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I wanted to work on developing a children's book that focuses on the topic of anti-racism. With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and my involvment so far (discovering more about my identity through my cultural diversity practice, attending protests in Paris, having discussions and educating myself more).

This topic came up when I was having a conversation with some friends because during a protest in Paris, we overheard a little girl ask her mom "Why are all these people here?", and the mother simply replied "The world is complicated right now". This made us think about the kind of conversations that parents need to be having with their children about Black Lives Matter, and what it means to be anti-racist.

Growing up mixed-race and in international communities and schools, I realized that the topic of racism itself never really was discussed. Let alone the topic of anti-racism. I think it is very important for children to be educated on these topics during their formative years. At the end of the day, we are all part of a system that places some above others, and in order to be able to successfully abolish this discriminatory system, it is essential for our youth to understand their place within it as well.

"You can use books as a conversation-starter. What I find with my 4-year-old daughter is when I'm reading her books, she asks questions about those books. And so use tools like books. And then the child will potentially guide the conversation. I also think you can turn on the demonstrations on TV or go to the demonstrations. And I suspect even the 3-year-olds will ask, what is going on? Again, it gives you the opportunity to talk about race and racism."

"Especially for the little ones, bringing them books that give historical context, like biographies. There's so many picture books that are biographies of black activists, artists, people who paved the way for us to be here. And then, I also think - I want to go back to "Hair Love." I think it's important to bring in books that allow readers to see black people living their everyday lives."

"If one day she is rejected because of the color of her skin and she doesn't have awareness of racism, who is she going to blame? Herself. And there's nothing worse for a very young child to be struggling with their own sense of self and their own confidence in themselves. And so I actually see this literature and these conversations as protective."

“If children do not see themselves, if they do not see their families reflected back to them in the world, in the school, the books, the movies, everything else, what you have done has been to erase a phenomenal part of who they are,” Olsen Edwards said."

" Multiple studies document the ways that young children take notice of racial differences and note that as early as preschool, children may begin excluding their peers of different races from play and other activities (Winkler 2009)."

"When children are armed with this knowledge and these skills, they can begin to disrupt these systems and work toward building a more equitable society for all of us."

All of these books are examples of children's book which cover the topic of gender identity in the black community. An intersection that needs a platform within households.

These examples of children's books that cover topics which some parents or teachers may find "too early" to introduce to young children like gender identity, being transgender, and being non-binary. These are all important topics, and presenting them to children in a context where they can see themselves represented is also just as important.

Books about Anti-Racism for Children

All of these books show a variety of illustrative styles and topics that focus on important topics children need to be taught in an approachable way.

Through my research so far, I have understood that these conversations should be held with children in order to truly dismantle the society that currently pushes racism in its agenda.

Children learn bias as early as 2 years old, therefore, if the content they consume comes from a place of equity and removing bias, it could improve our current situation.

I also love seeing the representation in these books. I never grew up with books like these, and I think that if I had more access to stories that reflected my reality, my relationship with my identity could have been a more positive one growing up.

How do you write/illustrate a children's book?

An important step in research for this project is understanding what components make up a children's book. I have never written/illustrated anything that falls into this category. This research step is important because it will help me decide in which direction I would want my book to take.

Ideas:
1. A reflection of my upbringing
2. Accepting my identity
3. How to talk about anti-racism
4. White allyship & privilege
5. Race in the context of international schools

This step is something I could implement in the process of working towards a final product. I've grown up with a brother six years younger than me. I've also been a babysitter for the past 3 years, and the things the kids I babysit say sometimes are incredibly insight in how they relate to their classmates and process what they are thinking.

This point makes me reflect on how impersonal or personal I would want my book to become. I think what I am really reaching for is the lack of representation I had while growing up. Being able to tell a story about my childhood self to other children that look like me would be a connection I would want to create. The main idea really revolves around the concept of identity. As a child, when you have no place to reflect on your identity, it makes it even harder while growing up to find yourself and be proud of that at the same time.

This tip from this list is interesting because it even mentions that using an animal as the main character eliminates the "ethnic background" element. This is something I want to preserve. My main character and storyline will follow a girl that looks like me. A little girl of color with curly hair navigating a majority white environment. The point I want to communicate is that there is a space for girls like me, even in fictional stories.

Language is an important factor in children's books. Having grown up with Italian and English as important languages in my household, it would be interesting to see if I could translate my concept into Italian. The reason behind this is that I know there are many girls like me in Italy who do not feel like there is a space for them when it comes to representation and acceptance. A children's book of this concept in an Italian concept could promote important conversations and lead to less biased teaching from parents.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2017/how-to-write-childrens-picture-book/

Another very important element to develop in my children's book is an illustrative aspect. If I decide to cater to it to an Italian audience, is there a certain style that children recognize more in comparison to an English speaking audience? These are elements I need to investigate.

This link provides important questions I need to ask myself during the process such as:

What is unique about your character?
Is your character's name memorable?

https://thinkwritten.com/elements-childrens-story/

After having read these sources on how to develop the actual book for children I have come to some conclusions:

My main character will be a black girl;

she will be living in Italy;

the language of my book will be in Italian;

it will focus on identity;

specifically finding herself in her Italian context (why do people not always look like her?);

Popular Italian children's books

Why is this important?

It is important to research into what Italian children already consume in terms of books and popular characters. This can help me develop my idea of storylines or illustrative styles that may reach more children and contextually be more relevant to the visual culture.

If I want to create a book that young children can read and understand, the cultural context is also relevant in terms of developing a visual identity for the book.

Seeing these examples of books I think a bright, simple lined, illustrative style could be a good example of how I can further develop my book concept.

Next Developing Step

The next important step in narrowing down my research to what I want to specifically do is figuring out what is relevant from my research for my book.

I need to figure out how to combine the visual language of popular Italian children's books with the topic I want to narrow my book to.

Visual language needs a simple, bright colorful illustration. Something fun and joyful, but also relatively 2D in its representation.

Now, it is time I decide to narrow down the actual topic and storyline of the book. As an initial concept, I want the book to focus on anti-racism. How do I communicate this idea to children?

First, I need to define what is anti-racism:

The narrative I want to portray in my story is a young black child from Italy and the micro-aggressions they may face being in majority-white environments.

I want to portray these things in a similar way to "Don't Touch my Hair" (video above).

It would be interesting to incorporate an aspect of white allyship since Italy is majority white. A place for white kids to also understand how they can defend their friends of color.

The book could have a space where it is a conversation between a child of color and a white child about what anti-racism is in Italy.

https://www.businessinsider.nl/what-is-anti-racism-how-to-be-anti-racist-2020-6?international=true&r=US

The next step was brainstorming what I actually want as a final book.

My final idea is to create a book that goes off of the concept of children always asking "Why?". In their innocent questions uncomfortable topics may come up, so I thought this could be a good format for children to have a discussion about what it means to be a POC in Italy. Questions like "Why does your hair look like that?" or "Why does your speak another language?" are things that can lead to having conversations about diversity and prejudice within a classroom, but also in general child socialization.

I had initially anticipated that by the end of the plus weeks I would be able to develop a sort of mock concept of this book. I did not foresee how much research I had to do as a pretext to what I want this book to hold. The research process is still continuing, as tackling a topic such as discrimination and anti-racism in a way that is digestible for children is difficult.

I have discovered that there is a lack of this content in Italy, so I will be continuing the research and brainstorming for this book because there needs to be a place for content that falls in this category.