Vicky Nguyen’s ‘Boat Baby’ chronicles her life from refugee to network correspondent
The NBC News consumer investigative journalist’s book details the ups and downs of her family’s story of coming to the United States
Vicky Nguyen's memoir, "Boat Baby," was released earlier this month.
Deborah Feingold
Words by Samantha Pak
To many members of the public, Vicky Nguyen is a consumer investigative journalist for NBC News who they’ve seen on shows such as The Today Show, Nightly News with Lester Holt, and NBC News Now. Viewers know that she will let them know whether trendy, viral products are worth buying, why it’s beneficial to shop for some things in real life, and more.
What they might not know is that Nguyen will also bring a butter knife to a trampoline non-fight. To be fair, this only happened once when she was a kid—and it was to stand up to the racist bully in her neighborhood. “Luckily, it didn’t end up in some sort of criminal charges,” Nguyen admits with a laugh.
This is just one of many stories from her life chronicled in her new memoir, Boat Baby. The book, which was released earlier this month, follows Nguyen and her parents after they left Vietnam a few years after the Vietnam War—when she was less than a year old—and immigrated to the United States to start a new life. Nguyen always dreamed of being an author and, as a journalist, that dream started to become more of a reality when she got to network news and had a bigger platform to reach people. “When I had an opportunity to put my parents’ story down on paper, and my own journey of being a refugee to a network correspondent,” she says, “I thought it would be a great way to honor them, record their story for my daughters, and help other families see themselves in our journey and what it means to be an American.”
"Boat Baby" follows Nguyen and her parents immigrating to the United States to start a new life after the Vietnam War.
Courtesy of Vicky Nguyen
Nguyen continues, saying she’s grateful she had the opportunity to extract these stories from her parents. “Whether you're writing a book or not, all of our parents and grandparents have stories that are worth knowing,” she points out. “So I would encourage anyone who has questions, to ask them now.”
Time to talk about feelings
Like many immigrants and refugees, Nguyen and her family experienced many ups and downs once they arrived in Eugene, Oregon (later living in Reno, Nevada, as well as San Jose and Santa Rosa, California—the latter of which is where they spent most of Nguyen’s childhood). From her uncle who was stabbed and killed when she was still a young girl, to financial struggles and how that has affected her relationship with her parents, she doesn’t sugarcoat her experiences. Even when they were tough to revisit during the writing process, Nguyen says all of that has made her who she is, and all of her success has been thanks to the decisions and sacrifices her parents made. “Families can be messy, but ultimately, ours stayed together, stayed strong, and we're still working things out daily,” she says. “I'm grateful that we have stuck together, because it really is just my parents and me. I don't have siblings.”
But more than just the facts of her family’s story, Nguyen also shares in Boat Baby how she felt about these moments in her life—which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but is completely counterintuitive as a journalist, since one of the first things we learn about our craft is to not put ourselves into the story. So when we do, it is not easy. This being said, I had to ask Nguyen about her experience of actually being the story and needing to include actual feelings and emotions. She tells me she was fortunate to work with a co-writer, Vicky Bruce, who was “amazing” and helped guide her as a first-time author, asking Nguyen for her memories, telling her when to dig deeper and when to add more details.
Vicky Nguyen as a child with her family.
Courtesy of Vicky Nguyen
“Vicky was also amazing at being so curious about my family and my parents, and she was able to extract answers from them, and stories from them that they may not have provided to me as their daughter,” Nguyen says. “I think there's a natural mechanism when you're talking to your children, you may not want to share the negative details. You may not open up in the same way that you might to a stranger.”
Representation and paying it forward
As fellow Asian American journalists, we also discussed the importance of representation in the industry and sharing our stories. “We got to do these things to represent for people, and sometimes we have to be the first ones to do these things,” Nguyen says. “Our stories aren't going to be the same for everybody, but that's hopefully opening the door for other people to share their experiences too. And then when readers have a chance to open up various books, they will learn more about the diverse perspectives—even within a community like the Cambodian or Vietnamese refugee communities—because we've all had very different experiences.”
In Boat Baby, Nguyen brings up legendary broadcast journalist Connie Chung, but she also points to Thuy Vu, a Vietnamese American journalist on the local news in the San Francisco Bay Area when she and her family were living there. Nguyen talks about her time interning for Vu for a semester as a student and the other woman’s kindness, generosity, and mentorship.
These lessons, as well as ones she learned from her friend Toan Lam, who she met in college and introduced to her the idea of becoming a television reporter—explaining steps such as classes she needed to take, how to get an internship, and more—are ones that she’s taken to heart as she works to do the same for other journalists. Because it’s critical, she says, to have people who are willing to guide you, answer questions, hold doors open for you, and talk about you and look out for you when you’re not in the room, or don’t have access to the room in question. “I try to do that for a lot of people who I think work hard and have earned a place at the table. I love being a connector. I love getting people hired. I love helping journalists negotiate their contracts,” Nguyen says. “I've done it so many times, and if I can make their career journey just a little bit better, whether it's providing emotional support or cold hard advice, I'm there.”
A miracle in print
It’s been a long journey to bring Boat Baby to life. The book was originally scheduled to be published fall 2024, but got pushed to this month—which just happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War (as well as Nguyen’s sixth anniversary at NBC News). “A recurring theme in the book is fate and how things happen for a reason,” Nguyen says. “And once again, fate strikes again.”
She adds that she’s so happy that the book is done and to see it in print is like a miracle. “My favorite part after writing it all down and seeing it published, it is having conversations like this and hearing what readers think, and exploring the different parts of the book that resonated with people,” she says. “And the diverse responses and communities that are championing the book and responding so positively to it really makes me happy, too.”
Vicky Nguyen with her husband, in-laws, kids, and parents.
Courtesy of Vicky Nguyen
And as for Nguyen’s parents’ responses to the book, she says they’ve both read it. While her mother really enjoyed reading about her experiences as a kid and with her jobs—because she hadn’t known what her daughter was going through—her father read it for all the parts about himself. “I think that kind of sums it up in terms of the way that they approached the book reading, but ultimately it is our family story, and I'm proud of it,” Nguyen says.
Published on April 11, 2025
Words by Samantha Pak
Samantha Pak (she/her) is an award-winning Cambodian American journalist from the Seattle area and co-editor in chief for JoySauce. She spends more time than she’ll admit shopping for books than actually reading them, and has made it her mission to show others how amazing Southeast Asian people are. Follow her on Twitter at @iam_sammi and on Instagram at @sammi.pak.