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Print copies of I’m a girl. See what I can be! are available at Kinokuniya Singapore and on www.euniceolsenmedia.com, as well as distributed to schools by Closetful of Books. From bookworm to author
After nearly an hour of obligingly undergoing numerous outfit changes at the photographer’s request, Olsen finally descends the stairs dressed comfortably in a tube romper, apologising profusely for making us wait. “It’s so hot today,” she remarks smilingly, fanning herself with one hand in an attempt to cool herself. As we marvel at the stylish minimalist interiors and décor of her Yishun mansionette, she excitedly shares that she just moved here with her boyfriend in February after several years of renting; this marks her first purchase as a proud HDB homeowner.
“I grew up with very strong female role models; my mum and her sisters were all women that I looked up to. We were a lower-middle-income family, but they were always very supportive of me. Both my parents had to work full-time to support me, but they made sure I grew up thinking I could do anything I wanted to do [career-wise]. At the time, they also taught me the values of hard work. Although they paid for my education, they wanted me to realise that money was not something you obtained at the snap of your fingers,” says Olsen, who began earning her own pocket money from the age of 16 by giving piano lessons up until her stint on Wheel of Fortune.
Beyond the obvious feminist overtones in the title, the book tackles a number of other issues, which some may consider heavy for a publication targeting children aged six and above. Financial planning, for example, is a prominent topic in Nina ‘Cute’ Rotelo (The Domestic Worker and Volunteer). In another poem entitled Melissa Sarah Wee (The Physique Competitor), Olsen expounds on the subjects of bullying and bulimia. In Olsen’s view, children and youths of today are able to understand and identify with more complex issues than one might think — something that she witnessed through focus groups held with young students prior to the publishing date. “[The focus group] wasn’t a huge sample size, but these children could instantly tell that the main message of Melissa Sarah Wee’s poem was about bullying,” says Olsen, referring to the poem she wrote about the Singapore-born physique competitor who used to be overweight. “I remember how one of them said, ‘From now on, if my classmates get bullied, I will stand up for them. I will fight bullying.’ It was very surprising to get these responses, and it really warmed my heart… One of the main things I’ve learnt is that kids relate to things you never think they would.” Market research and writing poetry made up only a small portion of the collective effort that went into producing a publication, Olsen came to learn. “This was the first time I had written something [to be published]. It was the first time we were crowdfunding, the first time we were figuring out how to market a book… Even for the designers, I think it was a challenge to work with 10 different artists. Most of their illustrations came to us in black and white, and [we] had to figure out the colour scheme and consistency… Although I oversaw the entire project, that represented only one aspect of publishing. Everyone, from my family to the designers and my boyfriend [a copywriter, who helped to proofread Olsen’s writing], has contributed something of their own to the book.” Now that the team from Eunice Olsen Media has achieved this first milestone, Olsen says she is not only preparing for the second print run of I’m a girl. See what I can be! as early as next year, but has even penned a few more works that she plans to make into a sequel. Her eyes sparkle with excitement as she reads one of them aloud to me; this one is about Lily Low, a full-time animal rescuer in Singapore who privately runs her own shelter for cats and was featured in the first season of WomenTalk TV in an episode entitled Selfless Founder of Lily Low Shelter. A soft smile spreads across Olsen’s lips as she approaches the poem’s finale: “Her work doesn’t stop, it’s a one-woman show. And just how she does it, I really don’t know. But when you believe in things bigger than you, surely you’ll find, and this is so true: the resilience you’ll need to move forward and through, you’ll find despite hardship, the strength that is you.”
