Amy Chua's Daughter Starts Blog To Defend "Tiger Mom"

Considering that her mother, “Tiger Mother” Amy Chua, has been thoroughly criticized online and in the press, it’s a bit surprising that her oldest daughter Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld decided to venture into the world of blogging. But earlier this month, the 18-year-old started writing on the blog “A New Tiger In Town.” She explains:

When the whole world’s calling you a mindless robot, you kind of get the urge to start talking! Even though “Sophia” in the book is much more impressive than Sophia in real life. I think I’m sullying my impeccable image one post at a time, but so be it.

Those who know the Chua family mainly from the initial Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother excerpt that ran in the Wall Street Journal, (and not the subsequent backpedaling campaign), may indeed expect Sophia to be a piano playing robot, but she seems pretty charming in her posts. While answering questions from readers she jokes about her mom:

Q: I think many of people who read your mum’s book wouldn’t know satire if it hit them in the face. Do you feel the same?
A: It’s despicable to suggest her book is satirical, and I’m deeply traumatized. If you lay awake every night weeping over the charred remains of your stuffed animals, you’d be traumatized too. [edit: for the love of god, people, I’M KIDDING]

And what she plans to do at Harvard or Yale, the schools where she was recently accepted:

Q: What is your expectation of college life?
A: Sleep all day, rave all night. Learn by osmosis.

Sophia also responds to David Brooks’ op-ed in the New York Times, in which he said Chua was preventing her girls from learning to socialize by not allowing them to have play dates:

Q: If your mother prevented you from going on play dates, sleep overs and participating in school dramas, shouldn’t you have turned out to be socially incapable?
A: Thanks for asking – I’ve wanted to address this point since David Brooks published his op-Ed in the NYT. Let me indulge my not-so-inner nerd for a second: when you spend 7 hours at school a day, 180 days a year, for 13 years, you rack up 16,380 hours of social interaction. That’s the equivalent of over 3,200 five-hour playdates. So overall, I don’t feel too deprived.

There are other tales of Amy Chua faking a Chinese accent while ordering bok choy in garlic sauce and notes about Sophia’s favorite music, but mainly the world can rest easy now knowing that despite her mom calling her “garbage,” Sophia is well-adjusted (or at least able to appear sufficiently well-adjusted in four blog posts). We appreciate that Sophia wanted to speak for herself and respond to critics of her family. Though, we still aren’t looking forward to the inevitable Piano Solo Of The Tiger Cub memoir she’ll get published before she even graduates.