“I read Pin Ups in one exhilarating sitting. Yi Shun Lai asks herself, us, and Mother Nature, ‘Who belongs outdoors?’ Her exploration of these questions is packed with both insight and humor. Like a good hike, Pin Ups challenges and awes the reader, leaving us filled with gratitude at the summit.” 
–Dolly Chugh (Author, The Person You Mean to Be; How Good People Fight Bias; Associate Professor, NYU Stern School of Business)

In Pin Ups Yi Shun Lai takes an honest, introspective look at the challenges and barriers, race and class in particular, that women face in building a relationship to the outdoors. Using her own lived experience as a backdrop, Lai asks her readers to unearth “dedication, passion, and gumption” to experience the joys and wonders of being outside. Ultimately, her message is simple. “You are welcome here.”
–Ruby McConnell, author, A Woman’s Guide to the Wild

Pin Ups is a powerful, moving reflection on race and identity as told through sport. Self-effacing and funny, Yi Shun Lai interrogates and unpacks her teenage pursuit of outdoor sport, and the ways her goals have changed with experience. She asks hard questions: What do race, gender and class have to do with her desire to ski, run, bike and paddle? What is Taiwanese and what is American? What is her ideal of herself as a strong and athletic woman, and what is actually real? What do we decide, and what gets decided for us? As Lai defines the journey that has led to a hard-won sense of self, she forces us to consider ourselves and our own place in the world. We need untraditional stories of women of color more than ever before, and Lai’s story is original and essential.
–Michael Copperman, author, Teacher: Two years in the Mississippi Delta

Pin Ups is a winsome meditation on what one thoughtful and observant adventurer seeks when she takes the risk of challenging her body in the great outdoors. 
–Elena Passarello, author of Animals Strike Curious Poses and Let Me Clear My Throat