girl on a mission
arley Dias has
always loved
reading, but the
12-year-old West
Orange student
couldn’t relate to
most of the books she read at school.
Finding few books with black
female protagonists, Dias made it
her mission to collect and distribute
1,000 books where black girls were
the main character. What started in
November 2015 as a simple book drive
turned into a nationwide effort, gaining
followers with the social media hashtag
#1000BlackGirlBooks and propelling
Dias into the spotlight. Here, Dias tells
us about how she started, where she’s
headed and how she makes time to do
it all.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA
FOR THE BOOK DRIVE?
I came up with the #1000Black-
GirlBooks campaign after talking to my
mother about what frustrated me. She
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APRIL/MAY 2017 | (201) FAMILY
WRITTEN BY JACKIE GOLDSCHNEIDER
asked me what I wanted to change and
I told her I was sick of not seeing myself
reflected in any of the books I was
assigned in school. I told her I wanted
to collect books where black girls were
main characters. I wanted to read
books where black girls were not just
slaves or the sidekicks or best friends,
and that is how the campaign started. I
decided I would collect 1,000 books and
give them to schools so kids could read
books about black girls.
DID IT TAKE A LONG TIME TO COLLECT
SO MANY BOOKS?
We officially started in November
2015 and the book drive was supposed
to end Feb. 1, 2016, but we didn’t
collect a lot of books until late January
and early February 2016 when I was
on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. After
that, Twitter started using the hashtag
and the project gained a lot of fame.
We’ve already collected more than 8,500
books, but I’m still collecting. I hope to
reach 10,000 books soon.
WHAT DID YOU DO WITH ALL THE BOOKS?
I’ve donated to lots of places. My
first donation was 1,700 books to
Retreat Primary School in St. Mary,
Jamaica, where my nana, uncles and
mom attended. I also donated books to
schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and Connecticut that told me they
were in need. I also donated to several
organizations in Newark like the
Newark Public Library, the YMCA and
Speedway Academies. Newark has the
largest population of racial minorities
in the state and I do a lot of volunteer
work there. I got help f