“I thought it’d be best to start with our children, you know, by implementing affirmation at such a young age. It would help them be better off than we are now,” Christina Hammond, author of Dear Little Black Girl, said in an interview with TheGrio.
The 31-year-old wrote the book in 2019, after adapting a poem she wrote in 2017 to her younger self.
The book, illustrated by Ana Latese, is filled with daily affirmations for Black girls, like:
“Dear Little Black Girl –– be confidently unique.”
“Dear Little Black Girl –– love the melanin that you are in.”
Hammond said she was inspired to fulfill her dream of writing a children’s book after getting pregnant.
“One of the reactions that has definitely been encouraging is when families say they have a hard time finding books with characters that look like their children,” she said.
Hammond founded Tristyn’s Book Club to get more representative books in the hands of Black families and promote reading during early childhood. The club, named after her daughter, has curated three different reading lists with dozens of children’s books featuring Black protagonists.
“I’m trying to connect with more Black authors, especially independent Black authors,” Hammond shared. Her goal is to amplify the work of self-published Black authors and hopefully have her second book released through Colin Kaepernick’s publishing company he founded in 2019 to “inspire all generations of readers and listeners,” according to the Kaepernick Publishing Company site.
“It’s fairly new, but I love what he does for our culture and our community,” Hammond shared.
Dear Little Black Girl is available for purchase here.
Photo: Getty Images