I grew up writing stories about white heroes because I never imagined someone like me could be at the centre of any narrative.

As the child of Vietnamese immigrants in Australia growing up in the ’90s and 2000s, I rarely saw people like me represented in media. This absence shaped more than just the entertainment I was exposed to growing up—it moulded my sense of possibility.

I once did whatever it took to be the star performer. Long hours, constant people-pleasing, pushing myself beyond my limits. I was ticking all the boxes of 'success' while feeling like a shell of a human beneath it all.

My body kept score of what my mind refused to acknowledge. After years of masking my true self in professional environments, I hit breaking point.

The way we are working at the moment is fundamentally broken.

Our workplaces protect a status quo that nobody actually wants - where everybody nods but nobody actually agrees. This isn't about a few people struggling to fit in. It's about an entire system built on false assumptions about there being a 'correct' way for how human brains should work.