Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Wong. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Samantha, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

A few years ago, I was looking for fun birthday gifts to give to two little boys I knew. I decided to try sewing some fabric play food for each of them and thought a little bok choy would be nice to include as a nod to their Asian heritage as well as mine. I was easily able to find patterns online for carrots, beets, and cabbages but only photos of ready-made bok choy toys with no tutorials. I didn’t know much about pattern making at that time, so regretfully had to leave the bok choy out.

A couple years later, when I had my son, I was determined to find a way to make a felt bok choy. There still wasn’t any patterns available, so I attempted to make one myself from scratch. It ended up being more comically cute than realistic with a fat, round base and oversized green leaves but my son loved it, and that was fine with me. After that, I occasionally made a few other felt fruits and vegetables to add to his collection but never thought about making my hobby any more serious than that.

Last year, after 13 years of working in Corporate and Tech, I reached a point of severe burn out. My life changed a lot after having my son but I kept on working full time while trying to stretch myself to meet the needs of my family, rarely stopping to fill my own cup. I reached breaking point when my last company had a sudden major shift in its leadership and culture and I eventually no longer felt safe to bring my whole self to work. I became depressed and made a very difficult and emotional decision to resign with no future plans except to repair my fragile mental state.

I took some time to explore activities I really found joy in and started sewing again. One day, I saw the felt bok choy sitting on the toy shelf and thought, maybe it’s time to revisit that design again. Weirdly, there was still no pattern available online so with some trial and error I altered the original pattern I had made. While I was designing and sewing, I started to rediscover a new sense of purpose and self-worth that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I had so much fun making the new bok choy, I started to wonder what other Asian foods I could make out of felt for my son’s play kitchen. However, I was disappointed to find that most tutorials for Asian felt food were for dumplings and sushi yet there was so much variety for Western felt food. In fact it made me a little mad, so I decided to start YumSumCha Designs to break this stereotype and demonstrate to the crafting world how amazingly diverse Asian food really is and expand our ideas of how Asian culture can be integrated into pretend play.

Samantha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Samantha Wong, founder of YumSumCha Designs, a small, woman-owned business bringing Asian culture to crafting and imaginative play. I help people learn how to sew Asian-themed felt play food with downloadable, ready-to-print templates and detailed step-by-step photo tutorials.

Sewing and crafting have always been two of my main creative outlets in life and was the therapy I needed to recover from deep burn out. Growing up, I used to watch my Po Po (maternal Grandma) alter and mend clothes using her sewing machine and the tools in her trusty sewing box. I learned basic sewing in school but mostly kept it as a hobby, taking it as far as designing and making my own cosplays for anime conventions and photo shoots.

I started YumSumCha Designs after I struggled to find tutorials to make Asian-themed felt play food for my son that reflected our pantry and the food we love to eat. My goal is to increase Asian representation in crafting and imaginative play by inviting crafters to diversify their felt food collection and kids’ play kitchens with easy-to-follow tutorials to make Asian-themed felt play food. I’m really proud to be building a community that supports this vision and invite you to weave Asian culture into crafts and play time by joining our mailing list and checking out our patterns. You’ll find patterns for popular Asian foods such as a leafy felt bok choy, felt ginger, and a cute mini felt wok with stir-fry with lots more exciting food patterns coming soon.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m trying to unlearn comparing myself with others and people pleasing. I grew up in Australia but I had very strong Chinese values instilled in me from my Mum and my Po Po (maternal Grandma). As immigrants, they had to work really hard to make a better life for the family in Australia, so naturally they wanted my sister and I to be setup for success when we became independent adults. While I had a fairly good and happy upbringing, I felt immense pressure to get good grades and unconsciously developed a mindset of chasing praise and recognition to feel fulfillment. I was also often bullied at school for being quiet and “shy” or for being Chinese. I’d compare myself with my White friends and wonder why life seemed so much simpler and easier for them. While I was able to get a college degree like my family had hoped, the years I spent trying to get approval and recognition from my Mum really put a strain our relationship and it was only after I moved out of home, that I slowly started to find my own sense of identity and healthier ways to develop self-confidence.

Now as a Mum myself and a solopreneur, I still regularly battle anxiety and imposter syndrome but I’m much more aware of what triggers me and what can heal me. Therapy, my support network, and moving my body are some of the ways I release my nervous energy and thoughts. I’ve found views and likes really skew my sense of success and the impact I want to have so I’ve been experimenting with my marketing strategies to see if I can reach my audience without relying heavily on social media. Setting up YumSumCha Designs has been one of the biggest leaps I’ve taken in my life and the first time in my career I’m doing something on my own for my own sake. While it feels so terrifying at times, it also feels so freeing.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I am a big fan of The Lazy Genius podcast with Kendra Adachi. The podcast is about how we can apply some simple principles to our lives to help you focus on what really matters and let go of what doesn’t. Listening to her podcast and reading her latest book, The Plan, helped me realize how much of the expectations of living in the SF Bay Area, being a woman, a mum, and an Australian Chinese expat, I carry on my shoulders everyday and how some of that feeds my anxiety and imposter syndrome. I’ve unconsciously put a lot of pressure on myself to “feel busy” so it feels like I’m being productive but recovering from burn out has taught me that this isn’t a sustainable mindset. The podcast has helped me realize it’s ok to be more intentional with how I use my time and that I can still be successful without necessarily following the social expectations of hustle culture. Going against the grain isn’t easy but listening to the podcast feels like having a pep talk from a best friend who just gets it, and that has been really empowering for me as a Mum and and solopreneur.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yumsumchadesigns.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/yumsumchadesigns