Grace Go’s gap year after graduating from high school has been replete with vital and life-affirming activities.

The Class of 2024 Mercer Island High School graduate has paired with her friend Scarlett Luo, now a rising senior at Edmonds-Woodway High School, to author a children’s book, “Mia’s Family tree: Leaves of Legacy,” which delves into Asian American history in Washington state.

“The book is meant to teach kids to appreciate your heritage wherever you come from, no matter how long you’ve been in the states. You can always appreciate your family and everything they’ve done for you,” Go said about the book tying into that theme.

Go, 19, is Korean American and Luo, 17, is Chinese American, and the duo combined those elements of their cultures to create the main character, Mia (which is Go’s mother’s name). The book follows the Chinese Korean girl while she completes a family project and explores her family history along the way.

Go said they enjoyed researching different Washington and California Chinese American and Korean American families and learning about their crucial accomplishments through the generations.

“While she and I are both daughters of immigrants, we have a really deep appreciation for those who came before us,” said Go, mentioning Chinese people who started building railroads and Korean families who opened businesses. “We are proud Americans, proud Washingtonians, and we plan to create a legacy of our own here. So it’s reminiscent of other people’s stories and something that we hope to do in the future.”

The teens are part of the Washington state chapter of the Make Us Visible coalition, which advocates for the requirement of AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander) history to be taught in grades K-12 ethnic studies courses in our state.

“With the teaching of AA and NHPI history not being required to be taught in Washington state, (AANHPI students) will often grow up feeling othered and they will feel like their culture and heritage wasn’t recognized or appreciated,” said Luo, adding that some of the most prominent issues that she sees in her high school are stereotyping, racism and mental health. She said they stem from the way that Asian American history has been taught in school.

Luo continued, “One reason for Grace and I to write this book was to celebrate the diversity of the United States, especially since the contributions of Asian Americans in this country are often overlooked.”

The Amazon-published book features illustrations by Luo’s cousin Massimiliano Shao, a Chinese Italian who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Verona. It is available on Amazon, and Go said all of the proceeds will be funneled back into buying copies of the book.

Go said they’ve started distributing copies of the book to schools and community members, and their goal is to have at least a few copies in every Island elementary school, and in the Edmonds School District, by September or October. She proudly noted that they’re climbing the Amazon ranks for children’s stories about immigration.

While volunteering with Make Us Visible and seeing SB 5574 — a bill to ensure that Washington K-12 students learn about AANHPI history — not progress during the legislative session earlier this year, Go and Luo decided to make an impact themselves by writing their book.

According to a previous Reporter story, the bill remains alive until 2026 and the coalition hopes to amend it onto another bill that is further along toward possible passage.

With their book published and in people’s hands, Luo said that it’s, “A step forward in inspiring youth like us to share their stories and their beliefs for future generations.”

While discussing the rich history of Asian Americans in Washington, Go mentioned an important message that she penned in the beginning of the book: “You’ll see that I actually wrote a short dedication to my parents, thanking them for planting the seed that is starting our legacy. I’m really starting to feel that way and embody that now.”

Next up for Go will be attending college in the fall to continue studying broadcast journalism and releasing a mini-documentary that she worked on this year with PBS about climate change.

“Excitingly enough, this year, even though it’s supposed to be kind of a relaxing gap year, I’ve been kind of doing a lot more than I expected,” she said.