Frequently Asked Questions 

Did you go to art school?

Yes and no. I went to Washington University in St. Louis and double majored in Marketing and Visual Communications (now called Communication Design). Going to WUSTL felt more like getting illustration on the side of a typical college experience. I’m glad I was able to take the business and psychology classes I was interested in, and that I was surrounded by people who were studying such interesting and different things! As for the illustration major itself, it leaned towards a more conceptual and process-driven approach than a technical one, and that was an area of training that I really needed at the time.

How did you became an illustrator instead of other art related jobs?

Growing up, I loved doing all types of painting and drawing, but I was always fixated on making the "responsible" choice and earning a living - so I never truly considered anything in the big category of fine arts. When I went to college and learned about commercial art, I still tried to find areas that looked more stable, like advertising design and graphic design where I could count on working for a company rather than for myself. While there are a few companies that will hire illustrators full-time, most illustrators work as freelancers. But I couldn't get away from the fact that I loved drawing, so in my mind illustration was the most responsible choice I could make where I could draw and still make some kind of living. Looking back I'm sure I could have made more than a few types of art work, but it was the best decision I could make at the time!

Have you always been a freelancer?

It sure feels like it, but I only went full time freelance at the end of 2009 after 2.5 years of working at American Greetings. I worked as a line designer, which means that I decided what each card in any given product line would look like. This job taught me a lot about how the creative process could be translated to a corporate environment. Some days, I was floored by all the resources made available for the creative teams. Other days, I felt the limitations and inefficiency of a large, complex system. The little I know today about post-production comes from my time there.

How did you transition into freelance illustration?

I did a modest amount of freelance while I was at American Greetings. Shockingly, my first ever editorial assignment was for the New York Times! I was in such disbelief that I asked the AD, “Are you sure?”! The assignments I did in those years gave me just enough experience to get a taste of what freelance illustration was like. I certainly didn’t have a full-blown freelance career by the time I left my day job, so it was definitely a leap of faith. It certainly helped that I was young (24), living simply (paying $400/mo for rent in Cleveland, supporting only myself) and had saved up some money from my time at American Greetings.

When you partner with the writers of the books, do they give you a specific picture to draw or do you create the drawing just from looking at the text?

Sometimes the author will have suggestions about what image they would like to see, but it's normally up to me to come up with the drawing just from looking at the text! That's a big part of my job as an illustrator: to think of several ways I could possibly interpret their words into pictures, and then to choose a solution that is best for the entire story along with the way that I draw. I also like to think of making books as a 3-way partnership between the publisher (editor and art director), author and illustrator with the publisher in the middle, so I don't communicate directly with the author until much later, when the book is coming out.

How did you get your agent? How did you start making books?

I was signed on to my first chapter book thanks to a friend’s helpful connection. That book happened to be made up of an all-star team: written by Jenny Han and edited by Alvina Ling (someone I am still making books with)! What’s even more amazing is that I came out with a literary agent at the end of the process. Emily Van Beek is Jenny’s agent and when she saw that I wasn’t represented, Emily reached out to me. I was too inexperienced to know it at the time, but signing with her has turned out to be the single most important thing that has ever happened in my career!

How long do picture books take to make?

I put together this very basic graph to show what a busy picture book season can look like. You can see that the books were staggered so that I wouldn’t be working on more than 2 books at a time, but there are often still loose ends to tie up in the months after I’m officially off a book project.

How do you approach picture books?

I’m a second-generation Taiwanese American. I’ve lived in immigrant-heavy cities like LA, and I’ve also spent 18 years living in various cities in the Midwest. I’ve experienced a huge range of wonderful and terrible experiences all around the US because of how I look. It feels only natural to draw characters who look like me and to share stories from my own life experiences.

I love that most kids in the US read picture books, and that these books are one of the first places where a child can experience worlds different than their own. This child may someday grow up to create policies that will affect my parents, my community, and my own future family. Why not normalize the lives and motivations of others through these stories?

You've illustrated a ton of books, but Let's Do Everything and Nothing is your author-illustrator debut. Did you find this more or less challenging? How did the process differ?

I think most would imagine that the art and text can work together more harmoniously when they’re created by one person, and that is true! But I was surprised to come across quite a few other differences.



As an illustrator, I am hired into the editorial pipeline with the expectation that I will find a successful artistic vision for the book. I didn’t always have the benefit of that trust; in the past, I would submit samples to see if I could “win” the illustrator spot. But these days there’s less upfront work; I receive a book request and I either accept or reject the project.

As an author-illustrator, I need to sell both the art and the text from the very beginning. The artistic vision needs to be there as early as the dummy that I put together to show to my agent, who will then pitch it to editors. In this way there’s more upfront work and uncertainty, and that seems to be the payoff for having more creative control over the entire story.


I also discovered that it’s much lonelier to be an author-illustrator! I have truly loved being paired with the authors of my books. They write stories that I would never come up with in a million years. In this way, my creative freedom as an author-illustrator can sometimes feel limiting. And I really miss having a partner for the book launch and marketing events. It’s always so much more fun to have a companion… which brings us back to the idea behind Let’s Do Everything and Nothing! ;)

Do you have prints of your work?

Yes! You can find them on Society 6, here.