Hello! Welcome to our website! We want to share with you a children's book we have collaborated on throughout the last few months. Both of us are Asian American and wanted to share a story in which some of that experience was highlighted. We hope that, through reading our book and thinking through the discussion guide we have shared (see below), that you will come away feeling excited at the beauty of diversity and having a tool that will help children explore the same excitement. For both of us, we have come to love our culture, race, and background and hope that other people will feel empowered to do the same. :)

- Megan and Emma

Check out our story!

Click Here

to link to our book!

Here is a conversation guide to help kids process what they have read!

What do you like about being you?
- Guide children to reflect on physical, emotional, and mental accomplishments and attributes.
What are some things that your family does that’s unique?
- This can be holiday traditions, family games, sports, TV shows they watch together etc. The goal is to create a wide picture of what this is and then, bring up racial and cultural examples. This should create connection and make the uniqueness of culture and race more attainable for children to understand.
What are some things you have seen other families do that are unique?
- Guide children to do the same as the aforementioned reflection but with people outside of their family. The goal is to be able to name differences in others and conclude that they are just as special as one’s own.
- Keep in mind that we want to create a mentality of nuance! Make sure to point out that every person and family is different, so there is no way you can actually generalize about families, but it is good to create an open discussion about what your child may notice about others.
Have people ever pointed out your race? (To be more specific: skin color, facial features, body type, hair texture, etc.)
- How did this make you feel? (Sad, disappointed, uncomfortable, happy, angry, scared, etc. )
- These questions are designed to create a safe space for the child. As the facilitator of these questions, it is incredibly important for you to be present and open to the child’s reflections. It is possible that the child may not be able to name specific examples and you can help guide them to think about specific situations, however, this must be done in balance so that you, as the older person, are not forcing the child to share something they are not comfortable with yet.

Terms to Define:

Culture: culture is a broad term used to describe different practices, such as food, clothing, holidays, customs, traditions, etc. that are used by a specific group of people
Race: broadly, race is a group of humans that share common physical traits, the most prominent being skin color

Megan Huynh

Megan is a senior psychology major from Portland, Oregon. She hopes that this project will help guide adults and kids on how to navigate the topic of race. She wants this project to be a tool utilized in working towards equity in our society that is becoming more and more diverse.

Emma Merritt

Emma is a senior, psychology major who transferred to Pacific University from Concordia University. She was adopted from China at a very young age and hopes that people will enjoy and embrace the conversation of race with their kids. She finds diversity and culture to be very interesting and wants to advocate for people of color to be proud of their identity!

Check out our story!

Megan Huynh

Emma Merritt

Check out our essay!