Thirteen-year-old Marley Dias, who two years ago famously launched a book drive to provide young black girls with books featuring main characters who looked like them, has now written a book of her own: Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You! Dias was recently named to Forbes 30 under 30 list and made an appearance on CBS This Morning this week, where the young teenager talked about her new book — as well as a campaign she’s launching to help promote racial harmony.
“The biggest thing that’s disturbed me is the social structures and infrastructures in schools and in our communities that are pushing away from this intersectionality of being a black person and a woman and a girl,” Dias said. “They’re not thinking about that point of intersection between the two where I’m a mix of both and that we need to include me in both of those realities and not just one or the other.”
Dias added that her friend group is diverse, and that it’s important for them to be able to “just be open with each other” when they feel offended or hurt by what someone was saying.
“At the same time,” she said, “we try to keep it, you know, loose because not every conversation is going to have perfect knowledge with things that we say, but we want to always stay educated on the things that are happening in our community and the communities that surround us.”
Asked by CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King where she got the confidence to go out into the world and actively work to affect change, Dias said that she believes it’s easier to be confident when you follow your passions — and in her case, that meant spreading her love of reading.
Source: https://womenintheworld.com/2018/02/01/girl-13-who-collected-thousands-of-books-for-young-black-girls-writes-a-story-of-her-own/