Keynote Speaker
Lela
Lee
Comic Strip Creator / Actress
In
1994, while a sophomore at UC Berkeley, Lela Lee first created “Angry
Little Asian Girl” after viewing offensive and chauvinistic cartoons
in a festival of animation. Her friend took notice of her intense anger and
challenged her to make a cartoon about herself. That night, she stayed up
drawing on typing paper with crayola markers. Using video editing equipment
from a class, the first episode “The First Day of School” starring
the “Angry Little Asian Girl” was born.
However, Lee was embarrassed by its candor and anger, so the video sat in
her drawer until 1997 when she finally decided to revisit the video. After
drawing the first episode and adding four new ones, she sent the collection
of short episodes to the same festival of animation that spurred her to create
the cartoon. Ironically, they asked for exhibition rights and the video reviewed
sparkling reviews by the LA Times and the LA Weekly.
Lee was born in Los Angeles, CA and raised in the suburb of San Dimas. She
was ridiculed and humiliated as a child for something she could not help:
her gender and her ethnicity. Those experiences influenced her comic strip.
After viewing the video, one network told her, “It’s really cute
and funny, but there’s just no market for Asians.” Angered by
this response, Lee went back to the drawing board. She knew from the feedback
she was getting that both Asians and non-Asians really understood the underdog
spirit of ALAG. So Lee created more characters and expanded the name to “Angry
Little Girls” which acted as an umbrella name for all the individual
characters.
“The sole reason I created this comic strip, was to address everything
that I had to go through growing up. My parents couldn’t coach me through
the racism I got as a child. They were too afraid. And the other adults, well,
they just didn’t understand. No one wants to talk about what happens
to people everyday. But I do. The reason I keep doing this comic strip is
because not only do I really feel strongly about the subject matter, but with
the positive feedback I have gotten, it has made me understand that I have
hit on a nerve of some sort.”
Inspired by the buzz, Lee decided to make a batch of 300 shirts. Her friends
bought the initial shirts. Soon, Lee’s phone was ringing off the hook
with requests for more. Lee sold out and in 1998 launched the web site www.angrylittleasiangirl.com
to meet the demand and to have an unadulterated outlet for her comic strip.
Currently, Lee is working on getting the strip syndicated as well as finishing
her graphic novels with each of the characters starring in their own book.
Lee also appears on the SciFi series Tremors as Jodi Chang. She has also guest
and co-starred on Scrubs, Charmed, Friends, Felicity, and Rude Awakenings,
among others.
Though her childhood experiences were not funny at the time, with hindsight
Lee has realized that the situations she endured offer humorous misunderstandings
and opportunity for redress. She hopes her comic strip will help readers realize
that angering situations can have a positive outcome.
Lela Lee speaks about:
- What's a Girl Got to Be Angry About?
- Growing Up in America: I Thought I was the Only Asian Around
Our Previous R.I.C.E. Keynotes:
RICE 2003: Kip Fulbeck
RICE 2002: Helen Zia
RICE 2001: Angela Oh
RICE 2000: Phoebe Eng