IMPORTANT RESOURCES AND INFORMATION
MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES
Though I am not a licensed educator or health care provider, I aim to curate information and resources from more qualified people to share with my followers who need it. Additionally, I am not diagnosed with any mental illnesses, but I have loved ones close to me who are diagnosed, or working to get a diagnosis. From this experience, I know that all people, whether or not they personally struggle with mental illness, would benefit from mental health education.
My own personal journey has definitely been more privileged than others, but that isn't to say I haven't lived without my own journey of struggles. As many of you know, the reason my fashion incorporates a lot of medical imagery is for the purpose of promoting mental health awareness. Exploring fashion has been an integral creative outlet and coping mechanism for me in developing my mental health. This has been a huge factor in leading a happier and more fulfilling life as I grow older, so I hope these resources will help you on your own journey as well!
The document is a continual WIP! If you would like to contribute to the document, or would like to be an editor for this document and future resources, please send an email to Meridian@Yumelixir.com.
MEDI KAWAII RESOURCES
Combining medical imagery and mental health themes into my fashion was heavily inspired by the Menhera community. Before rebranding Yumelixir into the cyber aesthetic that is now featured in the shop, my main aesthetic was the "Medi Kawaii" fashion style commonly associated with the Menhera community.
Ultimately, through my artistic journey, I decided to create fashion in this cyber aesthetic in order to explore my creative outlet in a way that can be expressed with gender neutrality in mind. Inclusivity and diversity has always been a core value of mine, and moving in this direction has helped my art (and message) reach a more diverse audience.
Though my style has evolved, I still want to provide resources about the source material and inspiration for my work. The source aesthetic is best described with the term "Medi Kawaii" (formerly known as "Yami Kawaii").
While the usage of "Yami Kawaii" as a search term still dominates the internet to yield the results you're looking for when I talk about "Medi Kawaii," I will not be using the former term because it was commercially trademarked by Bisuko Ezaki in 2017. While the internet can generally still use "Yami Kawaii" to tag their works, it's technically illegal to use that term for commercial purposes. So I will be using "Medi Kawaii" to describe my style going forward.
To my understanding, "Medi Kawaii" is a substyle under the "Mare Kawaii" umbrella. Mare Kawaii mixes the words "nightmare" and "kawaii" and aesthetically combines darker elements and themes with kawaii fashion. Medi Kawaii focuses on medical imagery as the "darker elements or theme" that is combined with kawaii fashion.
But depending on certain items, silhouettes, combinations of colors or accessories, and other stylistic choices that I often make when putting together a coordinate, these choices often make my outfit fall outside of the Medi Kawaii style OR even outside of the Mare Kawaii aesthetic as a whole. Some other substyles related to the Mare Kawaii umbrella include: Menhera, Guro Kawaii, Medical-themed Decora, and Iryouu Kei. There are likely more terms than this, that I do not know about. And as the Mare Kawaii umbrella continues to be discovered by more people, I am sure more terms will come to light.
It can get pretty confusing to differentiate between the different fashion substyles, so I tend to stay in the Medi Kawaii umbrella, and not really specify my source inspiration style more than that. My focus is to spread mental health awareness through my content, and not really focus on educating my audience on super detailed specifics about Mare Kawaii and the different substyles. So if you ask me for specific details on these, I likely will not be able to answer them correctly!
So, I created a document full of resources on how you can get started on learning more about Mare Kawaii in depth, if you are interested in that! There are many other creators and channels who are spending lots of their time educating people about Mare Kawaii and the difference between their substyles and subcultures who would do a much better job at explaining those nuances than I would. So, I highly recommend checking out their channels.
The document is a continual WIP! If you would like to contribute to the document, or would like to be an editor for this document and future resources, please send an email to Meridian@Yumelixir.com.
STOP ASIAN HATE RESOURCES
As an Asian American, I believe that I grew up not having experienced first-hand racism in a way that had a lasting negative impact on my life. Born and raised in Southern California, I have been surrounded by a population that has a fair density of Asians and Asian Americans. This circumstance has allowed me to live a more privileged experience compared to other Asian Americans whose upbringing was a true minority.
Despite not experiencing racism in any hateful way, the micro-aggressions (intended or not) and stereotypes still exist, and were things I did encounter growing up. While I never felt "othered," it's a fact that people like me weren't well represented in media, and I was never able to relate to the Asian cultural experiences I saw portrayed in any stories I read or watched. The lack of my Asian cultural roots in my upbringing definitely made me feel culturally misplaced. I never felt "Asian" enough to relate to my Asian relatives or Asian immigrants, but never felt "American" enough to "fit in" with the general crowd.
When COVID-19 changed everything, and Stop Asian Hate campaigns started coming to light online, this video helped me to realize why the cultural misplacement I felt was so prevalent... Growing up without learning the languages my parents spoke, the cultural depths of the holidays they celebrated, the clothing they wore, the values they held, the music they listened to, and more was quite a common experience for many Asian Americans. As if part of the culture of 1st and 2nd generation Asian Americans was... to not have cultural roots at all. It made me feel as though my existence as an Asian American was as shallow as the rampant stereotypes were - nothing more than surface level understanding of what it meant to have Asian roots.
So despite not having experienced racism in a hateful way, I realized that the systemic racism that painted Asians as a model minority contributed to why I grew up with such a "shallow" culture and disconnect from my roots.
In order to contribute to the anti-racist efforts in the SAH field, I've created a document that features resources directly related to this topic. If you are an Asian American, I hope these resources will help you on your own journey as well; If you aren't an Asian American, I hope these resources will help educate you on our experiences.
The document is a continual WIP! If you would like to contribute to the document, or would like to be an editor for this document and future resources, please send an email to Meridian@Yumelixir.com.
BLACK LIVES MATTER RESOURCES
On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd, a black man, was murdered at the hands of police brutality in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
His murder was filmed through security footage and witness videos, went viral on the internet, and spurred an enormous #BlackLivesMatter movement online and around the world.
Like most movements, rage, outcry, and protests are strong for about a week or two... And then the event becomes a distant memory in history soon forgotten. But as many people may have learned through this event and many that has preceded it, there are many things every individual can do to be actively anti-racist to aid the cause of ending racism.
Moving into the future, an anonymous person created a master document containing resources such as organizations to donate to, legal aid information, protesting safety tips, and more. I am sharing this document in hopes to contribute to the BLM momentum to help anti-racist allies beyond social media's slacktivism.
If you would like to contribute to the document, please send additional resources to blacklivesmatterresourceguide@gmail.com.
Artist Credit: @gianella_baby
ACCESS THE MASTER DOCUMENT
LGBTQ+ PRIDE RESOURCES
I am in the process of creating a master document containing LGBTQ+ resources similar to the resource documents above. Though still a WIP, you can access the current resources of the document by clicking the button below.
If you would like to contribute to the document, or would like to be an editor for this document and future resources, please send an email to Meridian@Yumelixir.com.
ACCESS THE MASTER DOCUMENT