THE TIE THAT BINDS

MAHALIA CHANG

Vogue’s Sydney-based head of digital content and growth Mahalia Chang, 29, on learning to embrace her Indonesian, Australian and Scottish heritage.

THE PHRASE ‘I’M not like other girls’ is so overused these days. It’s a line we used as teenagers, desperately trying to solidify the wispy beginnings of our identity. I’m not like other girls, I don’t wear pink. I only hang out with guys. I hate girly stuff. Ugh, boy bands? Never heard of them. And if that ‘solidifying’ occurred while you were walking the tightrope of a mixed-race identity, the assertion of being different was a little more zealous. The cutting lines of internalised racism and self-hatred can be sewn deep and early, and ‘not like the other girls’ atrophies into ‘I’m not like other Asians.’ I my family’s food. Don’t speak to me in Bahasa. I know I look Asian, but I’m practically white, I can’t even handle spicy food!