Confessions of a Beauty Pageant Loser
An essay about my experience going undercover at the Miss Chinese International beauty pageant.
Writing Fan Fiction Gave Me Community and Creative Freedom
An essay about finding a writing community (and freedom from perfectionism) online.
Mulan: Badass Warrior or Devoted Daughter?
An essay about the irony and appropriation of China’s woman warrior.
My Dad Is Chronically Ill & It Makes Dating Complicated
An essay about navigating dating and grieving.
An essay about learning to love a patient, as a patient.
Second place winner for the University of Pennsylvania Gibson Peacock Creative Nonfiction Prize.
An essay about the intersections of art and mourning and my experiences working on a podcast exploring grief.
An essay examining chronic illness and body image
An essay on caregiving and parenting
Becoming a Member of the Sick Parents Society
An essay about my experience apprenticing for a podcast that explores the nuances of parental loss, while having a sick parent myself.
An essay about lessons learned on the eve of a remission and recovery.
The ‘What If’ Conundrum: Leaving that Mentality behind at Graduation
A senior column saying goodbye to all that (and undergrad)
Maybe Being a Starving Artist Wasn’t So Sexy After All
An op-ed about growing up and the age-old question of passion versus pension. Do we really have to make a choice so rapidly?
An essay about a father’s diagnosis and a daughter’s regret
Second place winner in the Columbia Gold Circle Awards for “First person experience”
Finding Love in the Community After Loss
An essay examining the different kinds of love we let into our lives after loss.
Sabrina Lu Qiao 