Oh, there is. Move over and make room, ladies. Ali Wong has earned my coveted girl crush.
If you have no idea who is Ali Wong, get ready to realize that you truly haven’t been living your best life because she wasn’t in it. That is, until now. You and your entire existence are welcome.
As a writer for the comedy Fresh Off the Boat, actress and stand-up comedian, Ali Wong has cultivated a cult-like following through her uninhibited yet uproarious take on relationships, workplace politics, motherhood, race, and culture. The San Francisco native is raw, real, and the NSFW voice inside your head come to life.
Here’s what else you need to know about your next girl crush, Ali Wong.
Her Netflix Specials are Your Next Binge
Ali Wong did not one but two stand-up specials while pregnant with her daughters. Almost eight months pregnant to be exact. That’s right – about the time you had to fake excitement at your baby shower over a garbage pail that holds diapers filled with shit, Ali was on stage absolutely killing it. Let’s see any of her male comedic counterparts try to put on a comedy special while another life form takes over their bodies and make them possibly lose control of their bodily fluids and/or functions.
Before watching Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, heed my warning: Ali Wong does not pull punches and her comedy tackles sensitive and at times, taboo topics. From contracting HPV (“HPV is a ghost that lives inside men’s bodies and says ‘BOO!’ inside women’s bodies.”) to having a miscarriage to racism, she takes those moments in life that may otherwise be devastating and provides the medicine we all need: laughter.
She’s refreshingly candid about everything in both her life and in her mind – whether it’s her sexual history and experience, desire to be so financially secure that she could be a “retired” housewife who can afford fresh cut mango, the reversal of family dynamics in the 21st century, or even the horror of shitting at work. You know you’ve experience that terror…
She’s Worthy of Your Instagram Follow
A celebrity’s Instagram is carefully crafted like a hipster microbrew from Portland. Each shot meticulously staged, edited, and filtered to an inch of its life and then posted in the hopes for your “heart” and your envy. Stunning “woke up like this” shots, pictures of their well-behaved children, vacation photos where the sun perfectly shines its rosé rays across crystal blue unpolluted waters. It’s about as real as an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Ali Wong’s Instagram is the real deal holyfield. Whether she’s expounding on the joys of motherhood…
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi-4f5MBFcM/
…having impromptu dance parties on her toddler’s play mat (please take note of her husband in the background)…
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcx8gHrBkZq/
…unabashedly devouring food that is neither gluten free nor “clean eating” by any means…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXWt11mgecM/
…or even putting her husband on Instagram blast…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNq8Q_AYoS/
…Ali’s Instagram is the Instagram of the People. So you can keep your over stylized food shots and “No Makeup” Makeup posts. Give me Ali Wong and her breast pump/female testicle posts any day of the week.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgZ_7ZFB7Ka/
She Has a Rom-Com Coming Soon
After the immense success of films like Black Panther and Pretty Rich Asians, popular genres – like romantic comedies – that were previously dominated by white only leads have slowly started to address the need for diversity.
In Always Be My Maybe, Ali Wong and Randall Park play childhood sweethearts who, like all young loves, eventually drift apart. The pair reunite 15 years later, but life (and Keanu Reeves…what?!) doesn’t make for a seamless reunion. It has all the makings of the perfect romantic comedy: childhood romance, conflicts that present a challenge but not to the point where its a Chernobyl sized disaster, that one friend who reminds the female lead that she and the male lead are good together, a classic 1990s Mariah Carey song, and did I mention Keanu Reeves?
Take note, Nancy Meyer: falling in love isn’t just for the Reese Witherspoons and Diane Keatons of the world.
Her Advice for Her Daughters is Really Advice for You
Although she is slowly taking over Netflix, Ali Wong is also planning on dominating your bookshelf this fall with Dear Girls, a collection of letters written to her daughters. Yes, the letters are for her daughters, but we get to reap the benefits of her experiences, insight, and most importantly humor.
The sharp insights and humor are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she’s learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal singles life in New York (i.e. the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong’s letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and disgusting) for all.
Pretty certain that after reading this, I’ll want Ali Wong to adopt me and I’m older than her. I’m not ashamed.
Click here to preorder Ali Wong’s Dear Girls.
