Pittsburgh's People of the Year 2021: Activism

Jasmine Cho’s activism has initiated conversations on race for years. As founder of online bakery Yummyholic and a self-declared “cookie activist,” she paints intricate portraits of Asian Americans with icing to give representation to the historically underrepresented community. The Los Angeles native, whose parents immigrated from South Korea, also penned a children’s book, Role Models Who Look Like Me: Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Who Made History. But there was perhaps no greater need for her work than in 2021 after a mass shooting in Atlanta took the lives of four Asian women and two Asian men, following a large number of anti-Asian hate crimes across the country. After the shootings, Cho spoke at Pittsburgh’s Stop Asian Hate rally, was one of 100 women of color who shared their first encounter with racism to Oprah magazine, was a guest at the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, and held cookie activism events throughout the year, including teaming up with Kidsburgh and Remake Learning for an “I Love You” Day, teaching guests how to design a cookie in honor of Mister Rogers.

---

jasminemcho.com