Standout Reinventions is where I document what starting over actually looks like from my move to Costa Rica, to the memoir I’m writing about it, and the conversations with creatives who’ve reinvented themselves too.
Sophia was also happy to offer this 9-page fillable workbook to help you find the #1 thing agents and readers look for: your VOICE.
This conversation will also be a little different. Sophia was happy to split our live into two parts with only the best insights. Enjoy part one.
Sophia Chang wanted to be the most famous person on earth since she was three years old.
She became an aerial acrobat, a working actor, and one of the world’s first iPod silhouettes.
Then MOG antibody disease started firing lesions through her central nervous system. Her vision whited out. Her legs gave out. And somewhere in the middle of all that, she started writing Harry Potter fan fiction.
Sophia definitely lives up to her title of reinventor: she’s a Reese’s Book Club Lit Up Fellow, podcast host, and self-described purveyor of Books, Biceps, and no BS.
In this chat she talks about what real reinvention looks like when it isn’t a choice. When it’s just what you do to survive.
Highlights
Reinvention is a survival mechanism.
Sophia doesn’t romanticize the pivot.
“Reinvention isn’t any of this for me. For me, it has always been forced change. A lot of us are forced into reinventing ourselves by circumstance.”
Before the disease she was a certified pole fitness instructor, a screen actor, and an aerial acrobat.
Then her vision started whiting out, a little more each day, until it was gone. Then came the wheelchair and the question nobody wants to answer: is this my life now?
For Sophia, rock bottom was just the starting line.
Smutty Harry Potter fan fiction led to a Reese’s Book Club fellowship.
When her eyesight started coming back, Sophia didn’t reach for literary fiction. She wrote spicy fan fiction because it was the only writing that felt freeing.
The Harry Potter angle started when she realized there were no Asian characters other than Cho Chang. So she created another Chang and built out the lore from scratch.
Eventually the story drifted so far from the source material that she realized she was writing her own novel.
“I created so much original stuff that I realized this is no longer fan fiction. I’m writing my own.”
That manuscript beat out over 800 applicants for the Reese’s Book Club fellowship.
Being yourself attracts the right people.
After six years completely off social media, Sophia came back to Substack.
When new subscribers arrived from a summit presentation, she tried catering to them. She answered every question and adjusted her tone.
They still unsubscribed.
“If I’m going to get unsubscribers, I would rather go down in flames. I would rather lose them because I was myself unapologetically.”
She decided if someone can’t handle one honest episode, they’re not going to buy her book anyway. So she leaned into her full self.
Part 2 coming soon where Sophia gets into the book deal she wants badly, why “follow your bliss” is advice from people who can already pay their bills, and what radical acceptance actually looks like in practice.
Thank you Tomesha Campbell, Steena Hernandez, Meli’s World: Songs & Sketches, and many others for tuning into my live video with Sophia Chang!
