Tackling Diversity in Children’s Books: ft. Evita Girón
The world of children books is one permeated with an abundance of creativity, adventure and compelling story plots, allowing kids to travel beyond space and time and explore their sense of imagination. However, this opportunity for expedition is often restrained by a lack of diversity in children’s books. Many children grow up reading storybooks filled with white characters and even talking animals, 27% of children books published in 2018 were about animals while only 1% were about American Indians. These tales do not reflect the reality of the multicultural and diverse nature of the world in which we live. Therefore, a child’s imagination can only go so far off the page, when children of color do not see themselves displayed in the literature they read, from such a young age they could easily develop a feeling of estrangement. Identifying themselves in literature not only allows children to feel accepted and seen, but it also increases their comprehension of and interest in what they read, allowing for a more engaging classroom experience.
At Start Lighthouse, we create access to literature that depicts a racially and culturally inclusive world. Although attention has been given to the importance of diversity in children’s books over recent years; it is still an ongoing problem that must be addressed. This is evident in the research conducted by the Cooperative Children’s Books Center (CCBC) which showcases the percentage of children’s books depicting characters from diverse backgrounds in 2018.
Whereas there is an increase in books by and about people of colour; the progress is somewhat minor. More recent reports from the CCBC state that children’s books written by authors of color in 2020 increased by a mere 3%. However, children’s books written about racially diverse characters grew by only 1%.
To gain further insight into the importance of representation in children’s literature, I spoke with Evita Girón author of The Girl with the Magical Curls, an inspiring book that encourages little girls to embrace and love their curls. Evita was inspired in the spring of 2014 by the Dove Love Your Curls campaign that promoted dove products for women with curly hair from all ethnic backgrounds. It was touching for Evita to see how the little girls were able to appreciate their curly hair when they showed a room filled with women who had similar hair texture. “It really starts at a young age in terms of a little girls perception of beauty,” Evita commented, “my daughter was two at the time and I decided I wanted to create a female children’s book character that was not only based on her but also has a superpower.” Evita’s book allows curly-haired little girls to see themselves as beautiful and embrace the power in their features.
Evita belongs to a group called Multicultural Children’s Books, a platform that showcases traditional and self-published authors that write books from various ethnic backgrounds. “I support them and I love what they do!” she said. She mentioned that there is a whole array of diverse and multicultural books by self-published authors that many people are not aware exist. “I wish a lot more self-published authors got more recognition; as a self-published author or independent author you have to market your book on your own and it is very hard if you don’t have a team behind you.” According to Evita, there are a lot of great books out there that portray diverse characterisation, and we can further tackle this inequality in children’s literature by supporting more self-published authors of colour.
Evita strives to inspire and empower little boys and girls through her writing. She plans to create an animation of her book, The Girl with the Magical Curls, that will positively influence little girls all over America. When I asked Evita what her next steps would be she replied, “Writing a children’s book about positive affirmations is probably the next thing that I want to do.” Start Lighthouse is encouraged by inspirational children’s book authors such as Evita Girón who is making great strides in uplifting the hearts and minds of children through her writing. As a team, we aim to continually work alongside these wonderful authors of color in tackling this issue of diversity in children’s books.
To learn more about Evita and her ongoing work, be sure to check out her website. You can purchase your own copy of The Girl with the Magical Curls here.
