Youngmi Mayer says she hates doing research but, in our conversation and in her new memoir I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying, she does a lot of digging into the events of her life and what they all meant. Youngmi grew up in Saipan and Korea, the daughter of a Korean mother and a White American father, and had to deal with discrimination, harassment, and abuse. Later on, she moved to America with $700 in her pocket and no real plan in order to escape an abusive relationship and had to find a path that included a place of prominence in the restaurant scene, a life of comedy, and a severe depression disorder.

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The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

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