MEET LOTUS MAGAZINE

A bimonthly digital publication for Asian American womxn to share their voices and perspectives

During the height of the pandemic and in the midst of so much global turmoil, Lotus Magazine was born out of a need for Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voices to be heard and narratives to be represented. This began as a grassroots zine project started during lockdown in 2019, when Co-Founder Alyssa Chiang moved back home for a few months and leafed through the magazines she used to collect — Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Vogue, etc. — and took note of the incredibly limited representation of Asian Americans in the media space. And even when there was representation, it didn’t always paint the whole picture of what it meant to be Asian American. Fundamentally, AAPI stories and voices were missing. These observations made her think about how so many in the AAPI community do not feel seen or heard. At the same time, the AAPI community was hard-hit by the pandemic in many ways, as deep-seated prejudice rose to the surface and reared its ugly head. As a community, we experienced fear, trauma, and loss. They say the lotus flower grows in even the murkiest, dirtiest waters, and these were the waters in which Lotus Magazine bloomed, striving to make a difference in the AAPI community. 

Lotus Magazine was co-founded in October 2019 by Alyssa and her college roommate, Alexis Constantino. Cultivating Lotus Magazine together, it has blossomed into so much more than a grassroots passion project. It has become a mission to provide a space for voices in the AAPI community to be amplified and for the community to find strength in each other. They hope that Lotus Magazine can serve as a platform for self-identifying Asian American womxn to have a space to find each other and make their voices heard, and that this will lead us to be able to empower and inspire one another, and to create a sense of community within ourselves and as part of a greater whole.

Through thoughtful persistence and strength, Alyssa and Alexis continue to build Lotus Mag steadily so that others in the AAPI community can feel authentically represented. Besides the internal rewards of putting out quality content resulting from hard work and discipline as well as a true love for what they are doing, the feedback from their readers and supporters has been immensely motivational for them. “It’s beautiful for us to hear about how readers, no matter who they are, relate to our content in some way or another. The support and validation helps keep us pushing forward even on the days when things feel slow.”

Lotus Magazine is now made possible with a team of passionate, like-minded volunteer members, who generate brilliant ideas and do the hard work to make everything happen. In addition, they have received an outpour of love and support from the community around them who motivate them every day to keep building the Lotus Mag platform.

Every other month, Lotus Magazine releases a collection of articles to share that the team has collected by interviewing people in the community, featuring guest writers, and doing some independent research to learn constantly. The “Asian American narrative” is diverse — there are so many different pathways that can feed into identifying as “Asian American”. But through it all, there are also so many similarities that lay the groundwork for building community. By highlighting diverse experiences through the lens of a lifestyle magazine, Lotus Mag strives to shed light on the stories that make up what it means to be Asian American. Embracing who we are and being willing to share that with others is ultimately what will build up the AAPI community and help make representation a liberation from any boxes or categories.

To find Lotus Magazine’s issues and keep up with what they’re doing, you can subscribe (for free) on their website, lotus-mag.com and find all previous issues. You can also follow them on Instagram @lotus_mag for additional content.