As we continue to celebrate APIDA Heritage Month, we also want to make sure we recognize May as Mental Health Awareness Month! Our modern society is slowly but surely putting a greater emphasis on nurturing and acknowledging mental health, which is crucial for our APIDA community and its future. Improving your mindset can be one way to improve your mental health. In our volunteer Kristine’s blog, she explores how Studio Ghibli’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” mirrors how the growth and fixed mindsets affect mental health.

As we've explored previously on our blog, APIDA representation in animation is still a work in progress. But beyond onscreen representation, what is the APIDA representation behind-the-screen? In her next blog post, our volunteer Veronica interviewed Gene Kim, a Korean-American writer, animator, storyboard artist, and filmmaker, who directed the animated short film, One Last Monster. In their conversation, Kim shared his filmmaking process, the challenges of strengthening diversity in the animation industry, and the the opportunities creators of color have in independent animation.