Asian Boss Girl Drops New Book For Kids; A Familiar Voice For a New Generation
Lucky Cat, the first published children’s book for the popular Asian Boss Girl Podcast, held their release party at Nucleus in Alhambra, CA on Friday, January 27.
ALHAMBRA, CA -(RYM)- The story of an immigrant family looking to create a new life in the U.S. is all too familiar, but the story is one that many of us who grew up in this scenario didn’t get always to see.
Lucky Cat focuses on the character, June as her family finds a Lucky Cat left in the building prior to the opening of her family’s new restaurant. What makes this even more exciting for June is when the Lucky Cat comes to life, and she gains a new friend!
While Lucky Cats have always been a symbol of good luck in Asian Culture this is not the particular case for this cat, as his luck is not what is expected. The book teaches a lesson of hard work and diligence that allows for many who have grown up the same way to feel seen in a new medium.
During the event patrons were treated to the book among other activities including being able to see the early sketches created by illustrator, Eunice Chen. The connection between the illustrator & the writers came from a call out done in the podcast in the eraly stages of creating the book, and according to the hosts connecting with Chen was beyond easy & made them even more excited about the project.
Hosts of the Popular Podcast, and Co-Authors of the book spoke with RYM about the process and importance of the book.
Helen Wu: “We started the podcast because we had stories that we felt weren’t really out there yet in the public spectrum. We started off as corporate working women, and we used our platform to showcase the story of people like us. Now as our platform, we received the opportunity to write a children’s book. We thought why not use our platform, and our storytelling abilities to tell our story differently.”
Janet Wang: Our missing at ABG is to tell underrepresented stories, whether that medium is through podcasting, or anything else. This book for us was our first dip into publishing, so the mission remains the same, and we are just hitting a different demo. It is our first time doing something for the younger which is amazing to see.
Often times when stories of younger minorities are told it can be depicted in a way we don’t want to see. However, with your book this seems to be something that kids are going to relate to, without that notion of being the butt of every joke, With that being said, what does it feel like to be a part of, especially in Today’s day and age?
Helen Wu: I feel like it means a lot. We always say that we hope our work is impactful. The one thing with this book that has definitely maybe left an impression is seeing the impact of the younger kids. For them when they see the book you can see they relate, and in their eyes, it’s just something indescribable. Growing up in a world where a lot of other people told our stories, and when we would see them it would be a little bit cringy, and too stereotypical. Then for us writing, this book comes from very authentic storytelling. As kids, we saw lucky cats in restaurants and local establishments, and we said Hey now that we have our platform & we’re a little bit older why don’t we create a story about this lucky cat; bring it to life & fill the imagination with all these young kids out there.
Janet Wang: When we grew up this was not at all popular. Now it’s been amazing to see so many stories out there in terms of the book like what we are doing, while we were doing research our eyes were opened to just how much diverse storytelling is happening, so we are just so happy to be able to contribute to that.
What would you want to say to someone who would read this book for the first time?
Melody Cheng: I think whenever I read the book, I would tell them to remember the hard work your family puts in to make sure you have a great life & making sure that you can live out your dream. Just remember perseverance & hard work.
