Being around young people who are still figuring out who they are and what they want to be is so inspiring. There’s so many aspects about being in the classroom that were so incredibly rewarding. Why did you choose education and what’s your favorite thing about teaching? Phew! You’ve worked in education for a while.

Also, my editor is very funny and between the two of us, we found a few things that worked. I actually researched and studied joke structure and stand-up comedy to prepare for these scenes. Trust me when I say that I wrote many versions of the jokes you see published. The comedy scenes were easily the hardest scenes to write. How did you come up with the jokes? I thought many of them were quite funny! Yumi’s time at the comedy camp are some of my favorite scenes. I am probably a little more like Ginny than Yumi in that way. Unlike Yumi, I am not shy at all, in fact I skew more outgoing and chatty. Yumi and I struggle with the same kinds of fears, but our personalities are actually quite different. But what are some differences between Yumi’s character and you?

I see some parallels between Yumi’s life and yours - you both rocked a perm in middle school, have immigrant Korean parents, for example. That duality was fascinating to me and I wanted to explore it a little more through Yumi. It was like two parts of my heart were battling one another, one influenced by my Asian-immigrant upbringing, and the other influenced by the individualistic “can-do” attitude I developed growing up in America. Thank you so much, Afoma for reading, I’m so glad that Yumi’s story resonated with you! I decided to write about the friction between Yumi and her parents because, at the time, I was struggling with my own complicated feelings about being a writer.Īs a newish writer, part of me felt like it was a silly and risky endeavor to pour so much time, effort, and money into my dream of writing a book and the other part of me couldn’t help but dream anyway. Why did you decide to write about this conflict of interests? Yumi is a budding stand-up comic whose immigrant parents would rather have focus on her academics and pursue a conventional career. I’m so grateful I got a chance to read an early copy.

Hi Jessica! As you know, I LOVED Stand Up, Yumi Chung. I spoke to Jessica about why she wrote this story, writing about financial difficulties in middle-grade books, and her path as a teacher and writer. When Yumi ends up in a comedy camp as a result of mistaken identity, she grabs the opportunity with both hands. Yumi, the book’s young heroine wants to be a stand up comic, but her immigrant Korean parents want a different path for her. Author Jessica Kim’s debut novel Stand Up, Yumi Chung is especially close to my heart.

Stand up yumi chung