As the first Asian-American global face of L’Oreal Paris and Global Ambassador for Chanel, Soo Joo Park – also known as @soojmooj and for her bleached blond hair – is breaking stereotypes across multiple industries including fashion, beauty, and music.
We talked to Sooj about how she’s celebrating Asian American Pacific Heritage Month about diversity, influences in her own life, and a good read for this month.
Tell us about yourself.
I’m a Korean American born in Seoul. At age 10, my family emigrated to Southern California, sponsored by my father’s oldest sister. I went to UC Berkeley majoring in architecture and began modeling when I was scouted in San Francisco.
Does your family have any traditions that are especially important to you?
In Korea, we have this tradition of having myeokguk, or Korean seaweed soup, on birthdays. Seaweed is rich in calcium and omega acids. It’s one of my favorite Korean dishes, and my mom makes the most delicious one with bone broth that she cooks for hours to achieve the perfect umami. We had it on every family member’s birthday growing up, and now that I’m in New York, she sometimes sends me a frozen vat of it via express mail.
How has your heritage shaped the person you are today?
Growing up as an immigrant in a vastly different culture has made a tremendous impact on who I am. Even though my parents had moved to a foreign country, they kept true to the cultural values, language, and lifestyle from our motherland which taught me to never forget where I came from, for better or for worse. Much of my adolescence and young adulthood was spent in trying to find my own identity from the given constructs, and that journey led me through my path. My parents also instilled traditional Asian values that exemplified resilience and hard work. They weren’t necessarily content that I was pursuing modeling in the beginning, as they wished for me to go into something more academically inclined or “stable”—but the values they taught me helped me endure through the slow-burn trials and rejections from casting calls and agencies that I dealt with at the beginning of my career without being discouraged.
What does Asian American Pacific Islander Month mean to you?
Having a month dedicated to our race is a gesture of acknowledgement, and that awareness is great. We’re the fastest-growing minority in the country, yet Asian-American and Pacific Islander heritage is heavily underrepresented, and I want to push for more inclusion. And especially this year, due to the COVID pandemic and its origins linking to Asia, celebrating the month of May with our ancestors, families, and friends of the heritage feels like a triumphant way to cope and fight back racism and bigoted injustices.
Who is someone in the industry that you look up to and how have they influenced your work?
Anna May Wong is someone I love and would have loved to meet. She found a way into Hollywood and world cinema by first offering to be an extra on film sets. When she was criticized for her American accent, she took voice lessons to—quite literally—find her own voice. Despite her talent and beauty, she had to face many adversities in an era that didn’t accept her as who she was. I see myself in her in a lot of ways.
I have profound respect for all the Asian Americans in my industry today as well; I speak often to Carol Lim (of Opening Ceremony and once Creative director of Kenzo alongside her partner Humberto Lim) who is a fellow Cal alumni and Korean-American. She recently gave me a great book recommendation, Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, a Korean-American author. It’s a beautiful novel and perfect for AAPI month.
How have you used your celebrity status to support Asian-Americans?
I want to help facilitate by participating in outreach programs. APEX for Youth and Burdock are some organizations I work with, and a couple weeks ago I did a Live conversation with photographer Yu Tsai to discuss diversity and being an Asian American model in the industry.
What opportunity do you see in promoting female Asian-American presence across industries when you are the face of campaigns or a brand ambassador?
I hope to add to a fuller representation of Asian Americans and to push the barriers of stereotypes that are given due to race and background. With my bleached eyebrows and hair, I’ve had a beauty contract with L’Oréal Paris since 2015, and I’m really grateful that they are embracing a woman of color who isn’t a stereotypical idea of an Asian beauty.
What message do you hope Asian-Americans (and others) receive when they see you on commercials, walking down the runway, or on advertisements?
That our biggest strength as an individual comes from knowing and understanding who you are in and out of a society.
