Vancouver Magazine Article
I was interviewed by Vancouver magazine right before the Hair Pride book launch party, and they released the article on their website on December 21, 2022. I’m so grateful for their coverage of my alopecia story and the book!
Read the article here: https://www.vanmag.com/city/arts-and-culture/new-vancouver-childrens-book-hair-pride-celebrates-hair-of-all-kinds/
Launch Party Fun!
The Hair Pride launch party was December 7th at the Wilet showroom in Vancouver. It was a wonderful event with about 50 people in attendance, who gathered to hear a reading of the book, socialize, and try on colorful wigs. The amazing women from Jo Hair Studio in Vancouver were there to help adults and kids alike try on fun wigs and celebrate different kinds of hair. There were blue, pink, blonde and brown wigs and everyone had a blast! The event was made even more special when my sister surprised me by flying in from San Diego to celebrate with me. It was truly a special night.
Thank you to everyone who came to support me and Hair Pride!
Hair Pride hardcover is live!
Hair Pride is now available in hardcover! I’m so excited to offer my book in both paperback and hardcover. When I chose to self-publish, it was important to me to have a hardcover version that could be available through retailers beyond just Amazon. I published the hardcover through IngramSpark, who distributes to multiple partners, including Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, Indigo, local bookstores, schools and libraries. It’s been amazing to see my book show up on the Barnes & Noble website and to be able to have my local bookstores in Vancouver order it to physically stock on their shelves. I never dreamed I would see something I wrote on the shelves of a store in my neighbourhood!
As of now, the hardcover version is online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. It will eventually show up in the other retailers listed above. The Barnes & Noble link is posted in the “buy the book” section.
Hair Pride is Live!
I’m a published author! I'm excited to announce the launch of my children’s book, Hair Pride! I wrote it back in May and have learned so much about what it takes to bring a book to life in the past few months. There’s a lot to digest and learn: how to get an ISBN number, find an illustrator, decide which publishing route to take, price your book, and create a website. It’s been fun to discover an industry I knew little about before.
Some of you may wonder why I chose to write a book about hair. This book is very personal to me, as it was inspired by my own experience with alopecia, which started when I was fifteen years old. I have androgenetic alopecia, one of many forms of the autoimmune disease, where my hair thins throughout my scalp, similar to male-pattern baldness. Having hair loss in my teens and twenties was very difficult for me, at a time when I was already self conscious. At that age, all I wanted to do was look like everyone else and be “normal.” My hair loss made me feel like something was wrong with me, like I didn’t fit in, and I feared that people would make fun of me if they knew my secret. Hair is so central to a woman’s identity, and the loss of mine often made me feel ugly, so I did everything I could do to hide it. It took me fifteen years to accept my appearance and to share my story with others. Once I did, I quickly learned that my hair had nothing to do with how much my loved ones cared about me and that I was good enough just as I was.
I’ve worn wigs for about a decade now, which has been a way for me to reclaim the hair I had as a child and to have fun with different styles and colors, rather than letting my hair loss rule my life. I never could have imagined I would tell the world about my alopecia and I’m thankful that I was able to get this place of accepting myself for all that I am, even things I thought of as flaws for so much of my life.
Hair Pride is all about celebrating your hair, no matter what it looks like, while also realizing that your worth is so much more than what is on the outside. This is the book I wish I had when I was first experiencing my alopecia. I hope it will help kids accept and celebrate themselves and others.
Hair Pride is now available in paperback on Amazon worldwide. I will be releasing it in hardcover with other retailers soon- stay tuned! I’m proud of this book and its message and I can’t wait for you to read it!
Meet the illustrator of Hair Pride!
Illustrator Amanda Dowell
The illustrator for Hair Pride is Amanda Dowell. I owe a huge thanks to my sister for introducing us and I’ve been so amazed by how she has brought my vision to live with her beautiful illustrations. She’s been a fantastic partner and is so talented.
Amanda Dowell is an illustrator and interior designer based in Encinitas, California. Her interest in illustration was sparked in 3rd grade when she illustrated her very first book “The Hair Nightmare.” Amanda spent ten years living in Germany and loves to travel, go on adventures and rock out on the drums. She is inspired by nature, books and local coffee shops. Her dream is to one day live in a Victorian house and spend her days painting, illustrating, and writing books, preferably during thunderstorms.
Amanda loved working on “Hair Pride” because of all of the fun, bright colors and creative hairstyles she got to explore and illustrate in the book. She loves adding elements of surprise and discovery to each page.
Thank you, Amanda!
Hello!
Author Tami Wong
Hi! I’m Tami Wong. Thank you for visiting my website! For those of you who don’t know me, please allow me to introduce myself. I was born and raised in small-town Nebraska and lived in Kansas and California before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2019, where I live with my husband and two young daughters. I have always loved to write, whether it be poetry, short stories or journaling. I spent the last 20 years working in healthcare, first in physical therapy and then in biotech.
At the end of 2022, I was laid off unexpectedly and I turned back to writing as a way to process my grief and accept this new stage of my life. Writing gives me so much joy and I wanted to find a way to give that back to the world, so I wrote my first children’s book, “Hair Pride” in May 2023. I’m excited to release this uplifting story soon and I look forward to sharing more information in the coming weeks.