Greetings from the Academy for Young Writers (AFYW)

betty ming liu Inspiration, Writing how-to's 12 Comments

Hey! It’s 3:02 p.m. and I’m blogging right this minute from a New York City public high school in Brooklyn. We’re at The Academy for Young Writers, in East New York. AFYW, as everyone calls it, is having a workshop day for students. I was invited by one of the teachers to talk about writing, journalism and social media. It …

What unplugging taught me about love

betty ming liu Inspiration, Relationships 16 Comments

For the last three months, I experimented with unplugging from social media. My motivation was very practical. I walked into the down time holding an ambitious to-do list. But unplugging turned into a re-wiring of my entire life. This post is about how I lost and then, found love. To recap: On Aug. 22, I blogged about unplugging for a …

Finally! I’m back to blogging

betty ming liu Inspiration 18 Comments

Many thanks to all of you who are reading this! As always, I am deeply grateful for your company on this blog. Thanks too, for your concerned emails, which inspired me to pull myself together and show up here today. In answer to your worried questions, I’ve actually been fine these past three months. Of course, from my last post, …

Finding myself: 3 reasons why we can all learn to draw

betty ming liu Art, Inspiration 12 Comments

I just took a drawing workshop that changed my life. Oh sure, I’ve sketched before. But sitting very, very quietly with pencil and paper was a new level of intimacy with myself and the world. If you’ve ever fantasized about being more art-y, read on, because we are all capable of drawing — and accessing the confidence and creativity it …