How Michelle Yang’s Journey as a Fat Asian Woman with Bipolar Defied All Odds to Find True Love in Phoenix Girl
I think so much of your book reaches out to readers of all different backgrounds, in spite of it being such a personal and unique story. When you were writing, did you have an ideal reader or target audience in mind?
MY: I was writing for my 20-year-old self who was newly diagnosed bipolar and scared that my life was over. Back then, I had gone to the library, which was always my safe place, to look for a book. Proof that someone I could relate to with my condition could live a full life. I couldn’t find much, let alone anything that was accessible and non-clinical, nothing by someone who is BIPOC or with immigrant experience that was full of hope.