Bailey Cherry is a 17-year-old social entrepreneur and high school student at Li Po Chun United World College. In 2019, she launched ReBooked - a social enterprise providing a platform for promoting sustainability in literacy. With 150,000+ books collected and both an online and retail bookstore, ReBooked is now Hong Kong's biggest bookshop for second hand children's books. ReBooked has also expanded globally with growing chapters in Brazil, Turkey and the Philippines. She is also the co-founder of EcoGo, an award-winning e-directory for 200 Hong Kong-based sustainable stores, making living an environmentally friendly lifestyle more convenient and attractive. She is honored to have her work recognised as a Rise Global Winner (2022), and as the recipient of the Spirit of Hong Kong, 'Spirit of Youth,' Award (2022) and Winner of Student of the Year, "Community Contributor” (2021-2022)
Jed:
Hello again. Welcome back to XinSai podcast. Today we will be having a conversation with Bailey Cherry.
Rebecca:
Hi, I’m Rebecca and I’m also a member of XinSai. Today, we have Bailey here – she’s the CEO and founder of reBooked, a co-founder of EcoGo and a Rise global winner of 2022. Please welcome Bailey.
Jed:
So, hey Bailey, thank you so much for agreeing to be on our podcast.
Bailey:
Hi, thank you so much for having me today
Jed:
Alright, so for our first question: what inspired you to start reBooked?
Bailey:
Yeah, for sure. So, just to give a brief introduction to what reBooked is, reBooked is a non-profit social enterprise and we are Hong Kong’s biggest bookstore for second-hand kid’s books. Essentially, our goal is to be a platform that enables people to easily dispose of their books in a sustainable way. So people who have a surplus of children’s books, you know, maybe their children have outgrown them, maybe their moving to different countries; they’re able to pass on these books and then redistribute them either to the marginalized groups that we work with, so we work with various NGOs to redistribute these books, or also through our second-hand bookstore, and we have both an online and retail presence for the bookstore. And what really inspired me to start reBooked was, growing up I’d always been a massive reader, I’ve always loved to read and my parents were always a big fan of that, so they always did indulge in my book reading habits, and by the time I was around 14 I realised I had truly accumulated a lot of books over the years and I did not know what to do with them. I tried to donate these books to different NGOs in Hong Kong, but I really found that there were limited options, that ensured – well, first of all, that was year-round, not like a short-term book donation, that was accessible and easy for me to get to, and also, options that ensured that the books I had loved all my life would end up in the hands of actual, young readers who would enjoy them as well.
Jed:
For our second question: what was the most challenging thing that you faced when you were starting reBooked?
Bailey:
I would say that one of the more challenging aspects of starting reBooked was really in terms of time management. As a full-time student entering high school at the time, I really did not know how to manage everything I had on my plate and it’s something, to this day, that I think I just continue to learn and get better at, as time progresses. But really, balancing everything I had to do with reBooked, especially in the beginning, starting everything and putting it all together, really getting into habits and building that up. But also, beginning high school and trying to maintain a social life and trying to maintain good grades and trying to have other extra-curriculars going on for me as well all got pretty overwhelming, but it’s something that I’ve been able to overcome through, again – through time – but also through different methods of managing my time, using Google Calendars, just truly becoming more organised, I guess. But that was one of the major challenges among other things.
Jed:
Alright, I can totally relate to that because as a student, it’s very hard to manage my time. And, so like, all those things that you said relate, truly. Okay, moving on to a different question: what is your most favourite thing about being a library owner?
Bailey:
That’s a really good question and it’s really hard to narrow it down to one thing. I really love the community that reBooked has built. When I started reBooked back in 2019, I did not expect it to receive as much support as it has ended up receiving.
And to me it has truly become more than just a bookstore, and turned into a community of book lovers, of eco-friendly shoppers, of families, of schools who all believe in our mission and I think that’s something that is really beautiful.
And even on weekends or when I have the time after-school and I’m working at the store, I’m fixing books, collecting book donations, even on calls with a lot of the organizations we collaborate with; I just find it beautiful that all these different parties are coming together to support this mission and, I mean, the numerous missions that reBooked has. But also just coming together as a community and seeing the local community come to reBooked and enjoy it as well. I just love meeting people that love books as much as I do, I think that’s always a lot of fun.
Jed:
Alright, for the third question: books do play an important role in your life. If you were to choose three books that you could read for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Bailey:
Again, great question and a very tough one given that I do end up reading a lot. Again, I do read quite a bit. I would say the first one is the Bible, because I am
indeed Catholic, grew up Catholic, and it’s something that I hold very important to me and my values. So, that’s something I don’t think I’d be able to live without, and just, being able to read that word and engage in that. So I think, definitely, number one is easily the Bible. I would say that the number two book, as of right now, maybe the book Freakonomics. So it’s a book that takes economic analysis into a lot of different, interesting viewpoints, a lot of normal day-to-day things and they use analysis. For me, it was the first book that I read that used econ as something that wasn’t conventionally only maths or business, and I think that furthered my interest in economics and business. I mean, reBooked is a
business, and it just makes a lot of sense to me that I’m interested that. As for the third book, I’m honestly not entirely sure. I would say that my favourite author as of last year is probably Taylor Jenkins Reid. So she wrote The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and a couple books that are big on social media. But I really got into her writing and her books never fail to get me out of a reading slump. So, always a big fan of that.
Jed:
Alright, for the last personal question we have prepared for you: what is your favourite literary genre?
Bailey:
Hmm.. that’s a tough one. I would say, changes over time, and it’s very vague for me to say right now, but I think contemporary literature is something I’m a big fan of. And, I mean, within that, it really varies – it’s a very vague genre. I personally don’t limit myself to genres that often, but I do look for certain things in
bookstores. If I get a lot of book recommendations, I probably will read it, but definitely contemporary literature, more realistic fiction, is my type of beat. And then, then and again, sometimes I do really enjoy non-fiction because I just love learning about the world that we are living in and that’s just very interesting to me.
Rebecca:
So, our new edition is titled ‘Femininity’. Could you possibly tell us what feminity means to you?
Bailey:
Yeah, for sure. When I think of femininity, I think two words come to mind initially. The first one is ‘strength’. I don’t know, I think throughout history but also throughout our own personal lives, people who possess a lot of femininity, or not necessarily women but also those who embrace a side that is more feminine, that could be perceived as a weakness when, indeed, it is something that you have to be so strong to endure throughout oppression and history and everything.
I think femininity is strength. And I’d also say the second thing that comes to mind is ‘community’ because, in my experiences as someone who is young, female, a woman of colour and in business, it’s very alienating when you’re in a position where you don’t often see people like you succeed.
But I think it’s because of the community I’ve been able to find in mentors and in role models of women, that I’m able to truly make as much of an impact as I am able to through reBooked, through EcoGo and through everything. It’s really through them that I am motivated.
Rebecca:
Those are really insightful ways to describe femininity, I’d honestly never really thought about that, but why do you, per se, want to talk about this topic?
Bailey:
I think it relates to my second point. I think femininity is something that can really unite people and especially, like I said, in my experience as a femaile business owner, it’s not always been the easiest. And I live in Hong Kong – it’s definitely not the worst place to be a woman, and even then, there’s still times that I know that I’m judged incorrectly, or underestimated or labelled because I’m not only a woman but someone who embraces her femininity so I think that it’s important to talk about this because it’s something that, even though it can be perceived as a weakness, it’s really a strength and it’s really something that can bring us all together. As a body of people who embrace femininity, that can be something that is very, very powerful.
Rebecca:
So, just linking to that, how important do you think it is for individuals to embrace their femininity?
Bailey:
I think it’s crucial to the success of the individual and to the wellbeing of an individual to embrace your feminity because I think that by not doing that, you’re denying yourself a community, and you’re denying yourself strength and you’re denying yourself power and everything.
So I think, really, it’s really important for individuals to embrace their femininity. Like I said, with femininity, it is something that can unite us all and these experiences can bring us together. So for an individual to deny themselves that, it’s tough and it’s not good.
Rebecca:
Do you think that we, as a society, should start redefining what femininity is and been perceived as for, basically, centuries now?
Bailey:
Absolutely, yeah. I think, this is just my own intepretation and honestly everyone has a different view of what femininity is and that’s completely valid, but I think for centures femininity, and by extension womanhood, both of those things have
been equated to weakness and I don’t think that’s the case at all. First of all, I think we’re now in a time where femininity does not equal womanhood, when femininity is so much more than that. And then, on that note too, neither of those things are in any way weak, or worse, or disadvantaged. Like I said, it’s something powerful and it’s something that we should be able to reclaim and use.
Rebecca:
Our last question for you today is: if you were able to have a conversation with someone who struggles to embrace their femininity, what would you tell this person to help them?
Bailey:
I would say that femininity does not have a set definition. I think, even in this interview I sort of gave it words or terms or almost a definition but not really, but I don’t think thats the basis that anyone should look at themselves or look at femininity from. I think it’s something that you really define yourself. It’s not something that you can rush or put pressure on or really push yourself to find out, so I would say trust yourself and reflect and really define what it means for you as an individual. Don’t be pressured by what other people think is feminine, or the values that people associate with femininity because at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s one set definition of femininity, and I think that s time progresses, more and more people are coming to the conclusion that there’s not one set definition of femininity and that anyone can really be feminine. So take the time to find out what femininity means to you, and once you identify that, embrace it and don’t be shy to show it off.
Rebecca:
Thank you so much again for agreeing to have an interview with us. It was really inspiring and I’m sure our readers will really appreciate the words that you have given us today
Bailey:
I’m glad, thank you so much.
Bailey Cherry was interviewed by Jed Canlobo and Rebecca Baulch, and this interview was transcribed by Jasmine Saul. To hear the full interview, you can check out our Spotify Podcast, and you can also leave any comments, thoughts, praises, queries, underneath the relevant Instagram post!
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