We recently connected with Jessica Yoon and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To be successful, you need to have a clear vision of what success means to you. When I was in my twenties and advancing in my corporate career, my idea of success was rather stereotypical: getting bigger projects and fancier titles, chasing promotions, raises, and the like. But as time went on, my concept of success evolved. That didn’t mean lowering my standards; instead, it required me to be honest with myself about what really matters to me in life.

In 2020, the world had shut down with the Covid pandemic. Vaccines weren’t readily available yet, so I was working remotely full-time while caring for a toddler and pregnant with my second child. I was incredibly burnt out. After returning from maternity leave, I came to the realization that I wasn’t getting the fulfillment I sought from work, despite reaching various milestones of “success” I had set for myself.

It was a huge pivot, but I was privileged to be able to leave the workforce and take some time to reassess my career and what success would look like five, ten years down the road. I wanted to slow down, have more time with my family, and pursue a creative career in writing. It’s taken me a few years and many bumps along the way, but my first book (BLACKPINK: A Little Golden Book Biography, illustrated by Honee Jang) comes out 12/2/25 with more titles forthcoming (Jeong Is Jeong, illustrated by Michelle Lee, releasing on 2/3/26 and The Legend of Ban-Dal, illustrated by Seo Kim, releasing on 5/5/26)! I’ve also been able to spend so much quality time with my kids. And slowing down? Well, ask me again in a few years, and I’ll let you know if I’ve been successful.

Jessica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an ex-corporate girlie turned author from Philly (Go Birds!). How did this come to pass? Well, I had a baby, was bummed there weren’t many books with main characters who looked like him (or me!) and got burnt out working/providing childcare/being pregnant during the pandemic. So, I retired to become a stay-at-home mom and found that I needed a creative outlet. I decided to try my hand at writing picture books so my kids could see themselves represented in children’s literature. Then, I kept writing because I fell in love with storytelling.

So far, I have announced three picture books:
– BLACKPINK: A Little Golden Book Biography, illustrated by Honee Jang (12/2/25)
– Jeong Is Jeong, illustrated by Michelle Lee (2/3/26)
– The Legend of Ban-Dal, illustrated by Seo Kim (5/5/26)

I’m also cooking up some middle grade and YA novels that will hopefully make their way to publication soon!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My overall goal is to have a career writing the books that I had hoped to find for my family’s home library—ones featuring Korean American main characters. At its core, my writing will always be a tribute to my children and my younger self.

More recently, the surge of anti-Asian hate triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the dangerous rhetoric about immigrants have fueled my urgency to see and create more diverse stories. It is my firm belief that books can create empathy, so my hope is that children and adults of all backgrounds will recognize parts of themselves in my stories.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Definitely the community building. A lot of people talk about how community is necessary in order to survive publishing and all the rejection that comes along with it, which is absolutely true. But building community and finding solidarity with fellow creatives who hold similar belief systems as me has been incredibly rewarding independent of getting books published. Some of my favorite community activities are the Asian and Asian American Voices In-Community Retreat at the Highlights Foundation, meetings with the Harrisburg Asian Writers Collective, and chatting with friends in the APIary Discord.

Once my books are released, I know I’ll find connecting with readers incredibly rewarding as well. I hope that my books will help children (and their grown-ups) feel seen. And I definitely have things on my writerly bucket list like seeing someone reading my book in the wild and receiving messages from readers that my books meant something to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jessicayoon.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessyoonwrites/
• Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jessyoonwrites.bsky.social

Image Credits

Honee Jang
Michelle Lee