KNOCKOUT

The dramatic life trajectory of an international fashion model.

Kang’s story begins in Hong Kong in the 1990s, where she grew up with a host of stepsiblings within a familial “mixed bag of Asian and Caucasian lineage.” Though overweight and fat-shamed in school, she found solace traveling with her father while cringing from the cruelty of her Korean mother’s rampant alcoholic rages. Kang soon found motivation in a dangerous crash diet that shaved a third of her bodyweight in just four months. At the suggestion of her modern dance teacher, she approached modeling agencies and scored a lucrative contract at age 17 that took her around the world and garnered her long-awaited attention from men. Rushing in behind that sudden fame, however, came body-image issues and toxic relationships with drugs, transient friends, and a grab bag of potent laxatives and diuretics able “to get me to shrivel down to the smallest possible Mia I could be.” The author delivers the gritty details via a raw, street-wise narrative voice that feels engrossingly authentic. As her modeling career took off, the industry’s dark-sided pitfalls came into focus. “Everything about me was the same except that number on the scale,” she writes, “but that seemed to have determined my whole life.” She continued to struggle with eating disorders, drug addiction, and an obsession with maintaining the coveted “thigh gap.” During a vacation in Thailand, Kang accidentally discovered and fell in love with the martial art of muay thai, which eventually freed her mind and shocked her body into a healthier new direction that she believes saved her life and inspired the sobriety she enjoys today. A closing letter to her younger self reflects on her mistakes and the epiphanies that rescued her mind and body. Budding models and those who have ever battled weight issues or drug dependency will find Kang’s transformational narrative rewarding.

A vibrant, motivational debut memoir.