Welcome to Resilient Interview, an initiative by Resilient Immigrant where we document the full truth of the immigrant journey, not just the challenges, but the resilience, strategy, and impact. By sharing these stories, we help shape how immigrants are seen, understood, and remembered, providing narrative power that inspires, empowers, and shifts perspectives.

In this feature, we highlight Saadia Khan, Founder of Immigrantly Media and creator of the identity app Belong On Your Own Terms (BOYOT). Below is her complete, unedited interview detailing her journey from Pakistan to establishing an award-winning media network in New York.

Where are you from, and what year did you immigrate?

"I am from Pakistan, and I immigrated in 2001"

What do you do today, and how would you describe the contribution you are making?

"I'm the founder of Immigrantly Media, a podcast-first media company telling the stories of first and second-generation immigrants, stories that are nuanced, funny, and deeply human. What started as a solo podcast in my living room has grown into an award-winning network of shows, a newsletter, and an identity app called Belong On Your Own Terms (BOYOT). My contribution is simple: I'm shifting culture from stereotype to empathy, one conversation at a time. Because immigrant stories aren't one thing, they're everything. And they deserve to be heard in their full complexity."

What moment or experience tested you the most during your immigrant journey? (Share a specific situation rather than a general challenge.)

"Leaving behind the life I had built, my early career, and sense of self, and arriving in America on a dependent visa was the hardest thing I've ever done. Suddenly, I wasn't my own person on paper. I was a footnote in someone else's story. That period tested me in ways I didn't expect. It wasn't just the practicalities, it was the quiet erosion of identity that comes when the world stops seeing you as someone with your own ambitions, your own voice, your own place. You exist, but conditionally. That experience never left me. It's honestly a big reason Immigrantly exists: no one should have to shrink themselves to fit someone else's narrative."

What did you do differently that allowed you to move forward?

"I made an unconventional choice. Instead of chasing a 9-to-5, I built something from nothing because I needed to feel free and in control of my own story. That was Immigrantly."

What has your immigrant background given you that you would never trade?

"Grit. The ability to hold multiple truths at once, face failure head on, and pivot when everything tells you to stop. That's what my immigrant background gave me. And I wouldn't trade it for anything."

What is an achievement you are proud of that people don't fully understand the weight behind?

"Building Immigrantly from nothing, no experience in audio production, no network, no infrastructure. Just me, figuring it out. Every episode in the early days cost me sweat, tears, and more than a few laughs at myself. People see what Immigrantly is today. They don't see what it took to get here as an immigrant entrepreneur, someone constantly told to shrink, to bow down, to earn her place quietly. Building Immigrantly was my defiance. Loud, messy, and completely unapologetic."

How are you actively shaping how immigrants are perceived through your work, leadership, or presence?

"I'm flipping the script. The immigrant narrative has been flattened for too long, reduced to either a sob story or a success story, fetishized or celebrated, but rarely just human. Through Immigrantly, I'm making space for what's actually true: that the immigrant experience is messy, vulnerable, contradictory, and impossible to fit into one box. That's the work."

What do immigrant professionals need to hear early that they are almost never told?

"You are enough, exactly as you are. You don't need to sand down your accent, hide your culture, or shrink your quirks to belong. The things you've been told to apologize for are actually your greatest assets. Stop performing belonging, you already have it."

Describe your immigrant journey in one word.

"Defiant"

Complete this: "I am a Resilient Immigrant, and I belong where I...
"Create"

Saadia’s journey is a powerful blueprint for what happens when you refuse to let the world treat you as a footnote in someone else's story.

By choosing defiance over assimilation, she built a space where immigrant narratives are heard in their full, unfiltered complexity. The Resilient Interview series is a living archive of identity, strategy, and unapologetic truth.