Magda Lena Griffel and Sophia Zhang
The Vietnam War Memorial: How Maya Lin Revolutionized Memorial Design
Senior Division Group Website
Website Word Count: 1175 words
Total Media Time: 2 minutes 10 seconds
Process Paper Word Count: 494 words

In 1981, 21-year-old Maya Lin extended the frontier of design when her unique vision won a national design competition for the Vietnam War Memorial. Lin immediately diversified the art world by becoming the first woman and Asian American to design a memorial on the National Mall, and, despite facing public backlash linked to her race, gender, and age, she ultimately revolutionized memorial design with her focus on individual loss over the romanticism and intense politics of war.