially during the past year, it’s hard to juggle school, a magazine, and other extracurriculars. In the beginning, I spent so much time and effort on Rice & Spice that the balance between school and projects kept see-sawing. Over the months, I’ve had to learn to remind myself whenever I lose focus.
At the same time, when I can’t put in every drop of effort and second of time in my day to run Rice & Spice, the speed of growth doesn’t always reach my expectations. Coupled with the ever-changing Instagram algorithm that negatively impacts all small businesses and platforms, I can’t always check our Instagram, or always consistently post, or always make Tiktok videos. Unfortunately, breaks from social media during test weeks for school, or just mental health checks, ultimately result in a drop of growth. I’ve had to come to terms that it’s okay if Rice & Spice doesn’t gain followers consistently or that we can’t post on our Instagram regularly and amass hundreds of likes. I’ve also started to learn how to delegate tasks and responsibilities to other team members. They’ve all been a great help and are always responsive and timely, so I am forever grateful for them. I sometimes have a problem with thinking that everything has to my responsibility, and I am slowly starting to let go of that burdening mindset.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m the Editor-in-Chief of Rice & Spice. I run our social media accounts, create and update our website, manage our team, oversee projects, and regularly curate and edit pieces. However, as a creative, I am a writer. I haven’t always been one. I remember in kindergarten one day, I sat on the plastic navy chair and refused to pick up my pencil. We were supposed to write 1-3 sentences about what we did over winter break, but I absolutely refused to write a single word. Despite the exasperated encouragement of my teacher and friends, I just sat there, and the rest of the class waited ages for me to finally write one crooked sentence. After hearing about the fiasco that day, my mom resolved that if I wasn’t going to like writing, I was going to at least be good at it. My family is fortunate enough to have the financial security and resources for my mom to sign up for years of writing classes, writing tutors, and writing summer camps. It wasn’t until the summer after 6th grade where everything finally clicked. It was a writing workshop where the course mentor assigned us four prompts.
An hour before the next session day, I panicked and started to scribble down furiously random bits and phrases that came to mind. When I came to the workshop and passed around my pages, after the instructor finished reading, she said, “Sydney, this is poetry.” Poetry? I had never liked reading poetry, and I didn’t even know I had been writing poetry. But… it had felt good, just writing down whatever I felt and thought. And hearing the positive feedback of my writing peers, I realized, writing isn’t so bad. From then on, I wrote poetry every day. I started to write short stories, essays, memoirs. I fell in love with the satisfying feeling of when you finally just get that one phrase to sound the way you wanted it and crafting a layered story woven with plots and characters. I remember one day, my writing mentor recommended me a local writing contest. “You could workshop that short story of yours and submit it,” she told me. I had been writing a short story about two siblings skipping stones, which had come to mind late at night when an image of two kids skipping stones formed in my mind.
For the next month or two, I edited and edited and edited, until finally, I submitted the piece. Not expecting that I’d win anything, the contest completely slipped my mind. Then one day, I opened my email, and sitting there was an email that said, “Congratulations, you’ve been selected as the second-place winner!” I shrieked in surprise, my dog jumping at my yell. I was completely dumbstruck. I didn’t know if the judges would have enjoyed my writing, I didn’t think I’d win. I’d never submitted writing to a contest before, and seeing the judge’s comments on how they liked the structure and phrasing of my writing, I felt a surge of comfort. Knowing that even in the tiniest way, my writing has touched and reached people is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. Since then, I’ve submitted to a few more contests and won a few awards. I’ve picked up journalism and have started writing nonfiction. But in the end, it’s not the winning or awards or achievements for me. Even if someone told me, “From this moment, you won’t be published anywhere,” I would still continue writing. Weaving my thoughts into stories, creating worlds of fiction, appreciating life through words is the greatest gift I can have.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
There’s a long, long list of people who have supported me through my journey, but my mom stands out the most. From working to improve me into a writer with years of classes, summer camps, driving me from city to city, to being my number one critic and supporter, my mom has always been there for me. Many parents tell their kids to refrain from pursuing the arts and humanities, but my mom keeps supporting me. When I found my love for writing, she began buying me books on writing, finding contests and workshops she thought I’d enjoy. I remember at first when I started Rice & Spice, I kept it privately to myself as I wasn’t sure if she’d support the project. But when I finally told her, she immediately leaped to encourage me, complimenting the website and work and suggesting ideas for our team to try. I appreciate her enthusiastic cheering so much, and although we do have our differences and don’t always agree, I am so grateful for her to be by my side. I don’t tell this to her face like the stubborn teenager I am, but I truly appreciate my mom to the core of my existence. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.
Pricing:
- Rice & Spice Magazine First Issue: $20
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: ricespicemag.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ricespicemag/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHHZrQLOxDC_M4z09Zr7FwQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ricespicemag?lang=en
Image Credits:
Joanna Chung Sydney Ling Maya Umemoto Gorman Lo Tran Diana Zhao Sravya Balasa Victoria Huerta Caroline Xia
