What does she want to be when she grows up? That's the question Rashada's homeroom teacher asks her one day at school. When she goes looking for the answer, Rashada sets off on a journey that leads to some exciting and strange adventures. At times, she thinks she'll never be able to decide what she wants to be. She even faces the nay-saying of a familiar heckler. But, with the love and support of her family, she is introduced to some amazing new role models.
Finding inspiration all around her, Rashada takes what she’s learned from the role models' experiences and embraces her sense of ambition and self-confidence. But, will she be able to decide what she wants to be in time for her Career Day presentation on Monday?
This first book of the Little Miss Everything series features over 10 real-life Black role models who broke glass ceilings to achieve success. They serve as inspirations to the main character, Rashada, and will likewise be inspirational to any young child who dares to be great.
Little Miss Everything eloquently introduces several fascinating career paths that children aren’t often told about, and it seamlessly illustrates how the things that kids love to do and are skilled at can translate into the careers they aspire to have in the future.
WHY EVERY KID NEEDS MORE BLACK ROLE MODELS: Normalizing Black Success
When given an abundance of examples of successful Black professionals, kids will naturally begin to think of Black success as pretty normal and not the rare thing it is sometimes made out to be. And that's a good thing!
Often when we here of Black success stories they are depicted as being rare and exceptional achievements. And while some of them are, and it's great that we have these exceptional stories to tell, if success is always depicted as exceptional to kids, it starts to feel less achievable. The reality is Black success is actually pretty common, and there are countless stories to be told!
Normalizing Black success for Black children makes success feel more achievable to them. When success feels more achievable, those kids gain the confidence and self-awareness they need to attain successes themselves.
And when Black success is normalized in the minds non-Black children, they become much less susceptible to absorbing implicit messages that perpetuate negative stereotypes about Black people and Black culture. And when those messages can't get through, neither can racial prejudices.
Little Miss Everything books feature a multitude of real-life Black role models that girls and boys of any race or ethnicity can look up to. These role-models have each done wonderful things in their professions. They are examples to children of how to embrace self-confidence and ambitiously pursue dreams and aspirations, despite adversity.
In becoming aware of these stories, all kids will naturally embrace the normalcy of Black success. And in this case, normalcy is quite exceptional!
