Ever since she was a little kid, comedian Youngmi Mayer knew she was funny. As the quintessential class clown, she remembers not being able to sit still but always being able to make people laugh.

As an adult, Mayer began to wonder whether she could turn her sense of humor into something bigger. I just did not think that I had the right to tell anybody that I had dreams of pursuing something like comedy or writing, Mayer, 39, says. Because I thought that that was reserved for people who were just way better than me.

Mayer who was born and raised in South Korea and later moved to Saipan, one of the Northern Mariana Islands had long thought comedy was a luxurious and indulgent pursuit, a feeling she largely attributed to both being Asian and being a woman. She described not feeling worthy of that type of fulfillment and happiness that is, until, at 33, she told her therapist that she wanted to pursue comedy. The very next day, Mayer signed up for an open mic at a dingy bar in New York Citys East Village.

As she worked on her craft, that feeling of inadequacy crept back up. But Mayer kept reminding herself that regardless of which field we choose, imposter syndrome is a reality for many of us. So she leaned into the emotion and found that the audience laughed with her, not at her.

Today, she speaks through the lens of her identity: as a woman, as a Korean, as a biracial person, as someone who immigrated to America when she was 20 and realized that life wasnt all like Saved By The Bell, and as the author of her upcoming memoir, Im Laughing Because Im Crying .