The Korean Vegan dishes out life lessons and stories of her diaspora experience

Joanne Molinaro, 41, a TikTok star who runs The Korean Vegan food blog, always embeds a life lesson into each new cooking video. Her therapeutic voice could move someone to tears or heal a broken heart and she uses that same voice to discuss racism, misogyny, body image, and more.

"They say that true love lasts forever," Molinaro said in a recent TikTok video, staring into the camera with a knife in her hand. "Wrong." She shoved the sharp blade into a vegan egg roll. "One day you're going to give your trust to someone who doesn't deserve it."  She went on to shape the rice into a tiny oval as she spoke about the power and beauty of love. By the end of the 60-second TikTok video, a plate of beautifully wrapped egg sushi was ready, and she invited me to have a bite as I wiped off my tears.