Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Wong

Hi Kelly, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

People who know me today consider me extroverted and a science geek but it wasn’t always like that and I never fully showed the complete raw side of me until recent years.

As a child, it was always a question about “Will people like me or will people like being around me.” Those questions stuck with me growing up, and it was hard to make friends, which then turned into mental battles every day. I was the most introverted person ever as a child, and people would have to force me to talk to get any answers out of me or get me to speak in turn, it would frustrate me, and I would say something brutal or not speak at all. It followed me everywhere in grade school; it made it even more difficult because I became a target for teasing and bullying.

As I navigated how to get over my shyness, people took advantage of it, and I mistakenly became a people pleaser without realizing it at the time. It gradually got worse to the point people blew up my phone 100 times at night asking for assignments and then would tell me the next day, “I needed this assignment by 9 pm last night why didn’t you help me. I thought we were friends how could you do this to me”. It guilt-tripped me to the point I would go above and beyond for these people and help them with their assignments, and it included being up until 2 am at times and being so sleep-deprived the next day, but the payoff was my sanity because it was impossible to myself first. After all, I was more busy helping others out than helping myself out. That cycle eventually put me in a depressive state to the point I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Eventually, I was backed against the wall and was told I wouldn’t get far in life if I wasn’t going to help anybody. Feeling trapped, I had to decide on the spot, which was to stop logging into social media and delete it for a while.

Through my late teens and early 20s, it was a battle with my mental state because it was hard to find what I wanted to do professionally it was at one point, I was in a situation where I was doing one full-time and three part-time jobs and it was an exhausting experience. Even today, I still can’t fathom how I did it and how I survived, and I still commend my past self for handling it like it was nothing. Today I am only 25, and I have been doing science research for nine years, I have three publications in science journals that are public, and I was an adjunct college professor.

But through that journey, I am thankful for everyone who has made and tried to make my life miserable. It includes people who talked me down, abused me, demoted me from my former position, told me I would never be a scientist, told me I didn’t have the skills to be a scientist, and told me that I was incapable of doing anything. They made me work harder, improve who I am as a person, and improve myself as a scientist. Without them, I wouldn’t be here today as a cancer research scientist.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

The road was far from smooth it was a lot of late-night tears, questioning myself, numerous mental breakdowns, and rollercoasters of emotional breakdowns.

The biggest struggle/ challenge for me at the time was navigating my shyness and not taking people’s negative actions toward me sensitively. When I started science research, it was difficult and I would ask myself “Can I do this? Would my co-workers like me?, Should I back out? I don’t think I can do this”. I thought it was just jitters but then I realized I also had social anxiety because I was not the type of person who could easily walk up to someone and have a conversation with them so the thought of having engaging conversations with new people was scary and it was tough at the very beginning being transparent with all my co-workers but it slowly got better. I also just turned 16 at the time when I started so I was one of the youngest and it made me even more nervous about being around others but the best decision I ever made because it forced me to navigate my introverted self and my shyness healthily and made it comfortable for me to experiment what worked for me and what didn’t work.

I also was doing museum education on top of science research for 6 years because I didn’t know what I wanted to do for my career, but museum education helped me be more and more comfortable around new people, which gave me more confidence in deciding what I liked and didn’t like. When I eventually decided to become a research scientist full-time, the process at the beginning was again tough because I was in a constant cycle of pleasing my higher-ups and not feeling happy about what I was doing. Although I broke out of my shy shell, I didn’t break out of being too sensitive when people would treat me negatively, and I was still taking it to heart because my higher-ups wouldn’t spare one day to talk down on me. Science research is stressful because of all the deadlines we are under, and there are always risks of things going wrong so that stress added to my higher-ups stressing me out, made me question whether I was capable of being a research scientist because I was constantly being told I was doing everything wrong and I hated going to work every day. Then I realized I couldn’t handle being micromanaged because I was used to having space where someone wasn’t watching over my shoulder and making me feel stupid for asking questions. Eventually, the environment got too hostile and abusive to the point I was only being talked down on everything that was going wrong and not getting acknowledged I was doing right. Again, the cycle of my people-pleasing habits was taking over me, and all I did every day was just do everything in my power to please my higher-ups, micromanaging all of my smallest mistakes and only getting acknowledged for everything that went wrong and stealing all the credit for everything I did right with no acknowledgment. The hardest part about that was my eyes weren’t opening up to the abusive environment until I was pushed into a wall and forced to decide at the very moment, which was to quit.

That was the first time I questioned myself whether I wanted to continue science research and asked myself how dumb I was for not being able to do it despite doing it for 7 years. After quitting, I took a hiatus from science research, which I hadn’t done before, but I spent that time evaluating my whole life because I grew hatred towards myself and battled the feelings of stupidity and blaming myself for what had happened and considered switching careers. Eventually, I realized that I didn’t hate science research, but I hated how I was being treated because science research is hard, and being in a toxic environment made it worse. coming to that realization, I decided I was ready to give it another shot

All those challenges led me to where I am today, where I research cancer, specifically blood cancer. I have also mentored interns as well which is something was beyond my dreams I never thought I could do. I have learned along the way what being a mentor for my interns means, which is having someone there to answer their questions, show them how they can do better, problem-solve, and be transparent with them. My experience of being in an environment that is supportive, non-hostile, patient, and non-belittling has made me realize all the decisions I have made in the past, both good and bad, have paved the way for where I am today. It made me realize how questioning myself about my abilities as a scientist was unhealthy and despite only doing cancer research for less than a year, it has reversed those thoughts. Again, it was hard at the beginning and I had days where I worked thirteen hours with no breaks but seeing the results and publications made every late night and every challenge worth it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I am a cancer research scientist, and my specialty is leukemia, specifically Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. I can’t go into much detail about it, but I am trying to pave a path for non-chemotherapy treatments. Chemotherapy is hard on the human body because it kills a lot of the healthy cells along with the cancer cells so I am trying to find a cure that will only attack the cancer cells. It is also what I am most proud of because I am the first person in my family who is doing science research instead of working in banking or technology. I also co-authored three publications in science journals in 11 months, which I have never done before. I nearly thought it was impossible, but it was my proudest moment.

What sets me apart from others is I am a huge science geek.I will roll up my sleeves, tie up my hair, glover up, and get to work in a science lab. But at the same time, I have the girliest personality ever, and I am a completely different person with a different look outside of what I do at work. I call it a dual personality because people have told me, “I could never picture you being a scientist because I always thought you would be a teacher”. I can also see that as well because I never pictured myself being a scientist either when I was younger. Another part of me that makes me unique is I have done so much at such a young age. When I was 21 I worked in national science labs; at the age of 22 I became an adjunct college professor in biology; at 25, I co-authored 3 science journal publications.

What’s next?

My plans for the future are to continue growing my podcast Chill Time with Kelly, continue my passion for science, and continue exploring my creativity when it comes to photography. I am most looking forward to seeing where my research discoveries lead because every discovery in science opens doors to new research and new questions to be explored, and it is how science evolves. The biggest change in 2024 was I found that balance between my creativity, personal life, and work life. I used to dedicate all my time to work and then missed the creative aspect of me, which is photography. I love doing it because it gives me a break from being in my head and allows me to dress up, get my hair and make-up done, and feel like a whole new person.

There’s been nothing but big changes in 2024 from a new job, new science journal publications, new friends, and new beginnings. I am always looking forward to experiencing what happens next in my life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellwo548/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfPOz0W7MIgQyfg9OPEe5Vg
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chill-time-with-kelly/id1691422812