Who among us has not floated the idea of starting a bookstore to our friends and partners, as a way out of the nightmare that is 9-to-5 work and LinkedIn hell? In 2021, Lucy Yu actually did it. She had been unhappily working as a chemical engineer and socking away money, and when she had $40,000 saved, she took the plunge and opened Yu & Me Books, the first Asian American woman-owned bookstore in New York City.
Yu & Me Books was the fantasy embodied. It was a cozy space in Chinatown, filled with Yu's favorite books and new releases, and she hosted author and community events each week. But that fantasy was only possible because Lucy was pushing her body and mind to the absolute limit of what she could handle. Everything changed when a fire nearly destroyed her shop in 2023. I've been a fan and supporter of Yu & Me since it first opened, but I was curious to talk with Lucy about how the fire forced her to learn that in order to take care of her community, she had to learn to take care of herself first.
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