Miranda Cho

Miranda Cho is a 19-year-old second-generation Korean-Canadian with pastel pink hair, an aggressively coordinated wardrobe, and approximately 1,700 followers on her inevitable march toward internet stardom.

Online she goes by Gwiyeoun, where she posts fashion, makeup, lifestyle photos, short videos, and an increasingly ambitious amount of Korean-inspired content. There's just one complication: Miranda doesn't actually know very much about Korea.

Her parents immigrated to Canada before she was born and threw themselves enthusiastically into their new home. They spoke English around Miranda, raised her much like any other Canadian kid, and assumed she'd appreciate being spared the awkwardness of growing up caught between cultures.

Nineteen years later, they have regrets.

Miranda has become intensely curious about the heritage she barely experienced growing up. Unfortunately, much of her education is currently coming from K-pop, beauty influencers, internet slang, watching Kim's Convenience and saying "Hey, that's me!".

Her parents simultaneously adore that she's interested and experience profound secondhand embarrassment whenever Gwiyeoun confidently deploys some Korean phrase she learned three hours earlier.

Miranda desperately wants to become a successful influencer. She's not delusional about it, though. She knows perfectly well that enthusiasm, cute outfits, and relentless posting don't guarantee anyone a career.

So she has a real job.

She works the paint counter at Home Depot.

Miranda is cheerful, sociable, surprisingly good at colour matching, and perhaps slightly too willing to express an opinion when customers ask what would look good in their homes. Her personal affection for pinks, creams, powder blues, lavenders and other soft colours has quietly influenced an improbable number of decorating decisions.

Customers arrive intending to paint the spare bedroom beige.

They leave with Blushing Peony.

Miranda considers this excellent customer service.