Inspiring Pacific Asian American Stories: Changing the Game Book Review

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Do you have a budding athlete? If so, you should definitely check out Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes by Mia Wenjen. She succinctly profiles 18 female athletes of Asian Pacific American heritage who changed the games they played and the societies they lived in. Some of the women faced racism, sexism, resistance from their families and low expectations, but they beat all the odds to excel. 

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Inspiring Stories: Changing the Game Book Review

It’s interesting to see how many of these athletes spent a fair amount of their formative years not being an isolated racial minority. Many of the athletes are from Hawaii, California or spent time growing up in a country where they were not in the minority. The power that comes from not being a minority means they didn’t have to waste valuable energy fighting against discrimination like Victoria Manalo Draves did and they weren’t presented with narrow ideas of what they could become based on the prejudices of society. There was no one telling Miki Gorman that Asians can’t run when she was growing up in China and there was no one telling Eun Jung Lee Smith that she had no business trying to compete in basketball in South Korea. 

Changing the Game, Mia Wenjen

Some of the athletes absolutely ran up against damaging low expectations and prejudice. Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto trained in ditches because there weren’t decent facilities for Hawaiians in Hawaii. Victoria Manalo Draves could only swim in the public pool on the day that non-whites were allowed to use it: the day before it was to be drained and cleaned. Her father could never go to her meets because he was Filipino and not allowed inside the stadiums in San Francisco.

Other athletes rose through different barriers. How many of us knew that Kristi Yamaguchi began ice skating to correct a club foot as a child? Natasha Kai-Marks left soccer after burnout, returning after gruelling training and Michelle Wie fought through debilitating injuries to maintain her competitive golf performance.

All of these women showed true grit and perseverance to achieve their goals. They will be an inspiration to anyone.

 

Disclosure: The author received a complimentary copy of Changing the Game for review purposes; however, all opinions are the author’s.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2023

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2023 (1/26/22) is in its 10th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.

Ten years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues. Read about our Mission & History HERE.

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Mijha Godfrey

Mijha Godfrey, is a former affordable housing developer, lawyer and founder of Jambo Books. Jambo, which means both “hello” and “welcome” in Swahili, is a book subscription service for children aged 0 – 13 where all the books feature lead characters who are children of color. The stories in Jambo books do not contain the tired, stereotypical portrayals we too often find about children of color in literature. They focus instead on the beauty of childhood; the joys of friendship and family; the thrill of new adventures; the wonderful tapestry that is the life of a child of color. Mijha is passionate about helping parents raise children who won’t need to be taught how to tolerate people who are different from themselves because they will expect and enjoy healthy inclusion. Jambo Book Club members will recognize the same humanity in those who may not share their experiences, that they see in those who do. Jambo Books is her invitation to parents and those with children in their lives to build cross-cultural competencies in our children, through relatable, fun, fiction stories.
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