Priscilla and Shawn, creators of the Awesome Women Series, introduce the Awesome Women Card Game, inspiring young girls with diverse role models. Featuring 40 women, the game fosters empowerment and discussions about gender equity beyond entertainment.
Q: Please give the readers a short introduction about yourself, your company, and your games.
Hello! We are Priscilla and Shawn, a Singaporean couple to 2 young girls and co-creators of the Awesome Women Series. We want to help Asian parents raise smart, confident, and resilient girls through stories and games. We hope to empower young girls everywhere with inspiring stories of female role models.
Our card game – the Awesome Women Card Game, is a 3-in-1 family card game created to inspire kids of all ages to be awesome through play! Inspired by “Happy Families”, “Memory Match” and “Cards Against Humanity”, the Awesome Women Card Game will entertain, enrich and empower kids with years of educational fun.
Q: What are the events or inspirations that created the ideas behind your games and what social change or conversation you hope to create?
We started with writing children’s books! Awesome Women Series is a series of children’s board books featuring female role models and their inspiring stories – focusing on their struggles, how they overcame them, and their achievements. Research has shown the importance of role models in shaping girls’ perceptions of their potential, particularly in underrepresented fields. Girls need to “see it to believe it”; the female role models provide relatable examples conveying the message of “if she can, so can I”.
The books were written when Monmon, our elder daughter, was still a toddler. We wanted our products to grow with her. So, we thought, why not make learning fun? We then decided to make a card game where young kids can play and have fun and learn about the awesome female role models and their life stories at the same time!
Our mission is to create a world where girls can be anything they want to be; that they believe in their limitless potential and be inspired to be tomorrow’s role models!
Q: Can you walk us through the process of selecting the 40 awesome women featured in your game? What criteria did you use, and were there any challenges in making these selections?
We decided on the categories of role models to feature first before choosing the 40 women. It was so tough, trust me! We wanted to ensure that there was adequate representation across races, nationalities, and backgrounds. In addition, we also wanted to highlight a diverse mix of life stories and struggles.
We also tried to include Singaporean women in the mix. The main challenge is that 40 is not enough! We do hope to include more female role models and would definitely try to do that via expansion packs in the future.
Q: Could you share some examples of how the life experiences of the featured women are integrated into the gameplay mechanics or card descriptions to inspire and educate players?
The game that was inspired by “Cards Against Humanity” – Awesome Colloquy, was meant to be a tool that would invite the players to internalise the stories of the women and help them to relate to their own lives. We created it with the intention of it being a tool to foster discussions about gender equity and empowerment. This is evident by the feedback received from a secondary school teacher in Spain, where his students were inspired to design their own cards for the game.
Q: What kind of feedback have you received from players, parents, and educators about the impact of your game on its intended audience?
One of the encouraging comments we received recently was from a secondary school teacher in Spain! He was one of our Kickstarter project backers. He used the card game in his school and the game has been very inspirational for the 12-year-old students. They enjoyed the game very much and went on to design more cards themselves! It is very heartwarming to know that our game is making an impact on kids not just in Singapore but in other parts of the world too. This IS the reason why we created the card game!
Q: In what ways do you think the game can be utilised beyond entertainment, such as in educational settings or as a tool for fostering discussions about gender equality and empowerment?
The card game itself in essence goes beyond just fun and entertainment. The picture and biography cards highlight the key points of the role models’ stories and give the players a starting point to find out more about these awesome women.
Q: Looking ahead, do you have plans to expand the Awesome Women Series or develop additional games with similar themes of empowerment and representation? If so, what can we expect in the future?
On the card game front, we have plans to create expansion packs that include more categories of female role models or to feature more female role models within the existing categories.
We are also currently working on a daily reflection journal for young kids.
On the books front, we want to create gender-neutral books on personal affirmations or mantras for young kids. Of course, we also hope to continue the Awesome Women Series books as well! There are so many more role models and inspiring stories to feature!
Q: Where can your game be found?
You can get our card game from our website at www.awesomewomenseries.com/pages/awesome-women-card-game!
You can also find us at these awesome retailers: SG Board Game Design, The Social Space, Motherswork, Sea Apple, and Nimbu Kids.
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