We were lucky to catch up with Yuen Wang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Yuen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

To be completely honest, I don’t think I ever had a plan B- art was the only thing I “excelled” at and was passionate about since a young age. So, I knew I wanted to be an artist- but I hadn’t learned about animation until high school, and hadn’t heard of storyboarding until I got to college. Though I’d been dreaming of being an artist since I could hold a pencil, I felt really behind in my major in college (being an animation student pursuing a storyboard artist career). I struggled really hard to grasp both subjects, animation, and story. In my junior year, I failed to get my thesis story to “pass” the first faculty critique, and during my senior year, I struggled a lot to balance storyboarding and animation at once.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! I’m Yuen (Yui) Wang, and I’m a queer Chinese-American storyboard artist from New Jersey! I went to RCAD for Computer Animation, and currently work at South Park Studios in Los Angeles. I like to tell stories that make your heart beat faster, both in a fluffy way and a scary way. I love themes about the Asian-American experience, female experience, and queer experience.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Networking is genuinely about making friends! I feel like as a student, networking is often associated with putting on a farse, remaining as professional as possible, and having really, really high expectations for how the conversation is going to go. In reality, networking is a lot less formal and gives others the chance to get to know you as a person, outside of your art. There’s no need to compare or get lost in the formalities, just be genuine, curious, and open-minded. Want to talk about your hobbies? Do it! Embarrassing stories? Do it! Everyone is human, and we all appreciate a great conversation/connection—We just also happen to be in the same industry.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I only really stay active on Instagram, and I don’t have a huge following, but I do think I have a very interesting point-of-view when it comes to social media.

DELETE IT.

No, I don’t mean “don’t use social media at all”. In fact, if you want to build an audience on Instagram, I’d recommend posting weekly, or every other week. What I mean instead is to simply DELETE the app after you post, mute all notifications, hide the like count on your own posts (if you want to), AND other people’s posts. Disable comments if you’d like! I personally get anxious about numbers and the comparison game, so I like to keep myself from having direct access to the app and any comparison tools I can use to belittle myself. Put yourself out there in whatever way you feel comfortable, and do it for yourself first! Make whatever social media platform you’re using WORK for you! There are so many settings and tools you can use to make it easier for you to post consistently without anxiety or comparison.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yuiwang.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chopsyui
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuen-wang/