With her success story recently featured in the Deseret News, along with a variety of media outlets including Geeky Gadgets and Trend Hunt, Cecilia Yiu, a BYU-Hawaii alumna from Hong Kong, recently launched a Kickstarter project called Discover Wonders Talking Books. Her project has raised $32,501 by about 270 backers, which exceeded her goal by $30,000.
The company is based in Dallas, Texas, supplying a set of 12 different Discover Wonders Talking Books aimed towards boosting young children’s curiosity and encouraging them to think like innovators.
According to the project’s Kickstarter, each book is presented in scenes relevant to children. Everyday items are used as the starting point to examine different aspects of the world and to encourage children to learn more about science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and other fields.
The Discover Talking Pen, which reads out loud when pointed at the words, is another feature included with the book series.
Cecilia Yiu explained, “The core idea of what I’m promoting is not the Talking Pen. It’s a book series that teaches children to think across dimensions.”
While attending BYUH, she said she studied psychology as her major with a focus on organizational behavior and applied statistics.
Her sister, Alice Yiu, said, “Cecilia has always emphasized how BYUH has played an invaluable role in her success in education, career, and family.”
In response to her sister’s comment, Cecilia Yiu shared, “Because of its small class size, BYUH provided the best environment for me to acquire top-notch skills with close mentorship from professors, one of which was Dr. Ronald Miller.
“He was my psychology professor, and I was leading some of his consulting projects with over 10 student researchers. I was exposed to management consulting, various statistical tools, and management skills at a very young age.”
Cecilia Yiu explained how billion-dollar companies adopted her company’s strategy. “These leadership and learning opportunities are definitely hard to come by as an undergraduate student. I am forever grateful for the skills and experience I received because of BYUH.”
She expressed how the university also helped her gain a new perspective between raising a family and working as a successful businesswoman. “BYUH fundamentally changed my perspective of how my religion, family, and career can be closely knitted together. Growing up in Hong Kong, I expected my career to be separate and possibly harmful to my family.
“Seeing how my professors were able to have a successful career and happy family life changed my understanding... That eventually helped me make the decision to jump into entrepreneurship to fulfill my role as a mother.
“I am the most proud of the fact that, despite all the challenges we have faced in our lives in the past few years, our family shares a strong bond. My husband and I are extremely busy right now, but we only grew to be more appreciative of the sacrifices we are making on a daily basis for each other.”
Regarding how the idea of the Discover Wonders Talking Book was developed, Cecilia Yiu referred to her own daughters. “Specifically back to Brielle, starting at age 3, she has been asking me hard questions. I had to look up answers all the time. I came to realize she was the most excited to learn when I made her lessons relevant to her favorite things.
“For example, once I introduced buoyancy during her bath time, evaporation while we watched the clouds, and solubility of salt when we cooked together. Brielle kept making new discoveries relating to water. If Newton just simply ate the apple when it fell, we would have had to wait for
gravity to be discovered. So I want to encourage children to think across dimensions and outside of the box.”
Cecilia Yiu shared how parents can maximize their children’s natural curiosity about the world. “If school material is introduced at the point when curiosity is at its peak and at a level the child can understand, children will genuinely enjoy it and be able to digest what we deem as ‘advanced educational topics.’ Discover Wonders aims to do exactly that.
“Children’s brains are actively connecting different things they have observed between ages 3 to 6. Parents’ availability and the child’s vocabularies sometimes limit their quest for knowledge. The Talking Pen is a means to bridge this gap when parents need a moment to take care of their obligations such as cooking, cleaning, or taking care of other children. This is not designed to replace parent-child reading time.
“In fact, we built the company around strengthening family relationships. That is why we built in recording features so young children can still [connect with] remote relatives like grandparents, aunts, and uncles without constantly relying on screens.”
Kit Ming Lau, who is also a BYUH alumna from Hong Kong, said she is a good friend of Yiu. “Cecilia is intelligent, hardworking and humble. She is the type of person who once she sets a goal, nothing can stop her from achieving it.”
Lau explained how being a mother of two young children, the Talking Pen and the books are great tools for educating families. “They help motivate children to learn while keeping them away from spending too much time in front of a screen. I especially love the recording stickers, which allows remote relatives and friends to record their own voice for the children to hear.
“Reading with my children is part of our daily family routine. Children learn extremely fast, and what is better than reading a series of books that are interesting for both the grown ups and the little ones? I was lucky enough to experience the Discover Book first hand. It’s not an early literacy book, and instead, they are books that encourage high level critical thinking.”
Lau described Cecilia Yiu’s contributions and business a success. “She wants to make the world a better place, and she is doing it by sharing her talents with the world selflessly.”
Writer: Helam Lau