Amestoy Elementary School was amazing. I spoke to 25 girls who were in the 3rd-5th grade and they were so sweet and super smart! Before my session with them began, I was standing at the front of the classroom as they entered. A 4th grader with the cutest afro puffs enters and puts her bag down. I say “hello.” She stares at my shirt and looks at my outfit. She doesn’t say hello back, she’s fixated on my “Slimer” tee shirt. Then she finally speaks and lets out a breathless “cool.” And it was at that moment when I knew I was gonna have their attention!
Spent the first ten minutes telling them my story. I show them a picture of me as a three-year-old wearing my Spider-Man pajamas and listening to a Walkman. I ask if anyone knows what a Walkman is. A girl raises her hand and says it’s a thing that you can use to play CDs, but it’s not digital. I fall out laughing. I explain that yes, what she described is a version of a Walkman, but the Walkman I’m holding in the picture is from back in ’83…uhhh, 1983 when we had cassette tapes. I might as well have been talking about 8-tracks from the looks I got. Geez Louise, how did I get so old?
I went over each division of my company and showed them the artwork for both my mobile game, “Rayven Choi: Reaper’s Run” and my Roblox game “SheroCon.” And let me tell you something, if I’ve EVER doubted the importance of what I’m doing in the gaming space before, they all melted away today. I watched their eyes light up and they gasped when they saw my Agent Shero Roblox avatar on the screen rocking the same box braids several of them were wearing. I’ll never forget those looks and gasps. Such a validating moment!
Next, their instructor, Nicole had printed out a blank page from “Young Grandmaster Choi” on this really fancy paper for them to write a comic book page, and this was fun for all. I invited a few of the girls up to the front of the class, and we read their pages together. They did so well and were so funny in their writing!
After this, I showed them the teaser trailer for the cover of my sequel to Young Grandmaster Choi. Then, Nicole announced that they were all going home with a copy of “Young Grandmaster Choi” and you would’ve thought it was Oprah Winfrey giving away free Teslas. They were super excited! And the excitement didn’t end there. I had Shero Comics bubblegum chapstick for them and this was the cherry on top.
It’s always an exchange when I do these things. They’re seemingly there to learn from me, but I end up learning so much more from them. Today’s lesson was how important it is for young girls to have a space to be creative, how necessary this Roblox game is for them & me, and the importance of the work I do – which is something I sometimes forget.
Next week, I’m taking my cheerleading comic book, Squad Goals, to a middle school. So…the marathon continues.
