Social Impacts

Story of Haenyeo is a club dedicated to raising awareness of Jeju’s Haenyeo and preserving their cultural heritage for future generations.

As a founding member, I worked as a writer and editor on a picture book about Haenyeo from 2024 to 2025. I helped produce a bilingual book, written in both Korean and English, that follows three Haenyeo characters: Im-soon, Kyeon-ae, and Mi-ok. The story introduces readers to Haenyeo culture while highlighting the challenges the community currently faces, including the declining Haenyeo population and marine pollution.

As a writer, I interviewed real Haenyeo to understand their experiences firsthand and read through countless articles on their history and culture. I then collaborated with two other writers to piece the story together. Once the manuscript was done, I edited and designed the book in Adobe InDesign, weaving in illustrations from our art team.

Through school service fairs, book sales, and the Haenyeo Festival at the Jeju Haenyeo Museum on National Haenyeo Day, we reached people from all over the world and sold more than 150 copies. Along the way, we got to meet Haenyeos, local residents, and visitors from abroad, and received meaningful feedback and support. All told, we raised over $700, which went toward Haenyeo heritage preservation and marine conservation initiatives in Jeju.

This project taught me that preserving cultural heritage isn't something one person can do alone. It’s a collective endeavor. Collaborating closely with writers, illustrators, and the Haenyeo community themselves showed me just how much collaboration matters when you're trying to tell someone else's story with care.