Soo Joo Park Talks Identity, Values, Being True to Yourself in WOW Magazine No 3

The WOW Magazine is UK’s first biannual magazine celebrating Asian culture and modern Asian women. In this third issue, boundary-breaking Korean-American top model Soo Joo Park reflects on identity, values and the importance of being true to yourself.

Abby Qi styles Soo Joo in major Chanel pieces from the Fall 2020 collection, with style dashes from Han Wen, Miu Miu and more in images by Peter Ash Lee. Kelly Lim conducts the interview.

Reflecting on her life in our new COVID-19 world, Soo Joo feels the irony of her desire to take a break in 2020, spending down time with her family in California but also “to spend time closer to nature, reflect and look inwards “ not just as a model but also as a human being.”’

What does empowerment mean to Soo Joo Park?

“Right now to me, it means having the courage and power to lead by example by being yourself,” she says. “I was having a really good conversation days ago with a good friend of mine and saying that it was hard because I'm having an awakening moment. As good as the things are in my life, I'm mentally questioning a lot of things. He told me, you are special and there’s no one in this world who can be you. There’s not another person in this world who can match your DNA, have your thoughts when you have them, have the desires when you have them. As long as we can celebrate our individuality, our own uniqueness and specialness, I think that’s empowering more than anything. I also want to say that it’s always a process of going back and forth and I think that I've learned to accept that. All the love, pain, sadness and joy—that's part of life.”