After her season-long stint on Dance Moms and a series of first place finishes, Asia did go on to have her own series, Raising Asia, eventually deciding to call it quits ahead of her 10th birthday. “I started to get a little burnt out,” she explained, “a little tired of the constant cameras on me all the time.” Worried that the sleep deprivation and the constant go-go-go nature of her own series would turn her off dance forever, she stepped off the reality TV stage but not out of the spotlight. Having spent much of quarantine exercising, modeling, partnering with a series of brands and working on her music, the high schooler, set to turn 16 on Aug. 10, has big plans for 2022.
“I definitely think reality TV gave me a bigger, wider platform across the world. Because even today I’ve met some people that say my show is just now airing in their country. They have no idea that I’ve grown up. So it’s this constant cycle. People will constantly see my life until it has fizzled out, until I lean into something else.
I feel like talking to any of the girls that were on the show, we all have such different experiences, such different perspectives on things or how we felt during these shows. But I feel like, overall, I had a pretty great experience and I wouldn’t take back anything. I really did enjoy the time I had out there and growing up on television. Even though it seems like a lot, it was something that really set me up for life that I would never take for granted.”