tanjennts is the creative outlet of writer & photographer Jenn Chen
About Jenn
I'm a writer & photographer in the specialty coffee industry and beyond. This is a job I created for myself and I love it most of the time (who actually loves their job 100% of the time? I’d love to know).
Much of my writing is informed by my personal experiences and interests. I'm Taiwanese American, a child of immigrants, and I have both general & social anxiety and depression. Being open about mental health is important to me because of the stigma that exists in both the US and, especially, Asian cultures. With my untraditional job in an untraditional field and writing about personal experiences for many to read—I do not fit within cultural expectations or stereotypes.
I’m on the board of GoFundBean, a nonprofit that supports, uplifts, and defends the hourly coffee worker. And I’m an editor-at-large at Sprudge, a globally read digital publication about specialty coffee. My bylines there are in-depth features on a whole range of topics like neon's bright history in coffee, coffee unions, giant roadside coffee pots, and the still-somehow-controversial gesha vs. geisha debate.
My internet writing dates back to LiveJournal and Xanga days (early 2000s). Before that, I began journaling around the age of 5 in my puffy, hot pink Princess Jasmine diary (the only Disney princess at the time that looked remotely like me). I'm not formally trained in either writing or photography, but I've found the pen and camera to be great tools to express my super-introverted self–whether or not I publicly share the results.
Most of my leisure time is filled with my rescue dog Zoey. She's very sweet but will also go nuts if not given enough attention or exercise. I love chips, donuts, plants, jigsaw puzzles, video games, miniatures, and soothing forest walks. Another word to describe me is tsundoku
. I often take up random crafting projects, enjoy traveling, and when possible, contribute back to the communities I'm in.
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The Japanese word for “buying books and letting them pile up unread.”
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