People Like Us Sharifah A Omar & Hanan Nor

This week, we talked to Erica Eng, an award-winning comic artist and digital animator, famously known for her webcomic masterpiece, Fried Rice that won the prestigious Eisner Award. Fried Rice is a story about a 17-year-old girl who wants to be an artist and also lives in Malaysia”. Born and raised in Batu Pahat, Erica is currently pursuing her bachelor in fine arts at Academy of Art University in San Fransisco, CA. In this episode, we discussed everything from her webcomic Fried Rice, her experiences maneuvering her journey to be an artist from a local town in Malaysia, to ordinary things that she did extraordinarily (like being the one of the youngest recipients of Eisner Award!!). 

In this episode, we bring you the utterly sensational Roshinee Mookaiah who uses art, social media and story-telling to advocate for the causes she is passionate about. Roshinee is the founder and curator of the Malaysian Indian Anthology did not go unnoticed as she pushes to elevate more underrepresented voices and challenge the narratives around the Indian Community in Malaysia. Currently, she is a Communication and Fundraising Manager at Yayasan Chow Kit, a charity with a mission to protect the rights of at-risk children and teenagers. Together, we discussed Roshinee's journey in advocacy underpinned by her strengths in storytelling, creativity and ability to be vulnerable with them. We also talked about some practical ways in following one's passions and crafting meaningful content to appeal to others. Lastly, we discussed some challenges we faced in crafting our narratives and amplifying our voices and more practical ways to overcoming those challenges!

This week, the podcast welcomes its first ever guest, Lisa Kamal. Most famously known for her commencement speech of a lifetime, Lisa joins us to talk about becoming an accidental famous person and dealing with transitioning from an undergraduate to a young professional. Lisa also discusses how she found courage to create opportunities for herself, her relationship with art - namely poetry, and shares some practical tips in overcoming the imposter syndrome.

In this introductory episode on People Like Us, we shared about who we are, our friendship and explain our intentions in creating this podcast!