Amanda Nguyễn is Making History Again — As the First Vietnamese Woman in Space
Source: Amanda Nguyễn
“My mom crossed the ocean so that I could touch the sky,” Amanda says in an MSNBC interview with Katie Phang (MSNBC).
Amanda Nguyễn is making all of our wildest dreams come true — by being the first Vietnamese woman to go to space!
In recent years, Amanda has inspired and impacted millions of people for both her brilliance as an incredible human being and for her resilience in pursuing justice for survivors of sexual assault like herself. If you know who Amanda is, you are likely familiar with her reason why.
Amanda was attending Harvard University where she was both a NASA intern with a dream to become an astronaut, and a victim of rape. Her traumatic experience and frustrations with the justice system pushed Amanda down the path to pursue justice for other sexual assault survivors, leading her to unanimous victories in Congress and global recognition for her activism.
“To anyone who is having a hard time, and especially to the survivors who are listening,” Amanda says in her interview, “I just want you to know that you can absolutely heal, and the person who was hurt, that person you were before you got hurt, that person still matters and their dreams can come true” (MSNBC).
Although Amanda’s fight for justice has been a celebrated victory, it delayed her dream of becoming an astronaut. Now, almost ten years later, Amanda is officially set for the stars thanks to Space For Humanity.
“I want everyone to know that it’s just about being authentic. You know, I didn’t strive to be firsts, these are just things that I genuinely love and there’s this thing that I think a lot of society perhaps gaslights people into hiding their ambitions or their dreams, especially young women. Where they say, oh it’s so cringy to have these ambitions. Well let me tell you right now that every successful person has had to climb cringe mountain, and when you are successful, all of those people who thought you were cringy are now saying ‘oh, you know, you’re an inspiration.’ And so I just want to say to everyone, no matter who you are or where you are from, that you matter, your dreams matter and just go for it because you never know where that’s going to take you” (MSNBC).
About
Amanda Nguyen is an activist and astronaut. She will become the first Vietnamese woman to go to space when she flies on an upcoming Blue Origin launch on the New Shepard rocket. Amanda's activism focuses on the intersection of race and gender. She ignited the Stop Asian Hate movement and passed sexual assault survivor rights in the United States and United Nations through her work at Rise. For her work she was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize and is a 2022 TIME Woman of the Year (Amanda Nguyen).
Sources
Amanda Nguyen (Amanda Nguyen)
Amanda Nguyen set to become first Vietnamese woman to fly into space (MSNBC)
Space For Humanity (Space For Humanity)
Rise (Rise Now)