Growing up in Santa Clarita, Ellie Magsaysay was one of the few Asian American kids in her neighborhood, and certainly one of the few Filipino Americans. Some people seemed confused by her background, she says, and assumed she wasn’t Asian. It’s affected her sense of identity and, at times, her self-esteem.
Was being Filipina or having darker skin, she wondered, why boys didn’t seem interested? “I remember just vividly experiencing not being the ideal type as an Asian and not being an ideal type as a white person or anything else,” Magsaysay said. “It’s like where do you really fit in?” It’s one of the questions Magsaysay, an incoming senior, gets to explore in a peer-to-peer program promoting mental health awareness among younger Filipino Americans. Over a couple of weeks during the summer, a dozen people met regularly In Historic Filipinotown in a light-filled multipurpose room at Search To Involve Pilipino Americans , which developed the program.
A handful of college-age facilitators trained by the community organization teach eight teenage students about signs of depression and anxiety — and ways to cope through journaling and breathing exercises. But just as Asian Americans are incredibly diverse, so are the mental health needs of different ethnicities. The facilitators make sure to discuss issues familiar to the Filipino diaspora such colorism and cultural expectations.
One exercise has the teens thinking up of comebacks to harmful statements like �.
