Mai Whelan, the winner of Netflix’s first season of “Squid Game: The Challenge.”
CJ Rivera/AP Photo
I couldn’t get enough of watching Mai Whelan, the winner of Netflix's $4.56 million competition "Squid Game: The Challenge."
The 55-year-old beat 455 contestants salivating over the pot of gold and crushed ageism and other stereotypes that often stand in the way of achieving dreams.
Known as Player 287, Whelan surprised contestants with strategic moves they didn't see coming in the competition of a variety of games.
In the final challenge — a surprising game of "rock, paper, scissors" — her opponent described Whelan as "full of fire, fierce, competent, strong, smart and easy to underestimate."
Those are attributes Whelan wanted the world, especially women around her age, to see.
"They're so resistant to challenge, or they're so hesitant to live their life fully because of the — you know — the concept of you're a woman, you're an Asian, and you are old and all that," she said in an interview on Netflix's "Tudum,” the streaming service's fandom website, after she was revealed as the winner of the record-setting prize money for reality shows.
"I say you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it,” Wheland said. “I want to show the women out there to take charge of your life and take risks. Life is about risks, and you never know what's on the other side if you don't.”
In an interview aired during the competition, Whelan became emotional discussing how her family ostracized her when she became a single parent at 19. Whelan said she was told she was "not going to make it in life."
"It was hard,” she said, tearfully. “I was by myself. I didn't know anything about motherhood.”
But those harsh words helped her plow through adversity to reach her life-changing moment.
"I am so glad that I'm a woman, I'm a minority and able to overcome everything at my age, so I'm putting it out there: Don't be afraid. Be who you are, and plow through," she said in the Netflix interview.
“Squid Game: The Challenge” was Netflix's most-watched show, with an estimated 31.5 million viewers during nine episodes.
While the eye-popping amount of money was obviously a draw for contestants, the personal challenges some competitors shared hooked me.
Contestants represented a demographic that closely match the world's population. Just about everyone, including a player with a hearing disability, was represented.
The tight alliances brought together people of different races, genders, ages and sexual orientations. The bonds were so strong that players sobbed when their allies were eliminated.
People from different backgrounds ate together, slept together, showered together and shared the same dream of winning money that would change their lives without breaching the peace.
Whelan pointed to empathy's role in keeping her focused on listening to her inner voice throughout the competition.
That empathy was fully displayed when she stood beside her final opponent, Phill Cain, a 27-year-old she was sure she could beat, and quietly recited "The Lord's Prayer.”
Unlike lottery winners who become multimillionaires overnight because they picked the winning numbers, the "Squid Game" players had to have street smarts — and what some of us call blessings and others call luck — to avoid elimination.
Despite what others thought about her, Whelan believed in herself and showed millions what it takes to win in the game of life.
