The Claudia Kishi Club

When I was a kid, it was, like, have you ever had

Lucky Charms,

and you pour out the Lucky Charms

and you get, like, a bowl of cereal and three marshmallows,

That's what it felt like to me,

that there were three Asian-American marshmallows.

The Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers...

The Yellow Power Ranger...

Um...

Data from The Goonies was one of my favorites.

Margaret Cho on All-American Girl...

Michelle Kwan in figure skating.

I thought maybe Lois Lane could be mixed race,

- like I am. - Captain Planet.

Captain Planet is Asian?

Not Asian, but there was an Asian character

who had a dolphin friend.

The Baby-Sitters Club is a series of books that came out in the 80's and 90's.

It follows a group of 13-year-old middle schoolers

who are friends

and they decide to form a business

by babysitting the local kids in their neighborhood.

They're really concerned about, um, quality child care...

which now seems, um...

a little odd that they-- that was like their passion: babysitting.

There's always a new incident or adventure.

There's fun drama.

There's boy drama, of course.

Stacey's going through an issue with her dad.

What's this jealousy when you think Mary has a new best friend?

Going shopping, babysitting, spending time with her friends,

going on cruises to Disney World.

The Baby-Sitters Club was my childhood.

I had...

not only a really big collection of Baby-Sitters Club books at home,

I also would check them out at the library periodically

and even, like, check out old favorites.

I voraciously read through a good chunk,

primarily through the Scholastic Book Club orders.

Y'all know what that is, I mean...

I was reading them. My friends were reading them.

Once I got into it, it was like...

drugs for me.

We've got the sleeping bag.

I've got a bag. Um, I had a necklace.

I had t-shirts. There were dolls.

I had a CD-ROM game.

I spent many hours on it.

We would call each other by those character names.

We would try to dress like those characters.

Of course I was Claudia.

"Suddenly, I sat up.

All I could think about

were Milky Way bars and Ring-Dings and Oreos.

Those were going to be the subject of my next art project.

I could see it so clearly,

the series of pop art pieces:

'Junk-Food Fantasy by Claudia Kishi.'

The idea was brilliant.

I couldn't wait to get started."

Claudia Kishi is vice president of The Baby-Sitters Club.

She's also Japanese American.

She loves junk food. She loves art.

Kooky, eclectic, and...

ahead of her time.

I loved that she had hollowed-out books.

I feel like that's something I still want,

is, like, hollowed-out books to-- to hide all of my candy.

She's cool enough to have her own landline in her bedroom,

unheard of when you're a 13-year-old girl.

Usually...

um, the Asian character

or the woman of color character

is the one you feel like you have to be, right?

If you're playing Harry Potter, you have to be Cho Chang.

Whereas I feel like Claudia is the one

everyone seems to want to be.

"I love to dress in a way that some people

here in Stoneybrook might call...

outrageous."

"At the moment I'm wearing lavender plaid cuffed pants

with suspenders..."

"White tights with clocks on them."

"I was wearing a man's paisley vest I found at a yard sale..."

"Huge pretend emeralds..."

"Electric pink ankle boots."

"I've got earrings shaped like Christmas tree lights

that blink on and off."

Oh, my God.

"Was it too much? I shook my head.

I looked great."

Claudia's style to me is very, like,

tween girl meets Asian auntie.

I feel like Claudia...

knew what hipster fashion was gonna be

20 years later.

For an Asian American, or any woman of color character,

to be the cool one is so unusual.

She is just a really awesome character

who I felt like kind of busted through

all the model minority stereotypes.

"My family is conservative, but I'm wild.

My sister and I have next to nothing in common.

She's super smart and likes school.

My parents think she's wonderful.

I wouldn't admit this to just anybody,

but I have a feeling

that I'm a big disappointment to my parents."

Same.

That was such a mood.

That's like...

That was such a, like...

a big mood for, like--

This is why I related to Claudia so much.

Janine is like the kind of daughter that every...

that I felt that, like,

my mom would've wanted, and I was definitely not.

And I...

would constantly...

have this specter of...

the perfect daughter...

kind of...

hanging over me

'cause I felt very aware that I was not this person.

I felt like Claudia.

I wanted to follow my heart and do creative things.

I wanted to do art.

I wanted to draw. I wanted to write.

Claudia was so... unapologetic about...

who she was.

She really showed that you could be an artist, that you could be creative.

Claudia Kishi was this role model that just...

hit me exactly right.

Like, "Oh, this is like a puzzle piece that fits right into my heart."

"'The Lowells are prejudiced, ' said Kristy in a rush.

'Claud, they didn't like you because you're Japanese.

Jessi, Mrs. Lowell wouldn't even let you in her house

because you're African-American.'

My mouth dropped open.

I could feel my hands trembling and my cheeks burning.

'That's-- That's not fair!'"

Congratulations, Claudia.

You just learned a few things about good old-fashioned racism.

I thought about the cover of "Keep Out, Claudia!"

and I remember, like, it was her standing outside the door

with these Trump-looking white kids

looking at her judgingly. I thought it was like,

"What if these covers were really truthful?"

I just thought, like, it'd be a great way to talk about some microaggressions.

Things that Asians have to deal with every day,

that Claudia probably would have to deal with,

but they never addressed in the books.

There is definitely that quality of... um...

I guess, othering, for sure, where that a lot of these stories are being told