Helen Chong - omg.lol Interview Series 6

Helen Chong

OMG.LOL Interview Series 6

Find Helen on omglol: @HelenChong

Table of Contents

The Interview

Can you share a bit about yourself with us?

I am a Malaysian Chinese, autistic, visually impaired Millennial lesbian, and a web developer with 8 years of experience in the graphic design field. My hobbies include coding, gaming, reading, blogging, drawing and crocheting. Languages I speak include Mandarin, English, Cantonese and Malay.

I have loved computers and the web since I learned to use a computer when I was a kindergartener. That said, I did not start to create things on the web until I discovered blogs and started blogging as a teenager. I had always loved writing, and I was fascinated with blogging due to it being a far more accessible way to publish my writing without needing to go through a publishing company. I gradually abandoned my teenage blog, but decades later in the early 2020s, discovered the resurgence of personal websites and blogs motivated me to code my own website from scratch for the first time, and then start my own personal blog again.

My interest in making websites eventually evolved into an interest in the web development field strong enough to decide to switch my career path from graphic design to web development, so I took almost two years to teach myself web development, until I got my first web developer job. I eventually left that job, but I intend to continue to learn and improve myself as a developer.

I’ve not been officially diagnosed but tested extremely high on a pre-diagnosis Autism test (I took it because we are exploring having my daughter tested) a few months ago. It’s explained so much to me but left me with tons of questions too. Would you have any advice to share with someone like me, discovering this in his 40s, or with my daughter who most likely is as a pre-teen?

I was actually never officially diagnosed with autism either, as I never saw a doctor for an official autism diagnosis. I began to realise I was likely autistic when I was approaching my mid-20s. When I started to see my first therapist when I was 28, it turned out my parents also thought I might be on the autism spectrum, and both therapists I saw affirmed my self-diagnosis.

Every autistic person experience autism in different ways, so it is difficult to come out with a one-size-fit-all advice for autistic people, especially without knowing how your autism is like and how it affects your life.

All I can say is, being autistic is nothing to be ashamed of, despite what the neuronormative and ableist system would want you to believe. Normality is a social construct.

If you are looking for autistic blogs, I can recommend checking out Autistic As Fxxk, which is run by a Singaporean Chinese autistic blogger, with posts about autism and resources for autistic adults.

I hope you and your daughter could get the resources that help you understand how autism affects your life better.

What motivates you day to day?

Learning is a lifelong journey. No one was born to know everything, so it is important to stay curious, as there is always something for us to learn.

We are all different. Keeping in mind your context and mine (I’m a white cis-het American dude in his 40s) what is one thing you want me to know?

As an Asian living in Asia, one thing I wish more Westerners to keep in mind in particular is that many countries with cheaper currencies than US Dollars or Euros also have lower minimum wage. For example, as of this writing, the minimum wage of my country, Malaysia, is RM 1,700 per month for most business, which is approximately 380.31 USD per month.

This means it is crucial for Westerners to not assume things they consider cheap to feel the same way by people in countries with weaker currencies.

What are three favorites? (It can be anything like food, books, media, etc; share a few sentences about each though and each one can be a different category, ie, a favorite food, a favorite book and a favorite album)

My favourite video game and ultimate comfort media is “Cassette Beasts”, the indie monster collecting RPG developed by the British-based Bytten Studio. “Cassette Beasts” reaffirms my taste in video games by combining just about everything I like to see in a video game, including but not limited to: representation for LGBTQ+ people as well as visibly Black and brown people, creatures with interesting designs, story with leftist messages and an optimistic message about humanity, excellent soundtrack, and more.

My favourite piece of LGBTQ+ media is “A Summer’s End — Hong Kong 1986”, an independent visual novel developed by Oracle and Bone, a Canadian-based studio. As a Chinese lesbian who speaks Cantonese and grew up with Hong Kong media during my teenage years, “A Summer’s End” is the lesbian story that I relate to and feel represented the most. I relate to both the protagonists as their characters represent different parts of my life as a Chinese lesbian, and to the story’s theme of hoping for the future of our homeland despite the political uncertainties.

My favourite food is any kind of cooked mushroom. As long as the mushroom is cooked, I will love it.

What is one quote that you can’t get out of your head?

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” — Desmond Tutu

How did you find omg.lol and what are your favorite parts?

I discovered omg.lol when I was browsing other people’s personal websites during the first half of 2024, as some people who have personal websites also use omg.lol. omg.lol immediately caught my attention because of its fun name and cute logo, but I did not join until September 2024, when I successfully bid on a lifetime omg.lol membership during omg.lol’s fundraising campaign for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

What I love the most about omg.lol is that it offers a lot for an affordable price of 20 USD per year: you get various web tools such as your own profile page, your now page, a Mastodon account on its social.lol instance, status log, picture sharing, DNS, community chat, and more, as well as a wonderful, openly-inclusive community. omg.lol brings back the fun of carving your own corner on the web and connecting with people on the web.

What is one thing you’ve discovered that someone else created that you’d like to promote?

Blake Watson’s (another omg.lol member) HTML For People is my go-to recommendation for any total beginners to websites and code to start learning how to make their own web page or website.

Find Helen online!

• Personal blog: https://blog.helenchong.omg.lol/
• Developer portfolio and blog: https://helenchong.dev/