Kayla Whaley<\/em>: Can you tell us a bit about your American Girl campaign? How did it start and what was the response like?<\/strong><\/p>\n Although I was disappointed in American Girl, I still wanted the story of a young girl who has a disability to be told. So I decided to write my own book. And that’s how Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School<\/em><\/a> was born.<\/p>\n Kayla<\/em>: And\u00a0Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School<\/em>\u00a0recently released! Congratulations on your debut! What\u00a0drew you to this story? Can you take us through your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n Melissa<\/em>:\u00a0Well, I have a disability and use a wheelchair myself. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a form of Muscular Dystrophy. And when I was growing up, I just never saw anyone that looked like me in the movies that I watched or the books that I read. Or if they existed, they were just a sidekick or someone the main character had to be nice to. I wanted to write a book where a girl in a wheelchair was the star.<\/p>\n That’s what I think makes Mia Lee so special. She has a disability, but she’s not just<\/em>\u00a0in a wheelchair. She’s a regular girl who loves making videos, meeting new friends, and wants to run for Video Production Club president. The book is about her adventures in middle school, and not about her disability.<\/p>\n I started a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the book’s release, and raised over $6,000 from 146 people. Then, I wrote the first two drafts, signed with a literary agent, hired a collaborator to finetune it, and self-published it via Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/mia-lee-is-wheeling-through-middle-school-300x480.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/div>Melissa Shang<\/em>:\u00a0<\/em>I’ve always loved American Girl, my favorite doll company. In 2013, when I was 10, I started a petition for American Girl to release a disabled Girl of the Year doll when I realized that there were no dolls like me in the line. My petition got almost 150,000 signatures and was featured in Oprah Magazine, CBS, USA Today, and many other news outlets. Unfortunately, despite massive amounts of support, American Girl did not release a Girl of the Year with a disability.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/melissa-shang-333x500.jpg\")
<\/a>Melissa<\/em>:\u00a0It’s incredibly important to me to see more books or movies with disabled girls as the main character. I never had any role model to look up to who had a disability. When I started the petition to American Girl, I just wanted one character who could be the hero of her own story who looked like me.<\/p>\n