Mia Kang

Mia Kang (born 30 December 1988) is a British-Swiss fashion model, Muay Thai fighter, body confidence advocate, and television host based in New York City. Kang grew up in Hong Kong and was bullied as a young girl for being overweight. She halved her weight at the age of 13 and was soon scouted as a model. Kang modeled across Asia and Europe through her high school and college years. She got a master's degree in finance and financial law in England, and left modeling to work as a commodities trader, before returning to modeling in New York City and winning the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model search and being named a 2017 Rookie.

Despite her modeling success, Kang was miserable with the eating disorders that she felt the modeling industry demanded to stay thin, until she took up the martial art Muay Thai in Thailand. Training and fighting gained her respect for her body, healthy eating habits, weight and muscle. She now advocates for women's body confidence, while continuing to model, and hosting Spy Games, an American reality competition television series.

Early life and modeling

Mia Kang was born and raised in Hong Kong, though she has Swiss nationality. Both parents were academics, with her father being a physicist from Oxford University. but never felt like she fit in. She says the Asian kids would socialize together and the western kids would socialize together, but she was half Korean and half British, and never felt she belonged with either. She says that she was around before dropping to around ; she was size 14 and became size 0. At the same time, she grew .

Return to modeling

In 2015, Kang signed with Trump Model Management and moved from Hong Kong to New York City, home of most of the world's top models. She also worked in campaigns for Guess. In August 2016, she defeated five other models from around the world in a public vote and was named the winner of the magazine's Swimsuit 2016 Model Search, to be featured in the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

However, she was very unhappy. She was being asked to starve herself, and go on 10-day liquid diets between photo shoots. It was normal for her to go four days without eating. She was obsessed with being thinner, and living off of "Marlboro Lights, black coffee, and alcohol." At her low point, she was contemplating suicide. She decided to compete in her first professional Muay Thai fight in May 2017. She would have done it earlier, but her modeling agency objected strenuously; the money wasn't much compared to US modeling fees, and being injured in a fight would put her career in doubt. At least she needed to first shoot the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Sports Illustrated promised to film the fight for a digital documentary. She took a month long training with legendary Muay Thai fighter Saenchai to prepare for her fight.

Kang's first professional fight was on 7 May 2017. She was matched against Thai fighter Nong B, who had five bouts experience. After her victory, Kang was excited to continue into mixed martial arts, and signed with manager Malki Kawa of leading MMA agency First Round Management.

Kang credits Muay Thai for teaching her to love her body and even saving her life. She hosted a body positivity retreat on Koh Samui with travel agency 109 World. A May 2018 Instagram post in which she compared photos of her emaciated size two, body in 2015 with her size eight, body in 2018, drew 14,000 "likes" and international press coverage. Kang was named a 2018 Today Show Style Hero, and the 2019 Self magazine New Year's Challenge star.

In 2020, Kang became the host of Spy Games, a reality competition television series on the American television channel Bravo, in which ten contestants compete in spy-inspired exercises for $100,000.

Charity work Kang tries to work with a charity in every country she models in.

Publication Kang published a memoir entitled Knockout in 2020. In her memoir, shediscussed her very personal journey from self-loathing to self-love as she struggled with body dysmorphia and eating disorders in her youth and during her modeling career. Her memoir is centered around her experience with Muay Thai and the positive impact it has had on her life. Knockout was published by Abrams Books in October 2020, and was met with positive reception.