Description

Corinne Tan is the twentieth Girl of the Year. She was released in 2022. ## Personality Corinne is a ten-year-old Chinese-American girl living in a townhouse in Aspen, Colorado with her mother Judy, stepfather Arne, and younger sister, Gwynn. The two sisters spend weekends with their father, David Tan. Corinne is in the fifth grade and speaks both Chinese and English. Corinne worries a lot about things but does not voice her concerns, worries, or discomfort often. She is initially nervous to be moving into Arne's townhouse, as the bedrooms are very pristine like hotel rooms and the house is so clean--unlike their apartment that has toys on the floor and Gwynn's art on the walls--and has different rules. She also is reluctant to talk to people she doesn't know and worries about what they might think about her. When subjected to anti-Asian prejudice (regarding the ongoing pandemic) Corinne is hurt and upset and doesn't know how to react the first time, and later avoids confrontation with the boy who was racist towards her; she is also emotionally hurt when a man implies that their pet dog Flurry would be cooked as food in her mother's restaurant. She is frustrated that Arne at first does not appear to understand the racism she is dealing with as a white man. Her anxieties build up and come to a head at Gwynn's competition, and she panics and runs away, getting lost in the woods; she can remember how to stay safe and wait for rescue, but still has unpleasant thoughts about not being found until she is. She is still initially nervous and sad that her parents have separated and much more nervous about initially being in a blended family; she assumes that there is more awkwardness about her blended family than there is. She makes up a rule to not speak about Arne in front of her dad and vice versa, assuming this makes things uncomfortable, and discourages Gwynn from doing so, feeling that her father is more upset than he lets on; she is upset by Gwynn's innocent discussing of what Corinne feels are awkward topics such as Arne around their father or vice versa. The plan for a small city hall wedding pleases her as she feels a small, quiet ceremony makes her feelings more manageable than if there was a big, out-in-the-open wedding. Later, she understands that her stepfather and father truly do not have issues with each other and her blended family is not as awkward as she feels they are. Corinne is sometimes annoyed by Gwynn's energy and antics. She is still very supportive and does her best to help keep Gwynn happy. While she does not initially believe in Gwynn's idea of a "sister brain," she first pretends to for Gwynn's sake, actually does for a moment during Gwynn's skating competition, and fully does after she is lost in the woods.[3] After encountering a search-and-rescue trainer, Corinne decides that she wants to train a search rescue dog-specifically, an avalanche dog--and the family adopts Flurry, both as a family pet and for her to train. She also finds a way for the three hearts on her and Gwynn's necklace to mean their whole family: one for those no longer there, one for those in the present with them, and one for future people they haven't met yet. Corinne enjoys skiing but does not want to take private lessons as she skis for fun and the enjoyment of being outside--one of her favorite places is outside, and she likes to identify the pine trees around her and enjoys being on the mountains, even when she was little. She doesn't care for coconut, and one of her favorite foods is zongzi--rice and other foods wrapped in bamboo leaves tied with string. She (and everyone in her family except Arne) is lactose-intolerant and has to take dairy pills before eating ice cream.