hii! i’m thanh-ha, “ha” in hanoi my city.
my name was handpicked by my dad, who went through about a hundred books on feng shui and the art of naming before finally settling on it. “thanh” means sapphire and “ha” means river. i was born in the year of the buffalo, so my parents envisioned a life as peaceful as a buffalo sipping cool water from a sapphire-blue river. chill and easy, right? (not really)
i was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD), a rare condition, in 7th grade but it was relatively mild and only affected my height. after a year of treatment, i made a full recovery and reached a pretty normal 5'3" (still a little short, i guess). at that time, my hospital visits also brought me into contact with other children living with rare diseases, many of whom had very different experiences from mine, and i became curious about what their lives looked like. that curiosity eventually drew me toward health, society and economics, which have become a big part of my high school years.
three words to describe me? i'd go with my 3e: empathetic, exacting, and effervescent.
My Family
i'm a big sister of two, a granddaughter, a daughter, and a cousin and an aunt to many toddlers
my family has a long tradition of making herbal medicine, so i grew up surrounded by herbs and home remedies. my mom is a huge flower lover, my dad is previously a part-time florist and some of my earliest memories of flowers come from spending time in my grandma's garden. among them i've picked up a love for just about everything floral, from arranging bouquets to making crafts from them.
we have our little family traditions too. saturday is always phở day, no exceptions. we've also invented our own family currency called phiếu ngoan (good-behavior vouchers). and whenever we manage to go on holiday together, we will definitely go to the beach.
Fact-Bombing
i love to swim every morning at the local pool and grandma-taught meditate every night. speaking of water, i have a soft spot for anything that comes in a bowl of broth: phở, bún, ramen as i love the warm, nourishing feelings that come with it. my sweet tooth is just as loyal especially for froyo and my homemade choco cookies shared with my people. baking is definitely my love languauge.
my music taste is a bit of a crime scene. i work out to vietnamese remixes and “party rock anthem,” study to kenny g and richard clayderman, and cry (happily) to sza r&b. i have deep respect for divas with incredibly powerful vocals, from hồng nhung and mỹ linh to whitney houston and celine dion. justin bieber and ariana grande are also on my playlist sometimes. the fact that my song choices are flexible with my mood swings really fascinates me, that’s why my spotify listening age is 45 but guess who is the karaoke master?
i love rubik’s cubes and lego as i like building and solving things (apparently never stopped being nine). i’m also into chinese especially its wordplay and the intriguing differences between characters.
My social life
I’m quite an extrovert and have a golden-retriever energy. I’m happy having deep, intense conversations about culture, politics, or some niche topic, and equally happy in the most laid-back settings.
Planning not planning? both. I am the most typical type-A person, scheduling everything around me, but sometimes still spend hours researching something I randomly came across, for example, “Is a banana radioactive?”
Photobooth strips, polaroids, digicam shots, and film, why choose one when I can take it all? I love the spontaneous 0.5x poses to fit everyone in the frame, and then hang the photos in my room so that when I feel lonely, I can look up and see my comfort people. I also do self-outfit checks, which is my way of keeping myself in that-girl form on record.
My daily rituals
I spend five minutes each morning before school choosing accessories from my huge collection of bracelets and jewelry to add a personal touch to my school uniform. i picked up hair braiding by watching my kindergarten teacher and proclaimed myself a master.
I’m a big Substack person. I love spending 20 minutes each day reading in peace without having a ton of information rushed into my head. I also love writing daily journal entries and filling them with stickers, washi tape, favorite quotes, recipes, and flower facts I’ve collected. Journaling since six is my way to play with color and words and let my creative mind and emotions run wild at the end of the day.
I'm a big Pinterest person, especially when it comes to outfit inspo and flower arrangements. Its algorithm somehow knows my taste so well and always comes up with the most spot-on recommendations. Lately though, both my Substack and Pinterest feed have been flooded with AI slop, so I’ve started contributing my human touch. I really missed the good old days, so hope it helps.
