#1000BlackGirlBooks

Imaage by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

I absolutely love this story and was thrilled to read all of the details.  This story, along with so many I read, makes me so hopeful for our future as a country and community.  The youth is so hopeful, so smart and ready to make some serious changes.  

I can't get enough. 

Image by Erin Patrice O’Brien

Marley Dias is a 15 year committed to putting books with black girls as the focus and heroine of the story in the hands of other black children.  What started as a conversation with her mother over a pancake breakfast as a 13 year old has turned into a huge project, a book of her own, and what I hope will be some serious change in the lives of so many.  The #1000BlackGirlBooks is a list of 1000 books for all ages where black girls can read stories of girls just like them as main characters in a book.

“A world where modern black girls were the main characters — not invisible, not just the sidekick,” Marley writes in her new book, “Marley Dias Gets It Done (And So Can You!)”. “A world where black girls were free to be complicated, honest, human; to have adventures and emotions unique just to them. A world where black girls’ stories mattered.”

A few weeks ago I was watching a live conversation between Venita Aspen and Sophie Gold and one of t the biggest points they made that really hit home with me was the thought that black girls need to see someone as a hero they can grow up to be.  I remember watching That Girl and Brady Bunch and learning so much.  I wanted to be a mother my whole life.  It would be easy for me to turn on the TV or pick up a book and find a person to look up to.  Was it available for a black girl to do the same?  It really hit home to me.  While reading Town & Country this morning I spotted this story and immediately knew I would be shifting my blog content to share.  I love her story, I love her passion, and I love that she is truly doing the work to help others in her same situation.  She will be a hero to so many.  I know she is definitely a hero to me!

Image by Erin Patrice O’Brien

You can read all about her here, here, and here.  You can find the list of books here.  You can order her book here.  I would suggest you do all of them.  As we celebrated this weekend as a free country I saw a friend of mine post something that stuck with me.  We are the land of the free and every single one of us living in this country deserves to feel 100% free and until they do we have changes to make. 

Happy Monday!