Erin Tieng

* TV (2022)
* Comics

**Erin Tieng** is a 12-year-old girl and one of the protagonists in *Paper Girls*. She is the first to appear in the comic series and is in every issue.

In the 2022 Amazon Prime series, she is portrayed by Riley Lai Nelet (younger) and Ali Wong (adult).

## Biography

### Overview

Erin Tieng is twelve year-old who lives with her sister and family in Stony Stream, Ohio. Erin is Asian-American, of Chinese descent, and she speaks Mandarin. She attends a Catholic school called St. Nick's.

Erin's father passed away shortly after her family immigrated to America. She continued to take care of her younger sister and her mother after her father's death.

### Storyline

Erin delivers papers for her living. Her new route happens to start on "Hell Day", on Halloween, but she runs into trouble and gets attacked by some local kids. Mac, another paper girl, comes to the rescue and agrees to help protect her along with a few other paper girls who banded together.

When the sky turns pink and power goes out, Tiff and the others believe they are being attacked. Mac grabs her dad's gun and accidentally shoots Erin. The girls rush her to the hospital, but en route get intercepted by two guys- Heck #2 and Naldo- who tell them to hide for their safety. They warn the girls they are farther away from home than they think.

A group of people, including Marcus and Prioress, start shooting at the girls who run for their lives. Erin's gun shot wound gets covered by mechanic bugs who miraculously heal her wound. The girls run to Erin's house and find another Erin- but one who is all grown up. This Erin tries to help the girls solve the mystery of how to get back to 1988. Eventually, all paths lead to Larry who helps the girls time travel again. Instead of bringing them back to 1988, he tricks them and leads them to 1999. There, Erin, Larry, and the girls get in a fight with the Old Watch. Adult Erin dies in the fight but preteen Erin gets away.

Preteen Erin looks for help and another way to time travel back to 1988. She and the girls visit adult Tiff and adult KJ, looking for answers. They hang out at adult Tiffany's apartment and go to 1999 Larry's farm, where he is still alive. A time rip occurs at Larry's farm. The Old Watch tracks the girls back to the farm and show up, insisting that they don't want to hurt the girls but they just want to bring them back to 1988. Erin and the girls agree to go on the time traveling ship but Prioress changes the plan and wants to send them to talk to Dr. Quilkin in the future. She sends them on another time traveling ship but the girls get separated -Erin and Tiff take off in their own ship to an unknown time period. They land in a corn field.

## Personality

Erin is kind and rational with a tendency to follow the rules. She is sensitive and respectful, but she is also willing to confront others about their prejudices, such as when she criticizes Mac for her homophobic remarks.

## Quotes

> Erin, what are you gonna tell them? That the..the 12 year old version of yourself broke into your house with her punk friends you never had?
>
> Adult Erin

## Trivia

* Erin is shown to love pickles
* She is shown to enjoy the series Growing Pains, as shown in the first episode of the TV adaptation
* On her ANDG card, her name was originally written as "Aaron", though this was corrected with a marker