Mia Kang

Biography

Mia Kang (born 30 December 1988) is a British-Swiss fashion model, Muay Thai fighter, body confidence advocate, and television host based in New York City. Kang grew up in Hong Kong and was bullied as a young girl for being overweight. She halved her weight at the age of 13 and was soon scouted as a model. Kang modeled across Asia and Europe through her high school and college years. She got a master's degree in finance and financial law in England, and left modeling to work as a commodities trader, before returning to modeling in New York City and winning the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model search and being named a 2017 Rookie. Despite her modeling success, Kang was miserable with the eating disorders that she felt the modeling industry demanded to stay thin, until she took up the martial art Muay Thai in Thailand. Training and fighting gained her respect for her body, healthy eating habits, weight and muscle. She now advocates for women's body confidence, while continuing to model, and hosting Spy Games, an American reality competition television series.

== Early life and modeling ==

Mia Kang was born and raised in Hong Kong, though she has Swiss nationality. Her father is British and her mother is South Korean; they met while living in Taiwan, then moved to Hong Kong for business. Both parents were academics, with her father being a physicist from Oxford University. She has four older half-siblings (two half-sisters with the same father and a Taiwanese mother, and two half-brothers with the same mother and a different British father), but they lived in other parts of the world as she was growing up. As a teenager, Kang studied at and eventually graduated from the international Island School in Hong Kong, but never felt like she fit in. She says the Asian kids would socialize together and the western kids would socialize together, but she was half Korean and half British, and never felt she belonged with either. Kang grew up bullied and overweight, though a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover with model Tyra Banks hung on her wall. When she was 13, a doctor told her she was obese, and at risk of weight related diabetes. So she went to the other extreme and essentially stopped eating, halving her weight in a couple of months. She says that she was around 86 kilograms (190 lb) before dropping to around 43 kilograms (95 lb); she was size 14 and became size 0. At the same time, she grew 6 inches (15 cm). The boys who had bullied her now asked her out on dates. Getting thin led to her being scouted as a model while still 13 years old, by her dance teacher. One of her first jobs was a Levi's campaign, and she remembers being surprised seeing her picture in shops in Times Square. After graduating high school, Kang modeled abroad, in Tokyo, Singapore, Milan, and London. For several years she was signed with the London Models 1 agency.

== Higher education and finance career == Kang studied philosophy and economics at Bristol University, earning a bachelor's degree, then got a master's degree in finance and financial law at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She says her education is the thing in her life that she is proudest of, and intends to return one day for a doctorate or an MBA. After graduating, Kang left modeling to use her degree in finance as a London commodities trader. She was on the path to becoming a derivatives consultant in her mid-20s, when she realized she felt stifled and decided to try the modeling profession one more time.

== Return to modeling ==

In 2015, Kang signed with Trump Model Management and moved from Hong Kong to New York City, home of most of the world's top models. Sports Illustrated was her first New York City modeling assignment, and she was the first Hongkonger to become a Sports Illustrated model. She also worked in campaigns for Guess. In August 2016, she defeated five other models from around the world in a public vote and was named the winner of the magazine's Swimsuit 2016 Model Search, to be featured in the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was also declared a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2017 Rookie. However, she was very unhappy. She was being asked to starve herself, and go on 10-day liquid diets between photo shoots. It was normal for her to go four days without eating. She was obsessed with being thinner, and living off of "Marlboro Lights, black coffee, and alcohol." At her low point, she was contemplating suicide.

== Muay Thai and body confidence ==

Kang's family have a home in Koh Samui, an island off the east coast of Thailand. Kang was taking a 10-day holiday from modeling there in 2016, when she noticed young fighters from a local gym training in the combat sport Muay Thai by the side of the road, and asked if she could try it; initially just to help her lose more of the weight that she was told she needed to. The coaches were impressed enough by her workout that they suggested she join. The 10 days turned into a six or nine-month training camp, of six day a week routines. The martial arts training taught her to respect her body. The workouts were so intense she forgot she smoked. She stopped restricting what she ate, added 20-30+ pounds, became more muscled, and gained definition. Her dress size went from a size two-four to a size four-six.