It all began with an 11-year old in search of characters who looked more like herself. It culminated in a movement.
Last fall, avid reader Marley Dias, a sixth grader from West Orange, New Jersey, grew so frustrated by the lack of books with people of color as protagonists that she decided to launch a book drive on social media. She dubbed it #1000blackgirlsbooks with a goal of soliciting 1000 book donations featuring characters like herself. She would then donate the haul to libraries and schools in Jamaica, where her mother is from. “I wasn’t seeing black girls in the books I was assigned to read at my school,” Dias told Ebony magazine in March. “I was tired of only reading about white boys and dogs, and wanted to collect books featuring black girls.”
In fact, Dias had stumbled upon a larger problem in book publishing: the glaring lack of diversity, especially in children’s books. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, fewer than 10 percent of children’s books published in 2015 were either written by or about people of color.
Dias’ brilliant campaign quickly went viral, resulting in features on the “TODAY” show, “Ellen,” and “CBS News.” She even scored an interview with Hillary Clinton, published by Elle.com last October. To date, she’s collected over 7,000 books and counting.
Follow Marley on Instagram and Twitter and donate to her campaign here.
