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Radio. Welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host, Melana Young,
and I am so glad you're enjoining me on the Women for Women Network
and iHeartRadio at about thirty five other channels. As you know, I enjoy
spotlighting fearless women who do amazing things to help others. And my guest today
is so amazing for all those reasons, and she hits a couple of quarts
for me. Because I'm kind of have a fascination in a soft spot for
inventors. I have interviewed several inventors, most of them are men from my
other show at a Connected Table, So being able to interview someone that is
doing something really really kind of cool. Who is an inventor and when inventors
are very small group. I have learned maybe thirteen percent of women are inventors
compared to men. I've read that in an article about my guests on the
glass hammer. And of course it's harder to get venture capital funding, so
you know, women inventors face a bright future but an uphill struggle, which
we'll talk about. Because if you are someone with a dream, this is
a chance to act on it and understand the road to doing it. Some
people shine a light to help others and others create the light. Alice Chung
does both. She is an inventor, founder and CEO of Soul Light Design
Inc. This is a very cool I have a device called the Megapuff,
the solar puff right in front of me, which is a foldable It's like
a foldable lantern with different types of light. And she's doing things to help
people in other countries Ukraine, the Caribbean and Africa to shine a light.
We're going to talk about what this means with Alice and her interesting story about
how this all came about, which I learned starting with a fascination with oregonmy
which is something that I loved as a child as well. My parents traveled
to Asia a lot and brought me books, and there's always something I used
to do as a little girl, but sadly don't do anymore anyway. I
am honored to spotlight Alice. She was featured in Hillary Rodham Clinton's book Gutsy,
and then she's been featured in Good Morning America. She's been featured in
many, many articles. I loved her TEDx talk about how she came up
with the concept for the light that she has created and the why behind it,
and she'll share it with us today. I'm fearless, fabulous. You
welcome Alice. It's an honor to be here. Melanie, thanks so much
for having me. Well, as I said, I'm fascinated by inventors.
I recently interviewed the founder of the Corvin who many inventors I have learned are
doing other things and then they become inventors. And you are a teacher.
I want to underscore that you are a professor. So number one, you're
a teacher. My mother was a teacher as well, so the invention part
of your life came out of it. You are also a mother, and
your son is an inspiration for what you have created. But right, so
let's start with your family, because I was very impressed by your parents' background
and how each of their respective careers fed into who you are today. First
of all, let's talk about the fact that you were born in Korea to
two very accomplished parents, and let you take it from there. Actually,
my parents weren't that accomplished. They were struggling immigrants. They came over to
the United States to find a better life. It was, you know,
postwar Korea, and I was really fortunate that my parents were very, very
supportive of the arts. My father was an architect, my mom was an
artist and did several things like textile design to murals, paintings. And when
we moved over, we we actually lived in a very poor neighborhood outside of
Syracuse, and I was teased and bullied a lot because I didn't look like
any of the other kids in my school. I was the only Asian,
and I looking back, I think it it was pivotal because it taught me
to fight. But I didn't fight with my fists. I fought with the
light in my heart and my mind and that's when I that's what I share
with the children that I visit in all over the world when I'm delivering our
lights to them, is that we all have this inner light inside of us
that we can go to and draw strength from every day. But in terms
of my my beginnings, yes, I am Korean. My mother taught me
origami and that was the inspiration for the design of our my first invention,
the solar puff. Of course, I was an architecture professor at Columbia University,
at University of Pennsylvania and Parsons the New School, among among others.
But it's really the I think, the the imagination and the creativity and the
ability to think outside the box that architecture, the strategies and education of architectural
as a liberal arts education gave to me. I'm happy you said that because
a lot of people question liberal arts education today and I'm a liberal arts graduate
and I think it made me very well rounded. I do, in hindsight,
wish I had gone on to get a master's degree, because it certainly
does help. You worked as a professor in architecture material technology at Columbia University,
Yes, so you were kind of following in your father's footsteps, because
he did. Even though your family came over and that you were you know,
you had hardship as a young girl, they were successful eventually. I
mean I read that your father worked on was at the World Expo, the
World Trade Pavilion in Montreal. Yeah, that's the reason why they came over.
That's pretty impressive. He was part of the team for the Korean Expo.
And yeah, they provided and you know, a very good safe environment
for us to me and my brother to grow up in. And then eventually
I went to penn State and then got my masters at University of Pennsylvania,
and then from that I actually fell into teaching teaching, didn't. I mean,
I didn't pursue teaching. Teaching found to me when I was a TA
for one of the taught professors there and he broke his arm and I had
to quickly take over his studio and then they just kept asking me back to
teach, and that's how I fell into teaching, and I decided I really
loved it, especially the students, the mentoring part and learning about their different
histories and seeing them change and develop and evolve through knowledge and how they learn.
It's just fascinating and really rewarding as as a profession, but it was
really my son when when he was born, we would go to the doctor's
office all the time and every kid was either being pumped with steroids or with
asthma, trouble breathing, eczema, even autism. And basically I did the
research and one out of four kids had asthma. Now it's fifty percent have
asthma in New York City. It's gone up, and so it's was a
pretty big turning point in my life, deciding that we really need to get
away from fossil fuels. The pollution in the airs from buildings in New York
City seventy five percent come from buildings, not the cars. And this,
you know, our us as a species, as a human species, it's
too early in our gene pool to be changing this rapidly. So it has
to be because of our environment. So that's what I decided to focus on
solar energy, and early on I was sewing solar panels to thin film substrates
and fabric because I also taught material technology, and the trend in material technology
is that it's getting thinner, lighter, faster, stronger, smarter, and
so getting solar panels as thin as possible, trying to you know, hybridize
it with thin substrates and fabric and then with that technology that I've been working
on that at the time, the Haiti earthquake happened, and as you know,
at that point, you know, we had gone through Katrina, there
were tsunamis in Japan, and all of these these incredible traumatic natural disasters were
happening more and more frequently. And that's when I decided to step in and
say, let's do something to help Haiti. I went to my dean and
asked him to let me use my studio at Columbia to be an innovation studio
to help Haiti, and he reluctantly, reluctantly agreed, and I taught the
kids how to put a solar solar circuit together the first week, and a
lot of the students did different projects, but I was really pushing the solar
aspect and creating a light so that it could be for an individual and small
and compact and portable. And so the early prototypes were inflatable with a with
a mouth nozzle, and then eventually the Origami design was better because then you
didn't have to put your mouth on it to inflate. So when we dived
really deep into Haiti, Haiti is really a microcosm of what's happening globally in
every underserved country through world country most of the families and communities don't have infrastructure.
If they do have infrastructure, it's it's brownouts, it's blackouts. They
don't have it all the time. And in Haiti only ten percent was electrified,
and most people were using kerosene at night, which is a deadly toxic
fuel. To million children die from the fumes according to the UNTP, and
it's also causes fires. And then I realized they were spending up to thirty
percent of their income on kerosene, and I thought if they could save that
money, they could use it for food, for education, clothing, and
it would be a win win situation. So I researched every single solar light
out there on the market, and they were all hard, heavy, bulky,
large and made out of non recyclable materials. And I researched every material
out there, and I tried to find something that was light and strong at
the same time, soft enough to fold, strong enough to keep it shape
once it's in a cue form, and I found this sailcloth which has a
triaxial weave in it. That triaxeal weave is the thing that gives its strength.
Has then it's light enough, but then it gives it extra strength when
you unfold it. And it also gives a beautiful spectrum of light once the
light passes through the the diffuser membrane, which is what all of our our
product some of our products are made out of the sailcloth. And since then,
we've you know, developed different types of lanterns, and also we just
launched the megapoth, which also is a larger cube and also has phone charging
and it's it's a better price point than the other product that we have that
also charges phones, and that's that's the Quinn product, which is a much
larger unit and is a kind of star shape. But in any case,
Haiti was really one of the moments where I realized that I would become a
social entrepreneur where I could do good and also create a business. And that
was really the thing that that drove me to, you know, moving further
and not giving up and being so passionate about what we're doing. And it's
really the aspect of helping people and making lives better because I know that it's
going to have an impact on my son's future and his children's future, and
your your family's children's future as well. It's something that we all need to
consider because, you know, the the aspect of climate change, we all
had a part of it, one person throwing away a plastic fork, or
you know, turning on the air conditioning, you know, full blast all
day. This is you know, little things that everyone has done, and
collective we've created this this turmoil and the planet. And I believe that if
we did that collectively, we can also heal the planet, one person at
a time, one small thing at a time. So in any case that
our product in our company is really about that how small solar light can make
a huge difference if we all work collectively, like one, using one solar
light can save ninety pounds of carbon emissions per person per year. And if
you multiply that by the population of the United States, that's going up to
eleven billion tons of carbon emissions. So and then then that kind of quadruples
when you start considering phone charging. Phone charging is way more intensive. So
in any case, I think that we all have this this, we all
have the possibility of creating change and one small step at a time. And
when I was first in Haiti, I actually it was it was hot.
It was one hundred and ten degrees in walks. Bill Clinton and the President
of Haiti, and I had a taped up, glued up solar puff in
my hand, a prototype back in two thoy ten, and he came over
and he looked at He's like, what come over, come over here,
come everybody, come over here, come look at says, and he loved
it, and he was kind of dumbfounded about how novel it was. Fast
forward seven years, Hurricane Maria decimates Puerto Rico and three million people have no
electricity, and by then we were able to get over one hundred thousand lights
to Puerto Rico to help with humanitarian aid. And I met up with the
Bill Clinton again in Puerto Rico and he said he remember he remember me.
I remember her from Heidi to tell him what this day is. And I
met the mayor of San Juan, who gave me a big hug and wanted
a selfie because we basically saved her city from darkness. And that's when I
met Hillary Clinton, and I talked to her for about three minutes, and
I told her about how I just came back from Dominica delivering lights to seven
schools where each school had no roof, and all the kids were intense and
most of the kids we're living in a one room house with five other siblings
and a single mother, one meal a day that they would get from school.
And I felt compelled to tell them my story and the story of this
little solar puff. And I said, you know, the sun is the
most powerful source of energy that comes to the earth every day, but the
light of your heart and the light of your mind is more powerful than the
sun. And the kids just eyes just light up and they start giggling,
and I said, yes, yes, And if you keep you have to
keep fighting with that light, because if you keep fighting, there's nothing you
can't do. And when you look at this lamp and use this lamp for
your homework at night, your ambitions and your dreams will grow. And just
remember that the sun is everywhere in the world. It will never ever leave
you, and that light inside you will never never leave you. And you
just draw your strength from that light. And this is a symbol that you
are a light warrior, and light warriors never give up, and they just
they start singing and they start yelling light warrior. Anyway, so I told
Hillary that story and she was like, oh, Alice, I love that
story. And then she said, Chelsea and I are doing a book about
gutsy women and would you like to be in our book? And I just
kind of had this wartex moment of oh my god, really it's this,
you know seriously, And of course I said yes, And then eventually I
was in the book about a year later. And then after that they started
production company and did a docuseries on Apple TV, and I'm in episode six
and thirty people including the Surface Secret Service descended upon my small, tiny apartment
in New York all day and secrets. They blocked off like two blocks,
and Hillary and Chelsea were here for about three to four hours filming. That's
pretty impressive. And just you know, for listeners, Alice is alongside you
know, one of my heroes Jane Goodall, who I absolutely her, Oh
my gosh, and one to Psikes, who I think is one of the
funniest women on Earth, and many others. And it's on Apple TV.
I have not seen it yet, and I'm hoping to. But I saw
your Ted talk and I was very moved. First of all, I want
to know how Quinn is doing and how old is he now, because I
think he was five when all this came about in asthma. I didn't realize
until I saw your Ted talk how horrific asthma is and how you know carbon
emissions. I was talking to my husband about this at breakfast and she's like,
well, what has this light got to do with asthma? And I
said, well, I learned a lot, but elaborate a little bit because
there's a strong connection there. Yeah. So, especially in urban settings,
the pollution comes from buildings like HVAC systems, heating and cooling, lighting,
our computers, everything that takes up energy. We're using fossil fuels, and
so seventy five percent of the pollution in New York and in urban settings the
pollution comes from the energy consumption of building. So that compounded. You know,
of course, with are with climate change and the reason why we are
seeing a change in illnesses and also you know even things like omnicron or covid
it autoor new our human Yes, as a human species, we're changing more
rapidly, all of these you know, viruses are changing more rapidly all the
time, and it's because of the environment, because it's too early in our
gene pool to be changing this app rapidly, So it has to be because
of the environment, and because carbon emissions, you know, is is so
extensive. We see climate change like the you know, if you go onto
the National Oceanic Society's graphic details of how within the past twenty years there's been
a spike almost like a like a big huge rise in the number of natural
disasters, hurricanes, fires happening more and more frequently, and it's because of
climate change. And everything is interconnected. So the issue of asthma, of
course it has to do with pollution and also autism as well. And so
you know, there's nothing when you love something so much, like your son
or your child, there's nothing you won't do for them, to help them
and protect them. And I was thinking that if I could start this company,
if we could make an impact on the climate and the environment, that
his children will grow up. And you know, it's it's the pain and
the suffering of going through all of this would be worth it. Well,
you said, you know, a worried mom can move mountains, and that's
very true. And you know, necessity is the mother of invention, but
curiosity is the child that keeps you inspired to keep going. Yeah, Actually,
curiosity is the daughter of invention. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Both. I'm a big believer in people saying one of the taglines and my
other show that connected tables stay insatiably curious, because if we become compliant or
complacent excuse me, complainant, sometimes compliant complacent, we will never stay open
to new ideas and new innovations, which is really essential, right right,
Curiosity absolutely, you always worry about people that lose theirs. You know,
we're living in I hate to say it, we're living in very dark times.
I mean just this year alone, climate change. You wake up every
day and there's a story and the toxicity in the airs. You know,
look at what's happened in Maui, which is a place we go every ever
of the year. My husband's been We've been going for twenty years and seeing
entire town wiped out, and you think about those people who have no light
and electricity. You're intense. Now we're doing a camp we're gonna we're putting
up a campaign to you know, to help them as well. Now you
know, I find you and you and Jose Andre should World Central Kitchen should
join forces. I know, I yeah, I know him like we have.
We have kind of partnered in Puerto Rico. I did not meet up
with him when I was I mean I did not meet up with his team.
I met him once, but a good guy. Incredible. What his
nonprofit is doing all over the world is absolutely magnificent. It is. And
you know, he could have stayed. I know him from his days before
he was even famous, believe or not, Alice, when he was trotting
around with front Andrea translating for him, and then he took you know,
became famous as a chef. He could have rested on his laurels as a
world renowned chef and restaurateur. But he literally said to his family and his
team, I have to do this. So he's amazing, and you've pretty
much you mirror that in many ways because you could have stayed a teacher and
you have a company, but you are you know, I'm curious you give
away a lot of these uh lanterns and I have so what I have in
front of me is the solar puppet. It's like an a giant ice cube,
but it fits in my hand. And what's kind of cool about it
is it fold So I travel a lot, so this is like awesome because
it folds up. There's different lights for different reasons. You give away a
lot of these. How do you and you started your company through Kickstarter,
how do you finance and get the capitol to see your company while giving away
so much? We are we're still a small company. We haven't really been
able to scale, but we're trying. And it's, you know, thanks
to people like you getting our story out to the world that helps us to
to share what we're doing. And people just fall in love with our products
and our mission and so thank you for for including us in your podcast.
So we have nonprofit partners that we've worked with and we sell our products at
wholesale at a nonprofit discount to them. And we also have a give a
Light program where our customers can come to our website and buy a light to
give to a mission. So lately, I mean I just came back from
Turkey. Before that, earlier this year, I was in Ukraine, So
it's been amazing to see and very very inspiring to see the hope in regular
people, our customers, people that just care about what's happening globally and believe
in the power of our lights and the impact that they're having. And it's
just absolutely immense, and I'm so grateful and humbled by the hoard that we're
getting. So there's the Give a Light and we also give ten percent of
our proceeds to just giving light whenever we can. We always try to.
Whenever a disaster strikes, we try to do the right thing and help however
we can. And so Maui's hit now and it's just startbreaking. So we
you know, I feel we have to we have to create, you know,
get the word out that we want to send lights to Maui. And
it's gonna be sadly, it doesn't end. And I'm on so just I
want to make sure I give out the website, So Light s O l
Ight hyphendesign dot com. And if you get to the Give a Light right
now, the list is earthquake relief and haities. You can choose Ukraine Children's
Hospital and Levive. I don't know, Puerto Rican Hurricane Fiona you know,
poor Puerto Rico. Every time we turn around, they're getting this is Hurricane
Fiona. I mean, there's Marias and then it's terrible, and then I
love this. This is important because it hits you know, the lower forty
a Ais American Indian services, the Navajo tribe. So there's a lot of
Unfortunately, it's going to get a longer list, I hate to say,
because you know you add in Hawaii. Yeah, crazy, yeah, it
is. And and there's there's so so many more that that we didn't evenlist
there that we've done in the past, like when the snow hit Texas and
nobody had power in Texas, and you know, like Syrian refugees we were
we were helping there in Greece for a while, Syrian refugee camps and of
course Haiti, oh my god, Marcane, Ida and New Orleans where we
were we had just left. We were planning moved to New Orleans and then
Ida hit we couldn't move there. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's it's
weird. I mean, like especially in the South, you know there hurricanes
and now cyclones, which which hasn't happened before in New Orleans. Cyclones are
starting to. Well, the irony of it is that when my mother passed
away, the power went out on her funeral and on her celebration of life.
We've had many power out just and we live in a nice neighborhood.
So I'm like, what's going on with the electrical grid these Oh my god,
there's been a sixty percent increase in power outages in the United States within
the past decade. And it's because, you know, our population is growing,
but the grid, the infrastructure has pretty much stayed the same. It's
and and you know, we need to shift to solar energy. We need
to. You know, actually, we're very blessed in terms of the cost
that we pay for electricity, but in other countries like even Europe and places
like Africa or the cost of electricity is phenomenal. It's extremely expensive, and
that's where you can save money. I mean, even even now, we
have a lot of customers that tell us, you know, we we use
your lights at night because they're just easier on the eyes and our overhead lights,
and we save money on our electric bill and lowering our carbon footprints.
So well, I think the carbon footprint is important, you know, David
and I interviewed a woman a master sumily in South Africa where they were having
load shipping, which is a new term. Where have they have rolling brownouts
all the time because the government cannot keep up with the source of electricity needed.
Yeah, that's the way it is in most countries. Yeah, and
I think we America don't realize that how fortunate we are. But we all
have to do a concerted effort universally to lower our footprint and carbon emissions because
it's only going to at worse. We're seeing a climate change. We're seeing
it with brown als, We're seeing with you know, perfectly normal neighborhoods losing
electricity every three weeks. You know, absolutely, Yeah, and you know
it's time for us to really stand up and take a stance. And even
doing small things makes a big difference. A lot of people think, oh,
well, I'm just one person, I can't do much. But that's
that's not the way we should be thinking. You know, we can do
much. We So what would you advise someone to do if they want to
lowering? Knowing the vast research, and I just want to underscore, you
know, I've got the megapuff here, but you have many patents, And
when I think of you and when I was researching you, Alice, I
couldn't help but go back and do a little research on Thomas Alva Edison.
Yeah, he's an amazing gut fellow. And Nicholas Tesla. These are the
these are the fathers of electricity. But you know, you're taking it and
shining a light as a mother of a new form of electricity or how to
harness something that's perfectly natural and using it in a productive way. You're you're
making me blush. Wow, to be aliated with Thomas Edison and Tesla,
that's that's phenomenal. But I thought about it because when I you know,
I was like, wow, I don't know listen, I don't know much
about electricity other than I turn on the switch, I turn off a switch
and then it somehow seems to be going out more than ever. But I
do know, you know, I know about solo lighting, and I know
about the health benefits a different kinds of lighting and how they could be used
as well, because I've done a show on red light therapy and blue light
therapy itself. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, you're light with the different colors.
That's gonna help with that too, right, Well, initially, you
know when I got the pitch, I was like, it detracts mosquitoes because
we have a big mosquito problem here due to climate change. It's head of
say, but there's there's different lights. If you push this button, you
get a blue light, a green light, a white light, purple light.
What's the purple light? For the pink light that's good for just calming
the neuro synapsis of your brain. Pink light is used, you know,
for the kids when they want to use it as a night light, they
either use the blue light or the pink light. Depends a lot of the
girls actually like the pink light. And you know, when I was in
Ukraine, I went to three children's hospitals and two refugee camps, and most
most of those lights I gave to the children because they all had PTSD from
combings and loss of limbs and loss of family members. The trauma that these
kids have gone through is just absolutely heartbreaking, and you would expect that these
kids would be filled with hate and resentment. I met this girls who witnessed
twelve with her family members being shot and killed right in front of her,
and you would expect her to be full of resentment, but it was the
opposite. All of these kids had so much resilience and forgiveness and kindness and
love in their in their hearts. It was just absolutely inspiring and really incredible
experience to be able to share this light with them. And then in terms
of this thing with Thomas Edison, and going back to your question about inventorship
and inventions, it is really fascinating to learn about Thomas Edison's process because one
time he was just he sent all of his workers all over the world looking
for the perfect material for the tonguesten, the flame part of the light,
and all of the materials that he was using it wasn't lasting long enough.
The light was not lasting long enough, and he wanted to find a material
that would keep burning for a longer period of time. And he was in
his laboratory and he found this old Chinese fan which was made out of bamboo,
and he took the piece of bamboo from took it apart, put it
in and made it the flame and it actually lasted seven times longer than any
other material he was using. And that was the impetus of getting You know,
there's so many. There were so many other people working on the same
thing, and you'll see that in history. But he was the one that
actually got it to last the longest, and he was able to make the
cost commercially viable. And that's why we know Thomas Edison's name and not the
other twenty five people that were using mister Volta. There's a whole debate there
about uh, mister Volta and Alexandra Volta, which is voltage, et cetera.
But it was, it was It was actually a very interesting read kind
of diving into it because I am one of those insatiably curious people. So
when I pressed on, I look at, like all the things that preceded.
Who were some inventors that you really respect and why, oh, well,
you know, of course Thomas Edison, but there's so many. Keisler,
Sarah Marie Curie loved Madame Madame Clark. She invented the brush, which
bre what kind of brush? Hair brush? The hair brush. Okay,
there's a lot of brushes out there. Okay, I didn't know any,
but I actually did a lecture on this about different women inventors that that I
love. Anyway, I you know, in terms of mentors like I consider
my mom a mentor and also Hillary Clinton mentor friend. And I actually I
feel like I I meet women heroes every day, angels every day on the
street that you know give somebody kindness or or even you, Melanie, you're
also a hero with what you're doing. And I'm grateful that we've had this
opportunity to talk and meet well. I appreciate that you know mine comes from
you know, it always comes from something My mother believed. She grew up
within the Jewish faith and her grandmother book, my grandmother, maternal grandma,
believed in doing a misvah every day, a good deed every day, and
shining a light. And she shined a light quite a bit in the community
where she lived all her life, and that has been instilled in me.
I can't wake up and not do something worthwhile every day. M It's just
it's like part of it. And to be honest, and this is where
the shine a light is so important for you, for me, for anyone
listening. When you are at your darkest, and I truly believe this,
and I've written about this, when you are at your darkest, and it
is very easy to become dark, right now, Yes, one of the
great ways to step out of the hole is to shine a light. And
it's just as doing something kind, calling somebody to say how are you.
But if you take your darkness and open up and let light in by shining
a light and just doing something for someone else, you will feel better at
the same time. Absolutely, I think it's harder and harder. I mean,
it can be really hard. And you talk about PTSD, I think
there are a lot of people, children and adults living with PTSD, particularly
after the COVID pandemic, particularly after they turn on the news, you know,
disaster after disaster, and you see it in the rise and suicides and
mental health issues. And by creating a way to give a light and shine
a light and helping people be illuminated that life isn't without meaning and you can
buy and the more meaning by being meaning full, right, I think it'll
really help people get out of their mental children. But also I have to
I have to point out that, you know, taking the journey of being
an entrepreneur, like inventing something or getting a patent, it's it's not an
easy process. It's not very hard, and you're you're going to have a
lot of days where you just want to give up, and the difference between
you know, the difference is going to be the grit, it's going to
be the perseverance. It's going to be getting up again, and and the
kind of mindset that those failures are. Really they're not failures. It's progress
that changing your mind and shifting it into a positive light instead of thinking that
it's a backward struggle, it's really a forward struggle because now you've learned,
and you learned and you do it again and you make it better and you
keep going so that eventually gives you the power of being able to see around
corners. Then you can see the future because of all those failures. And
you just have to keep that in mind when when you keep you know,
and absolutely don't ever give up. Nothing comes easy. And I think it's
sometimes social media and other well or make it look that way, but I
couldn't agree more. I have to wake I have a lot of nose in
my life, a lot, and I keep heavy to say, you know,
and I'm doing a show on how to you know, get around the
nose. I call it to get a nose job, to change all the
nose and just keep going. Was there a time when you were developing your
concept where you just hit a bottom and you had to lift yourself up?
And what did you do? Actually during the pandemic? This was This is
on the docuseries on Navel TV. I did a new invention which is a
clear silicone mask with biodegradable air filters on there. It's very it's very progressive
in terms of, you know, there's no ear ear loops, so it
sticks directly on your face with an air seal. And you know, it's
very difficult to get a manufacturer to even try because you have people saying it's
not possible, you know. And I had a lot of lawyers and men
in particular early on with the Solar puffs telling me that it wasn't possible for
me to be a CEO, that I needed to hire somebody else to be
the CEO, and brother, you know, you ended up, you know,
and I ended up listening to them to to you know, and it
didn't work out so many times. And so I'd like to say to the
young inventors and the young women out there, listen to your gut, believe
in yourself. Don't listen to the nose you are in it. You are
in the arena, going to going back to Teddy Roosevelt's speech about man in
the arena. You're in there with the blood, dust, sweat, and
tears, and you know what what's needed, and there's no one else that
can that can guide you better than your knowledge. And just surround yourself with
like minded people that will support you and give you advice. But don't listen
to the naysayers. I couldn't agree more. You know, one of my
heroes is JK. Rowland, who was like she was turned down like a
hundred times of her book. You know, Harry Potterson. You know when
I was first starting out, I had over a hundred rejection letters to get
a job. And you know rejection. I think you know a messages.
You will have rejection and every aspect of your life there will be It's inevitable.
There will be people who are naysayers. There are people who only look
at the numbers, not what you do. But that happens to me a
lot when I go pitch sponsors, what are your numbers? And they probably
never even listened to me. You know, you have to listen to yourself
and listen to yourself when it is a go. But also listen to yourself
when you say I'm done too. It's okay to say I'm done. I'm
a big believer in failing. For like you, you know, if it
if it doesn't, you can fix it and tweak it. But if it's
you know, if you're done, you're done and you move on to the
next thing. That's okay, too, right, you know, but you
have to you know, when you stop believing in what you're doing, then
that's a problem. So you got to keep believing and keep going. I
love what you're doing. How many patents do you have now? I believe
for a couple gratulations, because that's hard. I mean, that is a
process in itself. The first one is always the hardest, but after that
you kind of know from your experience. But in any case, it's again,
the mother of invention is necessity and the daughter of invention is curiosity,
both female characters. Yet only ten percent women are on a US patent,
which I think is a grave injustice. And I think that, you know,
I want to see more young women getting out there inspired by their dreams,
and it would be wonderful to make those numbers much higher. I agree,
and it's people like you, Alice, who are going to help make
shine that light. So thank you for doing it, and you keep inventing
as well, because I can't wait to see what your next invention is going
to be. Thank you. I can't either. I'm sure I'll be hearing
about it, but I just want my listeners to know. To learn more
information about what Alice Chun is doing, go to so Light slighd hyphendesign dot
com. I have. What I was sent was this adorable little Merlin solar
puff, which I'm going to play with. I like it because it's packable
and I'd like to travel. But she's doing amazing things to help communities around
the world who are in need and suffering bring light to their lives, and
we should all be doing that to everybody. So thank you for doing that,
Alice, and thank you for taking time out from your day to join
me on Fearless Fabulous You. Thank you, Melanie, it's been it's been
such a pleasure to speak with you today, and thank you so much for
including us in your podcast. This has been such a wonderful experience meeting you
and speaking with you today. Absolutely and for all my listeners, I want
you to be the light to lead the way to open doors for others,
and to be the light to bring and share it with those around you,
to brighten their day. Stay fearless and fabulous always. I'm Melanie Young,
and thank you for joining me.