We had the good fortune of connecting with Serena Hope Sun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Serena, what inspires you?

Strong women who are also caring and not afraid to be vulnerable, and who have multiple things going on in their lives. These are CEOs who also play an active role in their family, entrepreneurs who are not just all about money but also give back through meaningful actions, creative artists who make a difference in society outside of pure self indulgence. I may not have one particular role model in my life, but these are the type of women that I look up to, and the type of person I myself aspire to be.
Also, since it’s AAPI Heritage month, and in light of all the tragic Asian hate crimes that have been happening, I am inspired by the Asian American role models in our society today. There are only a handful, but I hope it keeps growing. I am inspired because as an Asian, it’s been hard to feel represented or that I belonged in the creative industries. I know how much the Asians who have made it must have worked their butts off to make it in a land that preaches equal opportunities, but the reality is, opportunities in American entertainment for Asians is still one of the lowest. I remember staring at casting breakdowns, trying to scrounge for any Asian role, and finding one tiny role out of a hundred, and then feeling that pang of hurt and disgust when I would find out the role required me to make fun of my own race and put on a fake Asian accent. The only accent I can do well are the American Southern accents, actually. Maybe one day I’ll be able to watch- or even be in- a movie about an Asian cowgirl, and I’ll get to do a southern accent and ride a horse. I love riding horses, so, who knows. Haha.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I’m an entrepreneur and a creative, and perhaps a creative first. I’d like to talk first about my nonprofit on mental health awareness and suicide prevention, Breaking Taboo. I guess I’m most excited about the opportunity to save lives on a mass scale and truly change society’s perception of mental health and having conversations around depression and suicide. I am excited about shifting the mindset of people from fear, ignorance, and disgust to one that is more accepting, compassionate, and helpful. I want people to know that mental health is health, and that we all have mental health. Mental health is not something to be scared of because you cannot avoid it. We should absolutely take care of our minds, there is no reason not to, but so many people do not know how to. I also want to teach people not only the tools to tackle more severe challenges like schizophrenia, bipolar, and depression- but also more day to day mental health challenges such as how to treat each other with more empathy, how to have healthy conversations, and how to stop unhealthy psychology habits toward ourselves and toward each other. Psychological abuse is real, and unfortunately so many people do it to each other without even realizing it. I hope one day people will understand more and stop these cycles of trauma, or at least lessen them. At Breaking Taboo, we educate people on a variety of mental health topics and work on so many projects, really the field of mental health work is endless and I see it growing with such life.

As a creative- a writer, actor, filmmaker and musician- I love exploring aspects of the human psyche and our emotions- basically the very things that make us human and feel alive. As a music teacher, I love enhancing my students’ lives with the joy of music. As a life and mental health coach, I love teaching people about even simple every day tools for how to better our mental health for ourselves and for each other and helping people own themselves and to realize their potential.  I believe in the power of empathy and what I call, “humanizing humans”.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Los Angeles has so many spots, and each district has it’s own vibe, culture, and different type of people. If it was a week long trip I would take them to each district, Santa Monica, Venice, DTLA, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Hollywood. I love Griffith park and the observatory, I always like to take people on a hike there. For nightlife I like Cliftons and Cicada, (I love swing dancing, and any dancing in general), Tenant of the Trees, No Vacancy, 7th Grand, hmm… I’m trying to think of what else… I know there are a bunch of spots in Santa Monica too but I”m so bad with names. It’s LA so we don’t like to travel far from our little hubs haha… I love bookstores too, there are alot of cute little used book stores to browse in LA. And libraries, like the big one in DTLA and the library in Glendale. Pasadena Old Town is nice and of course I always take visitors to the Grove and the Farmer’s Market because everyone loves that place. Vintage movie theatres are great too, there are alot of those. Pacific Palisades, the Self Realization Fellowship there.. I hope that’s a good list for anyone who is visiting! The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am grateful to everyone who has ever believed in me and helped Breaking Taboo. All of our lovely volunteers throughout the years who believed in this mission. Everyone who wanted to be apart of this change that I set out to create, at first thinking that it was just about me wanting to help myself and others from loosing more loved ones to suicide, but later realizing that the scope of this issue is much bigger and runs much deeper than I had even anticipated. I am grateful that there are people out there who care enough about each other to help me to bring Breaking Taboo from a series of ideas to the thriving community that it is today.

I would also like to thank all of the personal development programs I have been in, and in particular, one that stands out among the rest- called Landmark. I think it’s important for people to constantly be learning, improving, and growing. While there is no singular one “right” way, I think that if we keep immersing ourselves in our self development we benefit not only ourselves but also all the people we touch.

Website: breaking-taboo.org

Instagram: @serenahopesun

Linkedin: breakingtaboo

Twitter: SerenaHopeSun

Facebook: facebook.com/serenahopesun

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfvDTsxkJj1f44B9QRRrtYA

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