American Seetheart Still Not Making The Team [Paperback]

In 1999, Chiufang Hwang tried out for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on a whim, and the experience was an epiphany. That day in Texas Stadium, I finally understood what I had missed out on in high school and college growing up as the eldest daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. I felt so special. I felt included. I felt more like a teenage girl than when I actually was one. But mostly, I felt so American.

Since then Hwang has participated in more than ten Cowboys Cheerleader tryouts, becoming a fixture at the annual auditions. Besides loving competition, pushing her limits, and reveling in the camaraderie of those pursuing sideline glory, Hwang hopes to inspire others.

I want to empower women of all ages to pursue their own impossible dream. Maybe the novelty of a fifty-year-old Chinese-American psychiatrist--who has still never even seen a football game--trying out to be an NFL cheerleader will spark them to think: Why not?

American Sweetheart: Still Not Making the Team recounts Hwang's unique perspective of American pop culture and her place in it with humor, poignant insight, and unexpected candor.