Constance Wu in conversation with Loretta Ross

Crazy Rich Asians star and author Constance Wu in conversation with co-founder of SisterSong, human rights activist and Smith College professor Loretta J. Ross on social media.

Video Transcript

LORETTA ROSS: How was it to stay away three years from social media?

CONSTANCE WU: Fantastic.

LORETTA ROSS: And then to re-enter it, how did you feel--

CONSTANCE WU: Oh, man. I didn't want to. I fought my publisher on it for a really, really long time because they really wanted me to. And I was like, no. Like, I almost lost my life because of it, truly. I think we had different goals though. I think my publisher wanted to sell more books obviously.

But I didn't actually. What I realized was my biggest goal was to help people who were going through what I went through. And what drove me to a suicide attempt was social media. So a lot of [? people don't ?] read books. So it's like, how do I reach the people who I'm trying to help? How do I reach the people who aren't going to buy my book? That's who I want to take care of right now.