My parents moved from Korea to Canada before I was born and then to California when I was about four years old. We moved a lot so we couldn’t have many belongings. I remember asking my mom to tell me the story over and over again about how she once moved all our family’s things in my sister’s stroller before I was born. Needless to say, when I ask her about the few things that we took with us from place to place, books were not among them.
In graduate school, many of my colleagues swapped stories about how introverted they have always been, how they stayed inside and read all of Jane Austen’s books when they were only ten, or all the nights they didn’t sleep - reading books under the covers with a flashlight. When they told these stories, I always thought to myself that their parents must have had a great collection of books for them to have discovered such mature authors at such a young age.
Unlike many of my friends, I did not grow up loving books. I held a deep fascination and awe for books - sometimes so much so that I was too intimidated to pick them up, let alone read them. The word “classics” made me feel small, insignificant, and anxious. I know some people with such a clear vision or talent that they are able to find their passion regardless of how they grew up, but I was not one of those people. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t find books, or rather, books didn’t find me until I was seventeen years old and my English teacher assigned us the short stories of Ernest Hemingway.
When I started to develop a real relationship to literature, I felt as if I was unraveling - in a good way. I was finding out all these things about myself that I didn’t know were there. So many of the questions I was asking inside me my whole life were finally being answered - I have never felt any religious awakening in my life, but this was the closest thing to it.
When I started to envision Leitmotif, I wasn’t sure if making clothes would make me happy. I had spent the last decade of my life working toward becoming a professor and I loved teaching - I wasn’t sure how this new future would look or feel like for me if it didn’t include literature.
While we are trying to make a powerful statement in the children’s fashion world with our art and literature inspired tees and unisex pieces, I really wanted to find a way to use my knowledge and love of literature to help our local communities through Leitmotif. As a small business, I wanted to try to make an impact. I asked myself, what would I do if I really wanted to help another person? What do I have to offer?
I love to give my favorite books as gifts. I garner a lot of pleasure from gifting books to friends and family that might be the one book that will change their relationship to themselves the way Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms did for me. When I started to think about the logic of donating books, I thought to myself, I bet the quality of the books that get donated are not great and not always relevant to the families that receive them (this was later confirmed by people that organize book drives and donations). I think part of the reason that I didn’t love reading is that I didn’t see myself reflected in any of the books I read (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Ramona, Madeleine…although I did love me some Mrs. Piggle Wiggle). As I grew older of course, I found my soul mates regardless of what the writers or characters looked like, but when I was little, I was all too aware that I did not exist in the literary world.
Having read a wide range of authors in graduate school, I feel pretty confident that I will be able to curate book donations to really speak to the families that would receive them. I am so excited to donate the books that took me so long to find. Books by Ralph Ellison, Knut Hamsun, Salman Rushdie, Virginia Woolf, Manuel Puig, Nikolai Gogol, Nella Larsen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavia Butler, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ernest Hemingway…
As I read with my daughter, I am grateful that we live in a time where there are children’s books that resonate with our worldview, that feel much more progressive than the books I read when I was young because they offer alternatives to re-used plots and imagines new faces on the heroes and heroines of our generation. I am grateful for books with animal characters that speak metaphorically about differences, and do not make my daughter feel like she isn’t included in the literary imagination because faces like hers are not often depicted in American picture books.
When I think about the books I will donate, I feel that all my training and reading has come to some good. I am grateful that my critical lens can be useful outside of the classroom so I can gift books to people who need them. If I can potentially help a person find answers to the questions most profound to them, I will feel I have done something good in the world.
In graduate school, many of my colleagues swapped stories about how introverted they have always been, how they stayed inside and read all of Jane Austen’s books when they were only ten, or all the nights they didn’t sleep - reading books under the covers with a flashlight. When they told these stories, I always thought to myself that their parents must have had a great collection of books for them to have discovered such mature authors at such a young age.
Unlike many of my friends, I did not grow up loving books. I held a deep fascination and awe for books - sometimes so much so that I was too intimidated to pick them up, let alone read them. The word “classics” made me feel small, insignificant, and anxious. I know some people with such a clear vision or talent that they are able to find their passion regardless of how they grew up, but I was not one of those people. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t find books, or rather, books didn’t find me until I was seventeen years old and my English teacher assigned us the short stories of Ernest Hemingway.
When I started to develop a real relationship to literature, I felt as if I was unraveling - in a good way. I was finding out all these things about myself that I didn’t know were there. So many of the questions I was asking inside me my whole life were finally being answered - I have never felt any religious awakening in my life, but this was the closest thing to it.
When I started to envision Leitmotif, I wasn’t sure if making clothes would make me happy. I had spent the last decade of my life working toward becoming a professor and I loved teaching - I wasn’t sure how this new future would look or feel like for me if it didn’t include literature.
While we are trying to make a powerful statement in the children’s fashion world with our art and literature inspired tees and unisex pieces, I really wanted to find a way to use my knowledge and love of literature to help our local communities through Leitmotif. As a small business, I wanted to try to make an impact. I asked myself, what would I do if I really wanted to help another person? What do I have to offer?
I love to give my favorite books as gifts. I garner a lot of pleasure from gifting books to friends and family that might be the one book that will change their relationship to themselves the way Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms did for me. When I started to think about the logic of donating books, I thought to myself, I bet the quality of the books that get donated are not great and not always relevant to the families that receive them (this was later confirmed by people that organize book drives and donations). I think part of the reason that I didn’t love reading is that I didn’t see myself reflected in any of the books I read (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Ramona, Madeleine…although I did love me some Mrs. Piggle Wiggle). As I grew older of course, I found my soul mates regardless of what the writers or characters looked like, but when I was little, I was all too aware that I did not exist in the literary world.
Having read a wide range of authors in graduate school, I feel pretty confident that I will be able to curate book donations to really speak to the families that would receive them. I am so excited to donate the books that took me so long to find. Books by Ralph Ellison, Knut Hamsun, Salman Rushdie, Virginia Woolf, Manuel Puig, Nikolai Gogol, Nella Larsen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavia Butler, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ernest Hemingway…
As I read with my daughter, I am grateful that we live in a time where there are children’s books that resonate with our worldview, that feel much more progressive than the books I read when I was young because they offer alternatives to re-used plots and imagines new faces on the heroes and heroines of our generation. I am grateful for books with animal characters that speak metaphorically about differences, and do not make my daughter feel like she isn’t included in the literary imagination because faces like hers are not often depicted in American picture books.
When I think about the books I will donate, I feel that all my training and reading has come to some good. I am grateful that my critical lens can be useful outside of the classroom so I can gift books to people who need them. If I can potentially help a person find answers to the questions most profound to them, I will feel I have done something good in the world.
