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Michelle Li Biography
Michelle Li,42, is an award-winning anchor and reporter working for KSDK. She is also the co-founder of The Very Asian Foundation, which was birthed after she received a racist post claiming she was very Asian. Indeed Li went viral and fame followed her. Her story has been featured on CNN, CBS, and ABC.
Michelle Li Age, Family, and Husband
Michelle was born in 1980 in Korea but moved to the United States when she was 7 months old. She was adopted by white parents living in Brookfield, Missouri. Michelle was the only child. Her father worked as a construction laborer and her mother was an accountant. When she grew up, Michelle learned that she was an adopted child. While in college, she decided to look for her birth mother in South Korea.
Luckily, she accessed her through the help of a social worker. Li discovered that she had three biological sisters after meeting her biological father and mother. From them, Michelle learned that her mother gave her up for adoption and lied she had died because raising two toddlers was overwhelming.
Through the years, Michelle has learned to relate to them. She even introduced them to her white parents before her mother passed on. Michelle also helped her sister to move to America, where she got married.
Michelle has had her fair share of relationships. However, she least expected that her race would be a problem. She had a two-year relationship with a white boy. It ended in a breakup after the boy’s father discouraged him from having a relationship with Asians.
Despite the setback, Michelle was still hopeful about finding love. Her career later led her to Jimmy, who would later become her husband. Jimmy is an award-winning photographer and professional software engineer. The couple has a child called JJ.
Michelle Li Education
Michelle went to a Kindergarten in Oklahoma. Her life was miserable as she had to fight for acceptance in a community that was all white. She experienced the same while in High School but overcame it. She performed well in High School and got a scholarship to the University of Kansas where she studied journalism.
Michelle Li Career
Li fell in love with journalism despite the low number of Asians in the job. She excelled at it when she got the opportunity to work. She started as a general assignment reporter and photographer at WWAY-TV. For 10 months, Michelle led the evening news reporting and edited multiple television stories.
She broke the barriers associated with Asian journalists and joined KYS as the main evening anchor. For the seven years she was there, Li wrote, shot, and edited stories. She produced content for the news website and social platforms. She also emceed events planned and hosted by the media group. While still there, she served part-time as a Lifestyle Writer for 417 Magazine where she created lifestyle content for monthly and weekly publications.
In June 2010, she got an opportunity to join WSFX-WECT as the main anchor and multimedia journalist. Li was responsible for creating content for three websites belonging to different stations. She also had the opportunity to work with Google and MTV to run a national campaign against bullying. The collaboration later led to her becoming a Google TV ambassador where she provided advice on Google TV Products.
In 2013, Li got an opportunity to work for Madison Magazine as a columnist and food writer while working full-time at WISC as the main evening anchor and content producer. She represented the TV as a brand ambassador and ran large-scale media campaigns. Li worked there for 3 years before joining TEGNA first as an NBC Seattle Anchor and later as an NBC St. Louis Consumer Reporter and Anchor.
Michelle Li Very Asian Foundation
Very Asia Foundation started after Michelle found herself in an uncomfortable situation. She posted eating Korean food and included it in the list of special food. She checked her voicemail hours later and heard a message from someone complaining about her being very Asian. Michelle posted the message together with the caption.
It blew up and went viral. Thousands of people responded to the video, criticizing the person who had commented. It got the attention of Alex Lee, the president of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis. Lee advised her to start a foundation, which she did together with She, Vang, and Lee. The foundation runs on a nonprofit basis and seeks to fund Asian American Journalists Association.
Michelle Li Salary and Height
Besides her journalism, her physical attributes also fit her profession. Michelle is 5 feet and 5 feet tall. Despite coming from a minority, she has earned herself the status of senior employee in other races. She also earns as or better than them. Her salary as of 2022 is approximately $80,000 per year. Other noteworthy people from the Asian Community are Sher-Min Chow and Jee-yun Lee.
