Jon and Kate Gosselin's daughter felt 'shame' over her Korean-American identity in the past.
Mady Gosselin is opening up about her past struggle to accept herself. In honor of Korean-American Day on Thursday, the 21-year-old daughter of exes Jon and Kate Gosselin took to Instagram to open up about her childhood insecurities.
Mady shared a photo of herself as a kid, happily cradling her first American Girl doll. There's more to the pic than meets the eye, though.
"She was from the 'look-alike' line and I named her jordan. she did not look like me; she had blonde hair and blue eyes, by my choice," Mady wrote of the doll. "At the time, there wasn’t a doll from the line that looked like me, but more importantly, at 5, I chose a doll that reflected the way I thought I was suppose [sic] to look instead of the way I do."
Mady went on to explain why the story behind the photo fills her "with a gross sort of discomfort and shame" today.
"Having grown up 50/50 (white and Korean), I was hyper aware of my ethnicity from a young age," she wrote, "but the transition from awareness to shame was a slow progression that I didn’t notice happening until I was much older."
Now, Mady wrote, she wants to "make it known that I’m so proud to celebrate being Korean-American today."
"I’m proud to be a part of a community that has suffered through decades of ridicule and hate in this country (only made worse in the last 2 years) but have persevered through it powerfully and gracefully," she wrote. "I’m also proud that I make a kick a** kimchi!!"
Mady, a college student, is one of eight children. She has a twin sister, Cara, as well as 17-year-old siblings Aaden, Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Joel, and Leah. Their parents divorced in 2009.
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