The Yappie is your must-read briefing on Asian American + Pacific Islander power, politics, and influence. Every week, we give you a comprehensive rundown of policy news and activism affecting AAPI communities, with updates from Capitol Hill and beyond. Subscribe now.
Our Mission
Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities are among the fastest growing populations in the United States and play a critical role in our nation’s future. Yet they continue to feel ignored by both ends of the political spectrum and excluded from important policy conversations.
We believe that AAPI communities are empowered when they are informed, and that as the political landscape continues to evolve, no elected official should take our votes for granted. Furthermore, issues impacting AAPIs are more important than ever—and we simply need better ways to share information, tools, and resources. That’s why The Yappie aims to:
- Provide a digestible summary of the policy news affecting AAPI communities
- Track the work of AAPI advocacy organizations and AAPI elected officials, as well as other efforts to civically engage AAPI communities
- Uplift original writing and reporting by AAPI journalists and publications
- Create and distribute resources for AAPI students and interns pursuing careers in policy/public service, journalism, and communications
- Demonstrate that AAPIs deserve a strong voice in the national conversation, and that issues like immigration, housing, labor, data privacy, and poverty are AAPI issues
- Bolster civic engagement among certain AAPI populations that are traditionally uninterested in policy and public service. Subscribe now.
Your Questions, Answered
The Yappie is an independent, nonprofit newsroom supported by individual donors, grant funding, and philanthropy. In furtherance of its tax-exempt purposes as a charitable organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and applicable laws, The Yappie publishes original reporting to educate the public about policy developments affecting Asian American and Pacific Islander (“AAPI”) communities through non-partisan reporting, analysis, and research.
- Donors and sponsors play no role in our journalism, and there is a strict firewall between funders and The Yappie’s newsroom. Our storytelling, planning, and execution may be impacted by specific grant requirements, but we are not beholden to any person or entity.
- Founded in 2018 and formally incorporated in 2022, The Yappie was fiscally sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Association until early 2023.
Most of our funding comes from individual donors and grants:
- Solutions Journalism Network: The Yappie joins SJN’s Advancing Democracy Project with Self Evident, AZI Media (October 20, 2021)
- American Public Media Group’s Glen Nelson Center: The Yappie to strengthen AAPI political coverage with Next Challenge grant (February 28, 2022)
- Google News Initiative and LION Publishers: The Yappie selected for 2022 Google News Initiative and LION Startups Lab program (September 15, 2022)
- Gold House, Asian American Futures, and GoFundMe.org: The Yappie is awarded $75,000 in national philanthropic grant competition (November 29, 2022)
- In July 2022, The Yappie also received a microgrant from the Project Voice Fund as part of their 2022 Civic Impact Initiative supported by the Asian American Women's Political Initiative (AAWPI).
Note: The Yappie is an IRS designated 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. All donors are encouraged to consult their tax advisor for information.
- For tax questions and details on making a donation, please reach out to [email protected]. We encourage you to contact us prior to making a contribution of any amount.
We are committed to operating with integrity. Our purpose is to inform and serve the community, and we deeply value the trust of our readers.
Ethics: The Yappie maintains a strict firewall between our editorial and operations teams, as well as between donors and The Yappie's newsroom. Additional internal rules, as adopted on April 20, 2022, are in place to ensure that our storytelling, planning, and execution are never beholden to any person or entity, and that all team members promptly disclose possible conflicts.
Accuracy: Our coverage and analysis should be well-sourced and presented in clear, precise language. Reputable sources include, but are not limited to, interviews, legal documents, academic journals, and trusted news organizations.
Transparency: We serve in the community interest, and we will be honest about what we offer. We strive to be accountable to our readers, and we will openly acknowledge mistakes and work to correct them.
- Inaccurate information contained within stories must be corrected and/or clarified, and a note must be placed on the top of a story explaining the error.
- At times, a note may be placed on the top of a story to reflect new information or to clarify information. Changes for clarity, spelling or style do not require a correction note.
Attribution: We give credit where credit is due. All quotes and information are to be attributed properly and clearly.
- Quotes or information provided directly to, or obtained by, a Yappie team member must be noted as such by using the words “tells The Yappie.”
- Quotes or information taken from other outlets for context must be attributed to that outlet with the words “[outlet] reports” or “tells [outlet],” along with a link to the article. In newsletters, we will include the name of the outlet’s writer or reporter in the description.
Plagiarism: Plagiarizing–passing off another person’s work as your own–will not be tolerated under any circumstances and will result in immediate termination upon review.
Respect: We will be respectful and open-minded in communicating with sources, stakeholders, interested parties, and our readers.
“Yappie” stands for “young Asian professional.”
- Used as early as 1987 (from what we could find) and popularized in the 2018 Wong Fu miniseries “Yappie,” the term is generally used to describe a rising generation of youth who pursue "safe" jobs and financial stability.
- Some perceive yappies as oblivious to the issues facing greater AAPI populations, and the broader and older categorization of “yuppie” is associated with a host of socioeconomic stereotypes.
However, the term "Yappie" also encapsulates the debates within the Asian American community around racial identity, socioeconomic expectations of immigrant families, the “model minority” myth, and political apathy — all topics that we are eager to explore.
Our Team
The Yappie is made up of passionate young professionals who have worked in government, political media, and at some of the nation’s leading AAPI advocacy organizations. All bring unique experiences and connections that allow us to provide unparalleled coverage on what’s at stake for our communities.
LEADERSHIP
- Andrew Huang is The Yappie's Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Originally from Livingston, New Jersey, he is currently a student at Harvard Law School, where he is an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also received his B.A. in molecular biology from Harvard College in 2022 and an M.Phil. in international development from the University of Cambridge in 2023. Outside The Yappie, he researches U.S.-China relations, particularly trade and industrial policy. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys spending time at the beach, watching Bob's Burgers, and playing hours of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. You can reach Andrew at [email protected].
- Andrew Peng is Co-Founder and President of The Yappie, and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association. A San Diego, California native who was raised on the East Coast, he graduated from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in May 2021 with a B.A. in strategic public communication and political science. He has worked at the intersection of government, nonprofits, media, and politics — most recently serving as Communications Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI). In his free time, he enjoys photography and eating soup dumplings. You can reach Andrew at [email protected].
- Shawna Chen is the founding editor-in-chief of The Yappie, where she oversees coverage at the intersections of politics, race, and equity. Previously, she was a national breaking news reporter at Axios, where she helped drive the national conversation on anti-Asian hate, and later anchored the outlet's flagship San Francisco newsletter. Her reporting examines how public policy shapes the lives of marginalized communities, from maternal mortality gaps along racial lines to the uneven burden of climate disasters and the debate over health care for undocumented immigrants. Her work has also appeared in POLITICO, Palo Alto Weekly, and the Asian American Policy Review. Chen is the recipient of the 2022 Intersectional Reporting Prize from the Multicultural Media Correspondents and the 2019 Samuel Bowles Prize from Amherst College. In her free time, she enjoys consuming unhealthy amounts of boba and testing the limits of her spice tolerance. You can reach Shawna at [email protected].
- Erin Chen is The Yappie's Director of Audience Engagement, and the Social Media Manager at The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). She brings editorial and social expertise from her time at Bloomberg L.P. and Business Insider, where she owned social media strategy and distributed content and breaking news across social platforms. Erin graduated from the University of Rochester with a BA in Communications and recently graduated with an MA in Communications from the Johns Hopkins University. Outside of work, Erin reads and writes novels in the dark (which worsens her eyesight exponentially) and swears that she’ll learn how to ride a bike someday. You can reach Erin at [email protected].
EDITORIAL
- Hojung Lee (born in Seoul, South Korea) is a newsletter writer at The Yappie. Everything she creates is filtered through the lens of her Asian American identity. Themes of race, culture, and religion hold strong undercurrents throughout all her work, including publications in Sojourners, The Christian Century, National Catholic Reporter, and the U.S. Catholic. She loves bird song, lists, and perfectly foamed lattes. You can reach Hojung at [email protected].
- William Tong is a newsletter writer at The Yappie. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2026, and his journalism has appeared in the Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune and Raleigh News & Observer. In his free time, William likes to cook and watch Chinese dramas. You can reach William at [email protected].
- Katrina Pham is an award-winning multimedia storyteller passionate about meeting audiences where they are. Her engagement work has reached hundreds of thousands of people across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, and she uses a variety of vertical video formats, from in-the-field dispatches to at-home skits, to make news more accessible. She is currently the Social Media and Content Manager for the Chicago Reader and has previously worked with Borderless Magazine, The Marshall Project, In These Times and ABC7 Chicago. She is also a co-organizer for the Chicago hub of the Video Consortium and memberships director for the Chicago chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association.
- Dhanika Pineda is a Filipina journalist passionate about human centered cultural storytelling. She is a recent graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where she earned B.A.s in Literary Journalism and English. She's the Features Editor at Kapwa Magazine, a Filipino cultural publication, and previously served as Editor in Chief at her campus newspaper. She is a strong proponent of ethical journalism and founded an alternative student publication during her tenure as EIC to fight censorship. She's previously worked to debunk misinformation at NewsGuard, to accomplish local storytelling at Orange Coast Magazine, and to support national education initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution. She was a 2023 Asian American Journalists Association VOICES Fellow and a proud alum of the Emerson Collective Youth Collaborative. In her free time, she enjoys reading (banned books!) and baking.
- John Camara is a recent graduate of Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where he also served as a content creator and editor with the law school’s Communications and Marketing team. As a 2024-25 staff editor with the Southwestern Journal of International Law, John's legal scholarship focused on digital trade, data governance, and international economic law, and his article advocating for U.S. accession into the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement was selected for publication in Vol. 32 of the Southwestern Journal of International Law. His article placed first in the Customs and International Trade Bar Association's 2025 Andrew P. Vance Memorial Writing Competition. A Posse Foundation Scholar at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate NY, John earned his B.A. in Economics and International Relations in 2019, where he also completed an honors thesis examining the impact of ethnic enclaves on wage outcomes among Asian American ethnic groups in California. His longstanding interest in AAPI advocacy has also included experiences with the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership and as an Empowering Pilipino Youth through Collaboration (EPYC) Ambassador. At The Yappie, his writing covers politics, entertainment, culture, and influence through an AAPI lens. After previously living in Washington, D.C., and Hawaiʻi, John now resides in Los Angeles, where he was raised. In his free time, he enjoys movies, live music, tennis, and hiking.
- To contact members of our editorial team, please email [email protected].
Contact Us
We’re always looking for opportunities to collaborate, and we’d love to hear from you on how we can improve our content to better serve the community. If you have any tips, ideas, press releases, opportunities, or questions, feel free to send a note to [email protected].
If you're interested in joining our team, please click here to explore open opportunities or email [email protected].
For information on how to contact specific members of our team, click here.
