TAMPA, Fla. - The New York Times bestselling and award winning author Kelly Yang has become an icon in the Asian American Pacific Islander Community for spreading her message of awareness.

Most importantly, she's reaching younger audiences who are learning important lessons in life.

One such place is virtual book clubs like the one at Tampa’s Corbett Prep School of IDS.

Recently, they held a not so typical meeting where they welcomed one of their heroes.

“Hi guys. How are you?” asked author Kelly Yang who joined from Zoom at her home in California.

Yang explained to the group of mainly nine and 10-year-olds about her early life as she held up two of her books.

"When I was little about your age, I managed a motel,” said Yang.  “I managed the front desk of three different motels. That was me sitting there in the front desk.”

Her book, Front Desk, won 2019's Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, among other accolades.

During the pandemic, the Tampa book club read and finished that title.

The group is now reading its sequel Three Keys.

This day they were experiencing every kids dream to share their thoughts with the author.

"He's still a really nice person on the inside,” said one of the students as Yang explained the moment in the book when main character Mia learns about the reality in America.

The book's lessons are based on Yang's early life journey.

She faced challenges as a young girl who emigrated from China.

Yang now shares her experience through the books to educate younger audiences about a broader discussion happening nationwide.

"When we have these conversations, our communities become stronger when we do that,” said Yang.  “Especially when we do it with kids and they can see that they have allies that they have friends when we go into the classroom we have amazing, exciting experiences with each other.”

For the students, it’s a unique experience to talk to a real life example of the American Dream.

She addressed having a month to recognize contributions from the Asian American community and other minority groups.

“Not just in that one month, but year round, we should be celebrating people of color and of immigrants because really this country is a nation built by immigrants," she said.

Yang hopes her voice inspires others.

"The more stories there are that humanizes the Asian American experience, hopefully the more empathy everyone's going to have,” Yang said.  “The more that people are going to see that there's a lot that we have in common."

The students got an extra surprise that afternoon.

Yang previewed them with the next installment in the Front Desk series.