The 100 Women + POC Author Challenge has begun!

I’ve personally been on a mission to read more books by women and people of color. And then I thought… wouldn’t it be fun to invite you all to join me?!

I love reading, and I think it is important to support authors who are women and people of color. I think it is important to make sure that part of my brain space (prime real estate!) is devoted to ideas from people who are not the dominating white male voices in our society. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever read a book again by a white male, I just want to make a concerted effort to read 100 books over the next few months by women and people of color.

For those of you who take the pledge, here’s a GIFT for you! I’ve made a free digital download of beautifully illustrated bookplates, available on my website. Today I am releasing the first set, bookplates #1-20. Over the next few months I will release the rest of the bookplates in sets of 20, in total there will be 100 bookplates, EACH with a unique illustration by the amazing Aurora Lady (who is a Mexican-American woman of color artist!). This is to encourage all of us to pay attention to Women and POC Authors – to give our support by buying the book and to give our respect by giving our mental space to the author’s ideas in the book. You can choose any 100 books to read, my own will be quite the mix: non-fiction, YA fiction, classic, brand new, etc. Extra credit for getting your books from your local independent book store!

Perhaps you are a woman and/or person of color who is asked, “What can I do to be a better feminist? What can I do to not be racist?” You can tell them about this neat challenge to read 100 books by women and people of color. #100womenauthors and #100pocauthors

May is Asian American heritage month, and I am honored to have been interviewed by Teen Vogue about being an Asian American creative. Teen Vogue’s coverage of politics has been spot-on and very brave.

Lastly I wanted to let you know that the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade has been turned into a Pride MARCH this year, June 11th. There will be sister marches in other parts of the country. Will you be there? When I was in high school, there was the GSA – the Gay Straight Alliance, and I was too scared and too “busy” in high school to join as a straight ally. I want to be better about showing up for causes that may not seem directly my own as an ally – LGBTQ rights, Black Live Matter, etc. because I know how touched I am when people show up for causes that directly affect me. Ultimately, we are all here to support human rights, and we are all banded together by that.

XOXO,