Interview with: Drs. Annie Yu & Sarah Ge

Learn more about Palette Magazine’s start & its Co-Founders

Interview by: Catherine Shao

Q: As we are celebrating the special 10th anniversary of Palette with this Fall Issue, we are so excited to have the opportunity to chat with its co-founders, Annie Yu and Sarah Ge. To start, can each of you tell us about your journey in the arts?

Sarah: My journey in the arts began way before my journey into medicine. I loved to draw in my sketchbook when I was growing up—it was my creative outlet and a place where I could put my emotions. Eventually, I joined the Claude Watson Arts Program at Earl Haig. I was in a Visual Arts Program there, so I engaged in a lot of visual art activities, like painting murals. Then, when it came to undergrad, I became more focused on medicine and healthcare. So, while my focus of interest shifted, the arts still played a huge role in my life just in terms of remaining as my creative outlet and source of comfort. For instance, during this time, I took some biographic design courses to sort of merge my interest in medicine with the arts. Finally at UofT, Palette became my new creative outlet as well as a creative outlet for others in the medical community.

Even now in residency, art is still a really important part of my life. I don’t have as much time to explore it as I would want to, but it’s still an outlet for me. I appreciate that it’s something like a safe haven that I can turn to when I need to take a break and a step back.

Annie: I can echo a lot of what Sarah was saying, but unlike Sarah, I don’t think I have a lot of experience with visual arts, but I’ve always really loved reading, creative writing, and literature. I think that started from when I was a very small child. I remember in senior kindergarten, reading time was always my favourite part of the day. In middle school, I moved back to China and then returned to Canada in high school. These moves back and forth made it hard to fully grasp the different language, and it was really challenging to integrate myself when I was moving so frequently. So, I sort of resorted to reading a lot of books, using it as a way to help me make friends and build a better understanding of the culture I was going into. Later, I went to the Health Sciences program at McMaster, but I remember that my favourite classes were actually the English ones. Reading is definitely something that I still try to do even now in residency.

Q: Could you tell us more about the origins of Palette?

Annie: Palette actually sort of began as a joke. It’s interesting because we went to undergrad together, but we never really talked until we both started medical school—that’s when we became really close friends. One day, we were just chatting about how we both really loved the arts and have experience in print publications. We just thought, “Oh, it would be really funny if we did something together in med school.” And that’s how it started. It was both the start of Palette and of a really great friendship between me and Sarah.

Sarah: Palette truly began as a throwaway comment during a conversation we were having one day. We initially called it, “Abstract baby.” I still have the Google Drive in my email. We also had these brainstorming sessions where Palette slowly became a reality the more we talked and thought about it. Throughout this process, we specifically started envisioning how amazing it would be to create a platform where we could celebrate all the other talents that our colleagues in UofT Medicine had to offer. I think we were also both part of UofT Medicine’s science magazine and we wanted something similar that could showcase another side of medicine. So, that was sort of how Palette evolved.

Q: Each recruitment season, we always meet several people who ask about the inspirations behind Palette’s name. So, we must ask, what is the story behind this choice in naming?

Annie: We knew that we wanted a name that was one word—something simple, but impactful. I forget who came up with the word “Palette” specifically, but I remember that we liked the symbol behind it. When you think of a colour palette, there are different colours on it—it’s sort of an amalgamation of things, and people from different backgrounds who bring in really unique talents to one project together. And it’s just such a colourful object. So, I think we liked the symbol behind it and that’s why we went with “Palette.”

Sarah: Before we landed on the name “Palette,” I think we were actually thinking about calling it “Rice.” You know, we thought it would be nice to have a white-pink aesthetic, and in a way, it also pays homage to our own Asian heritage as well. So, we thought about it for a long time, but we wanted a word that had a stronger connection to the arts, and we felt like “Palette” was the perfect word for that.

Q: Did you intend Palette to specifically showcase and celebrate the arts produced by U of T’s medical community?

Annie: Absolutely. I think from the very get- go, we wanted something that was student- led, student built, and student owned. We quickly wanted to focus on people in the local community because first of all, we’re biased: we were medical students ourselves. But, also, as we were entering that phase of exploring different medical specialties and trying out new things.

We also saw so much creative energy from the people around us. They were performing in musicals. They were writing up their own poems. We really wanted to harness that creative energy and showcase it because we knew that it wasn’t just us: there were also so many people around us who really loved the arts and would really appreciate having a platform to explore that part of their identity outside of their label as a medical student and eventually as a resident and a doctor.

Q: Can you tell us more about any unexpected joys, favourite memories, and challenges you encountered as the original Co-Editors-in-Chief of Palette?

Sarah: Palette was mine and Annie’s first time building something from the ground up. While there were definitely hurdles along the way, I think that being able to overcome them with your best friend and going through such a journey together was a unique and unforgettable experience. I also think that the overwhelming amount of support we had, both from our peers and staff, made me really feel like what we were doing was valued and important. This enthusiasm was something that was really nice to have.

In terms of specific memories, I still remember the now-joys-then challenges Annie and I faced with actually putting together the magazine. At that time, we didn’t know how to use Adobe Photoshop or InDesign, so I enlisted the help of one of my friends from art school to teach us. Annie and I literally learned Adobe on the fly, and it was hilarious because we were both messing up but having a great time doing it. And then, when we finally received the printed copies, I remember looking at it and feeling awestruck. It was everything that I thought it would be but so much more to experience the feeling of physically holding it in my hands. In that moment, I felt really proud of what we were able to accomplish, and it will always be a very resounding memory for me.

Annie: The joys for me also stemmed from the enthusiasm we received: not just from our class, but also from the UofT medical community in general. Initially, we started off very small—it just began as a conversation between the two of us. We didn’t really think that it would go as far as it did, but when we started pitching this idea to people, our friends, and then eventually to MedSoc to ask for funding, we were met with so much support and enthusiasm that this energy was definitely the major first joy that kept us going. For the rest of our Palette journey, being able to meet with the contributors and seeing how much they appreciated the opportunity to showcase their work, and doing interviews to learn more about our classmates, were all really meaningful.

Q: What about challenges you both encountered?

Sarah: I think, whenever you’re pitching a new idea, there will be people who would question it, which is totally valid. So, when we were pitching our idea initially to get funding, we actually applied to a lot of different funding sources. We got some, and we were denied by some, and so, obviously, the rejections were really difficult for us because Palette was something that we really cared about. One specific challenge that we encountered was justifying why we wanted to do a print publication. They’d ask, “Why are you spending the extra cost and funding to print it when everything is virtual right now? Why don’t you just create a website and publish it there?”

I also think that having something on paper is really important to the people who submitted their works to Palette. Even though we had to justify ourselves multiple times, I think we ultimately made the right call. A virtual copy helps increase accessibility, but having a printed copy alongside helps to better celebrate the talents and accomplishments of our contributors.

Annie: We were so adamant about wanting something tangible from the get-go because having something physical to hold onto forces you to pay attention to what’s in front of you. In our current society, where our attention spans are so short, and it’s so easy to just glance over something, scroll through something, or toggle through multiple tabs, I think having a tangible object quite literally helps ground you to what’s going on in the present. I also agree that a virtual publication would not do justice to our contributors’ work, and I think this rings especially true with visual arts and photography. It’s really special, meaningful, to have artwork in print.

Q: How do you envision the future of Palette and its development?

Annie: Both Sarah and I think that each team who came after us has done such a fantastic job because there’s something new added to Palette every year.

Whether that’s new content or a different type of event. For instance, the contest for cover art wasn’t something that came up when we first started the publication. My hope for Palette would be to always remain as a student-led publication, where we do things in-house, try new things, and continue to get as many people to contribute and participate as possible.

Sarah: This is a great question because I actually remember when Annie and I started it, we were saying that it would be cool to see an issue of Palette floating around the school 20 years down the road when we’re both staff and know that we were a part of its creation. Looking at Palette even now, I feel like it has grown so much more than what we’ve both expected. We originally started with a team of four, and now it’s expanded to a team of 14— that number still blows my mind.

For Palette’s future, I hope that it remains as a platform, not just for medical students, but also for residents and staff as a way for them to showcase their talents and express themselves, almost as a form of creative escape from the heavier realities of medicine. My wish is that it’s kept, and that it doesn’t get lost or forgotten. I’d love to see it expand and engage more residents and staff, recognizing that as we progress into residency and staff positions, we will also have more stories to tell.

Q: Finally, how do you see yourself incorporating or further developing your engagement with the arts in your future career as physicians?

Annie: To be honest, it’s certainly been harder than I expected once I started residency. You know, being a resident demands so much energy and time, and so I think it’s through interactions like this one, where I am being interviewed by you, that reminds me to still incorporate what I truly love doing into my daily life outside of work—whether it’s work for residency, local work, or research endeavours.

I’m personally in the field of psychiatry, which focuses so much on patient narratives and patient stories. So for me, having always loved storytelling and creative writing, I think in the future, it’d be really cool if I can somehow bridge the stories and experiences I’ve learned from the clinical setting in psychiatry with mental health patients into either fictional or nonfiction work. I’d be able to publish and share that with a broader population. I don’t have concrete ideas yet, but there is a journalism fellowship at UofT that I’ve been very much interested in even since medical school. I think being able to engage in journalism and creative writing through fiction or creative nonfiction would definitely be an interest of mine.

Sarah: Like Annie, I also think it’s really, really difficult. Residency for me has been really challenging in terms of dedicating time for myself; it’s just so easy to get lost in your work and the hours that you have to put in. I still view the arts as a sort of refuge—like my safe place where I can go write or sketch about my feelings and things from my day that I just need to process. I think the arts will always be that place for me and it will continue to be as I move throughout my career.