Origins

Origin Story

The Story of Starting Parents Are Human

A Commitment Over Tea

In May of 2019, Candace and Joseph met over tea and bonded through their shared desire to deepen their relationship with their parents.

They shared their hopes and dreams of getting to know their parents before it was too late and helping others do the same.

One idea that Candace had been tinkering with was creating a bilingual connection card game that would help bridge the language barriers she struggled with as a second-generation Taiwanese-American.

Joseph immediately resonated with her experience as a second-generation Chinese-American, having spent almost a year rebuilding his relationship with his parents.

They made a commitment that day to bring this game into the world. If it helped just one other person share a meaningful moment with their mom or dad, it would all be worth it.

Months of Creating & Testing

Joseph and Candace spent the next six months designing a card game that would spark compassionate conversation and help people connect deeply with their parents.

After hours of research and conversation, they handpicked 50 questions and 20 actions that would best represent the topics people were most interested in talking about with their families: Life Events, Wisdom, Identity, and Relationships.

Then came the hard part—translating the questions, testing, and prototyping the game. With the help of their parents and dozens of families and friends, they discovered the best, colloquial way to ask each question in Chinese. They had friends and their families play the game and figured out production and manufacturing.

Candace’s dad translating questions on his laptop by hand.

Eating way too many goodies baked by Joseph’s mom while we co-worked.

Obsessing over every detail to make sure each card and deck was perfect.

Excitedly fulfilling our first batch of orders. We sold out pre-orders in one day!

Living The Mission

The Parents Are Human mission is to support and inspire people around the world to connect more deeply with their families and cultivate intergenerational wellness. This continues to live on in each of our lives.

Embarking on this journey will always be one of the proudest things we have ever done, and we are nowhere near done.

Candace went on to co-create Letterloop, an app that lets you create private group newsletters with friends and family to stay in touch, grow closer together, and discover things you never knew with the most important people in your life — all over email. You can see what she’s up to here.

Joseph continues to run Parents Are Human and helped co-create The Parent Project, where pods of 3-4 peers come together to show up for their aging parents each week—working through past traumas, rewriting outdated beliefs, and learning to love and be loved by their parents. You can read more about his journey here.