Identity: vocabulary; Marley Dias 6

Marley Dias: the 13-Year Old-Activist and Author

1. Have you ever felt tired of the books you read in school? That’s how Marley Dias felt when she was 11 years old and all of the books she read in school “were about white boys and their dogs”. Dias says she couldn’t connect with the characters in the books so she “couldn’t learn lessons from those stories”.
2. When Dias complained to her mother about her problem, her mother asked her what she was going to do about it. Dias thought about her options. She could just ask her dad to buy her a lot of new books. But after doing some research to find books with black girls as the main characters, she realized that there weren’t very many to choose from. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, fewer than 10 percent of children's books released in 2015 had a black person as the main character. Recently, there has been a movement to make books more diverse. Many school libraries tend to have older books, though, which are even less diverse. Dias realized she probably wasn’t the only black girl feeling like she couldn’t relate to her school reading curriculum. With the help of her mother, she decided to create a drive called #1000blackgirlbooks.
3. Dias’ goal with the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign was to collect 1,000 books about black girls. She would donate these books to communities such as schools and libraries. She also created a resource guide to help people find these books. Dias has raised almost 4,000 books. Now, she has started talking to teachers and lawmakers about how to include diverse books in schools. She is also starting a book fair to continue to collect books to donate to other schools and communities where children might feel the same way she did.
4. At first, Dias says she was worried about not meeting her goal of 1,000 books. Now, she says, there are strangers thanking her for doing this. Dias has been able to reach so many people with her hard work because she is fighting for an important issue. Dias says the exclusion of black girls in literature and schools “hurts all of us. I’m working to create a space where it feels easy to include and imagine black girls and make black girls like me the main characters of our lives." Dias has inspired many young people to do similar drives.
5. Dias wants to continue to inspire young people to do something about their frustrations. She is writing her own book called Marley Dias Gets It Done—and So Can You. Her publishers say her book will be a “keep it real guide” to social activism. She will share tips for kids to make changes in their lives and communities and “pay it forward about whatever makes your heart sing”. Dias wants to give other kids the tools to get support from their parents and teachers, use social media for good, and make change effectively.

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