Meet Marley Dias, the 12 year old founder of the inspirational book drive #1000BlackGirlBooks, a movement young Dias created last year, designated to push diversity in books for youth.
Dias has just signed a deal with Scholastic and will be the the main character and author of her own book! Dias’s book is going to be a ‘tell-all’ about her journey of how her passion for more apparent representation of Black children in literacy became such a positively powerful movement throughout social media platforms. Marley Dias’s book is expected to release in the Spring of 2018. This young author’s devotion to ensuring positive literature for Black boys and girls is reactivating a very important discussion that needs to be had a larger scale: What exactly are we feeding our Black children’s intellect?
We are responsible for what the future generations are soaking up. It is no secret that the pages in standard children’s books for elementary school curriculum, as well as books meant for more free time reading, have been whitewashed. This is why Black innovators such as Marley Dias are so pivotal in the cause for making a greater life for minorities, especially when matters are concerning Black youth. Black youth need to be intrigued to read and write! These children need to see themselves in what they are reading, and be able to relate because as they know, and their parents, and teachers should know and understand as well, representation truly matters.