Author Vanessa Hua shares her personal story as a child of immigrants

In a program hosted by Poly's Global Initiatives Alliance, Vanessa Hua, author of the best-selling novel "A River of Stars," recently visited Poly to discuss her experience as a writer and a child of immigrants. Hua doubles as a fictional writer and a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. She shared her previously misguided belief that protagonists had to be white because those were the characters she was being exposed to growing up. Hua explained how she came to recognize the importance of representation.

She did base her novel on her life: She gains inspiration for her short stories from her surroundings. For example, Hua read an article a few years ago about someone who snuck their way into Stanford, so she wrote a fictional backstory about a girl who convinced her family and friends that she had been accepted to a prestigious college. Her creativity was evident as she shared her personal story, as well as parts of her written work.