Challenging Gender Stereotypes One Children’s Book at a Time

Angie Haas//Blog Writer

Children’s books are perhaps the least diverse genre. Looking back on the books I read as a child — from Curious George to Where the Wild Things Are to all of the Dr. Seuss’ books — they all had one commonality. These children’s books (often turned into TV shows like Caillou) often had male leads and, if the main characters weren’t male, they were an animal of some sort. There is a noticeable lack of diversity in children’s books. According to The Washington Post, of 3,600 books surveyed, 93% of the characters were caucasian, 3% were African-American, 2% were Asian-Pacific, 1.5% were Latino, and 1% were Native Americans,.

Two New York moms are now challenging this issue with their upcoming children’s book: Rad Girl Revolution. Creators Sharita Manickam and Jen Bruno are creating a photo book to depict a diverse array of young girls in careers that women and minority groups are often not represented in. These young girls are portrayed in career fields ranging from journalists to firefighters and from astronauts to presidents.

Manickam and Bruno reside in Queens where there are so many people from different backgrounds, inspiring them to start this book, in addition to the result of the 2016 presidential election. Their goal is for every kid, every girl, to see herself in the book with models from different backgrounds – some of whom have Down Syndrome, some with hearing impairments, and others with diabetes. The moms have observed that most female empowerment books are geared towards older girls (think female leads like Katniss Everdeen in YA novels), so this book is geared towards young elementary school girls from age two to age eight.

Rad Girl Revolution appears to have a lot of support from people both in and outside of New York. Manickam and Bruno created a Kickstarter campaign and quickly reached their goal of $15,000 nine days after posting the campaign. This money is funding the creation of the books and those who donated to the campaign will receive a complementary coloring book, sticker sheet, t-shirt, school pack with 10 copies of the book and a lesson plan for teachers from kindergarten through second grade. Those who donated $2,000 or more will also receive a photoshoot for their children.

The book is expected to be completed by November and Manickam and Bruno plan to print 1,000 copies, but hope their impact goes beyond those copies. I personally look forward to the release of Rad Girl Revolution in November and to see the impact it has on young girls and their ability to dream.