The Claudia Kishii Club

“Hello Babysitters Club, how can we help?”

Instantly, we’re back in Stoneybrook with the newest rendition of the The Babysitters Club currently streaming on Netflix.

The Babysitters Club was a prolific novel series written by Ann M. Martin that began with Kristy’s Big Idea #1. After witnessing her mom’s trouble with finding a babysitter, Kristy comes up with a great idea: a club of babysitters! The club started off with the original four: Kristy, her best friend Mary Ann, Claudia, and Stacey. From there, the club expands to more members as they tackle the wave of their friendship, handling babysitting adventures, and navigating life lessons together.

There were hundreds of books in this series which also included super editions and spin offs with Karen, Kristy’s little stepsister. Personally and unabashedly, I adamantly read each and every one of them.

For this half-Asian reader living in Los Angeles in the 90s, I clung to this series. It was my escape to a world where the worst thing that can happen was uptight racist rich people (Keep Out, Claudia! #56) . Compared to the heavy gang culture and high poverty situation that I was surrounded in, Stoneybrook was an idyllic world where I found comfort and my forever friend, Claudia Kishii.

Claudia Kishii was Japanese American and one of the main characters of the series. She was not a sideline character. Without her, there would be no room, no landline, no delicious candy stashed around the room.  There was no other character like her in mainstream novelizations for young teenagers. She was someone you definitely would want to hang out. She was fun, boy-crazy, bad at spelling, and impulsive.

Claudia Kishii was and will always be a big deal.

Her influence in the 90s was not as felt among us readers since internet and other social medial connections did not exist yet. We all read and loved the series in our own world. Some of us (me) may have written to the author to show our love. Which of us knew that even though we were alone reading the series, we were connected to millions of other readers who loved and related to Claudia Kishii?

Netflix has produced a bonus documentary to the series essentially bringing that lasting love of our artist vice president to light.  The Claudia Kishii Club is a documentary with a cast of artists and writers sharing their love and appreciation for Claudia and her impact on a generation of Asian Americans. The documentary will feature interviews with creatives such as  Sarah Kuhn (Author of The Heroine Complex) and Phil Yu (Angry Asian Man)  with illustrations by Yumi Sakugawa.

The documentary is more of a love letter completely expressing love for Claudia and the world of Baby-Sitters Club. The cast does point out that not everything was perfect in terms of handling minority descriptions but at the time, that’s the best that we had available. There are cute illustrations and stop motion graphics highlighting poignant moments in Claudia Kishii’s development.  The documentary runs about 17 min but every second is filled with so much love and mega levels of nostalgia.

For any person who adored Claudia, the documentary will make you tear up and become infused with absolute nostalgic good feelings. Especially if you were the generation that grew up during that time reading the series alone. It is a wonder to hear and see that you were not the only one who shared the same feelings. The feelings of reading about someone almost like you. Representation, even in it’s minute form, can go so far in influencing so many. It is meaningful when the need for representation is so strong that it elevates a character beyond their character from the pages. She meant a lot to a lot of people. It is inspiring to see how Claudia helped pave the way for the cast to seek their own creative roads and thrive from there.

The current Babysitters Club series and graphic novels are adapted for a new generational audience but the heart of the series still carries on. It is wonderful that kids of Stoneybrook will continue to carry on. There may be more positive and meaningful  Asian American representation  but we still crave more. May this  momentum keep going and may the new generation never forget Claudia Kishii.

How could you anyway? She’s wearing a polka dot shirt wearing a beret and she’s got some licorice hiding in a Nancy Drew book!

The Claudia Kishii Club will be available for streaming on Netflix on July 10, 2020.