02/27/2026
YES! YES!! YES‼️ Sparkle & shine, authentic & true‼️✨💫✨💫✨💫✨💫✨💫✨💫✨💫✨💫✨💫
Alysa Liu quit figure skating at 16. When she was ready to come back, she set the rules:
- Her music. Her choice.
- Her choreography. A collaboration, not a command.
- Her training schedule. She pushes when she wants, pulls back when she needs to.
- Her body. No one tells her what she can and can't eat.
- And her father -- she loves him, but this time he watches from the stands, not the driver's seat.
In her own words to 60 Minutes: "I get to pick my own program music. I get to help with the creative process of the program. If I feel like I'm skating too much, I'll back down. If I feel like I'm not skating enough, I'll ramp it up. No one's gonna starve me or tell me what I can and can't eat."
About her dad: "He's a great father, you know? I just didn't want him to be as invested in it as he was before."
This is a girl whose father fired her coaches multiple times -- once in person, twice by text: "Your services are no longer needed." He snuck into the rink in disguise -- big jacket, sunglasses, entered from the back -- to spy on her training. He sent her coach a radar gun to clock how fast she was skating. Her coach said: "He wanted things to be done his way."
She was the youngest U.S. women's champion in history at 13. She skated every single day when she was 13 and 14. She called it "a very abnormal childhood." By 16, she'd had enough.
Her former coach said she felt "she had kept up her side of the bargain with her father and the skating community." She was weeping in rink hallways. The love for the sport just wasn't there anymore.
So she quit. Posted it on Instagram. Went to Nepal, trekked to Everest Base Camp, went on road trips, enrolled at UCLA. "I was really just living it up. I would say it was my best life."
Then one day she secretly laced up her skates again. Not for competition -- "I just wanted quick hits of dopamine, basically."
She came back 7 inches taller, bleached hair, and completely in charge.
Her coach said: "For many years she was dropped off at the rink. She was told what to do. Now she comes in, and it is all collaborative." She built her own team -- choosing the same coaches her father had fired.
She sees herself as an artist, not an athlete: "I view competitions more as, like, a stage for performing." Her goal? "Honestly, just to hype people up, give them an experience."
World champion at 19 in 2025. Double Olympic gold medalist at 20 in 2026. The first American woman to win Olympic figure skating gold in over two decades.
She didn't skate for a medal. She said: "I don't need a medal. I just need to be here and show people what I can do." And: "Winning isn't all that, and neither is losing. It's just something that happens."
Alysa Liu came back on her own terms, unapologetically herself, and won everything anyway.
And in doing so, Alysa became something bigger than a gold medalist -- she became a role model for every young woman who's been told to sit down, shut up, and do as she's told.
You can walk away. You can set your own terms. You can come back when you're ready, as the person you've become, not the one they tried to make you.
And you can still win.
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For an inspiring picture book encouraging girls to make their voices heard, we recommend "Raise Your Hand" for ages 5 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/raise-your-hand
For an excellent guide to help tween girls learn how to embrace risk, deal with failure, and be their most authentic selves, we highly recommend "The Confidence Code for Girls" for ages 8 to 12 https://www.amightygirl.com/the-confidence-code-for-girls
There's also a fantastic guide for teen girls on how to assert themselves and voice their opinions, "Express Yourself: A Teen Girl's Guide to Speaking Up and Being Who You Are" for ages 12 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/express-yourself-guide
For books for children and teens about girls and women who used their voices to fight for change throughout history, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For kids' books about female Olympians in a variety of sports, visit our blog post "30 Children's Books About Female Olympians" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=34101
