"HEAR OUR VOICES"

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Social Media Report: Canadian Red Cross

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Social Media Report

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My Twitter Essay

Want to learn how to drive more traffic to your website? Wondering why some websites can always show up on the top list of your searching page on #Google? This video will tell you what #SEO is and how it works to get your site seen. Check this out

Interesting fact: 91% of the people rely on searching engines to find information, and 63% of them only go for the top three results that showed up on their searching page, including me lol. How to make your site to the top three lists? Well, #SEO has its way. #WebPromotion

First, let’s figure out what determines the site position. Every website has a rank. #Factor1: Since people like searching by keywords, the site that has the keywords most often will show up higher in the searching results page.

However, sources that contain lots of keywords do not necessarily mean they are relatable. Therefore, we need #Factor2: How often is the website being referred to by other websites. The more it’s being referred, the more trustful this source is. That is #HowGoogleWasBorn!

In short summary, how do search engines work today? They still look at your website’s keywords, but they will rank your site’s relevance based on the number and quality of work backlinks to it from other websites.

#SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, its job is to get your website seen based on these two factors that I’ve mentioned! How cool is it right? #WhatisSEO #GetYourWebsiteSeen

#SEO has two components. No.1 #OnsiteComponent: Optimize your website to contain keywords. Let’s say if you are selling YSL lipsticks, make sure you have keywords such as #Beautyproducts #YSL #Lipsticks #Makeup #Women

No.2 #OffsiteComponent: Try to generate backlinks to your website that originated from other sources. You can start with #Twitter or #Tumblr. The more influential that backlink website is, the more effect it is going to have on your search result ranking!

Conclusion from today's #SEO lesson: keywords are for letting #Google see your website, backlinks are for letting #Google trust your website. Now you know the trick on how to move your website to the top of the food chain right?  

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Here is my review of an app called Forest 

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Not all Asian girls are skinny

Even though I do look skinny for some people, to be honest, I’ve personally struggled a lot with my body image. Whenever I told my Canadian friends about the concern over my increased weight, they all responded something like “No way!” “You've already skinny enough!” “No matter how much you ate, you still look the same” or “Don’t worry, you Asian have your ‘skinny genes.’” On the one hand, I do appreciate what they said to me, and I feel happy when others think I look skinny; on the other side, their thoughts put me under tremendous pressure into these Asian stereotypes in relation to body images.

Although I was struggling with my body weight, I knew that I was not comparing myself with others. Instead, I only like comparing to past self. Therefore, I always asked myself: “Do I look fatter now compared to three years ago?” “Do I gain weight recently?” When it comes to our images, we often compare with ourselves; however, if we are asked to evaluate others, we would take a completely different perspective. For example, I am Asian, so my friends would automatically compare my body image with other Asian girls, which causes a lot of pressure on me because of these Asian stereotypes that I am expected to fit in. Although their thoughts and comments did not impact me immediately, in the long term, it can reinforce my own idea of “what Asian girls are supposed to look like” and “How many more pounds I need to lose to get a ‘perfect’ Asian body image?”

Through my personal experience, what I want to tell other people who get to read my post is that please stop giving labels to any bodies such as “fat,” “skinny,” “perfect,” “body goal.” There should be no standard in defining the “perfect” body, and labeling would only cause us to form social stereotypes. Instead, we should all appreciate the differences and individuality in everyone’s body.

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I am an Asian student, but I’m not good at maths. My parents are not so called “Asian tiger parents” as what most Western people usually think. They are understandable, kind, and patient. They always support me on doing everything I like. 

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Eighteen-year-old Canwen Xu shares her Asian-American story of breaking traditional Western stereotypes against Asian people at TED Talks. This is such an excellent video to watch and share with you all. 

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Welcome Note

Hello, my friend! I’d like to welcome you to my blog.❤️

Let me introduce myself to you first. I’m Jessica, and I’m a fourth-year student at Queen’s University. As one of a few Asian students who is majoring in gender studies, I dedicate myself to the empowerment of Asian women’s voices in Western culture. Therefore, I want to use this space as a platform to speak up for Asian women and to share their stories with you all. In “Hear Our Voices,” you will be reading interesting life experiences of Asian women living in Canada, and you will be hearing various stories that reveal authentic images of Asian women. Most importantly, you will be provided with the chance to eliminate all your previous prejudices and stereotypes against Asian women here.

Here are some topics that you might be interested in.

Life stories of Asian people living in Canada

Q&A: Do you really know about Asian?

Traveling in Asia

Uncovering the “Asian myth”

While the overall experience is great, I've still had a few times feeling excluded as an Asian student in the class. It was one time at a group discussion. I was assigned to team up with two other white girls. After getting into the group, they started to express their thoughts without a pause, and to have eye contact only with each other, giving me no chance to speak. Although I tried to express my opinion, this conversation still made me feel like being an outsider. Moreover, in my gender studies classes, whenever we talk about issues of race, Muslim and black people are always the primary subjects, and Asian people are rarely discussed. Combining with my own experiences, I would really love to use this online space ----“Hear Our Voices” to draw your attention on Asian people and to bring their stories closer to your life with the help of social media.

Social media has its power of bringing every one of us together to this online platform and allowing us to exchange ideas and information with strangers. As a result, people around the world all have an equal chance to read my posts and to contribute themselves to raise Asian people’s voices in Western society. Are you going to be one of them? Feel free to share your thoughts and leave your comment under any posts! It is my pleasure having you here!

Hopefully you will enjoy reading my posts and get some inspirations here!

Enjoy

Jessica Lin