Lee, the youngest of four girls,[1] is also an actor who was a main character on the TV series Tremors[2] and appeared in shows such as Friends, Scrubs, and Charmed.

[1] When Lee was a student at the University of California, Berkeley in 1994, she visited Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation.

She walked out angered by a series of ethnic jabs and drew her own animations that night, using Crayola markers and then video-editing equipment at school to complete her first episode.

"[4] Lee has produced a broad range of merchandise from the comic, including iPhone cases, dolls, skateboards and aprons.

Lee also said to Yu that her parents hated her for being a girl and she accused him of being a “Korean boy prince who was probably doted on.” She later regretted the personal attacks but did say that her life would have been different if she were male.

[8] According to the Washington Post in 2015, "[Lee's] influence has waned in the social-media era as the ease of publication and distribution have created more competition."

[9] The main character of is Kim, a six-year-old Korean-American who freely speaks her mind to challenge daily indignities of race and gender stereotypes.

"[3] Elaine Kim, Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Berkeley, said of Lee's work: "The way that Lela expresses herself in her cartoons wouldn't really have been possible in the past.