I thought how k. And joy in the Stream Research shows that exposure to reading material early in a childs life has both an immediate effect on the capillary general knowledge and comprehension skills. Studies have also shown that nonwhite children who see their own identities and experiences reflected have higher selfesteem better social emotional functioning and increased classroom engagement so then why is it that there is such a dearth of Childrens Books that include diverse characters with diverse attributes this info off summarizes well things are in the us and numbers are improving but hardly where they should be today may 3 autists with changing. As always as conversation is for you and our Community Growing up did you see book characters that reflected your life so many of you have already shared your thoughts and there is much to talk about so join our conversation live on you tube or message us at e. J. Stream or twitter on twitter or instagram thats what robin thomas did when she pitched their show. When youre raising your kids and in firemen where their religion is not the predominant religion it can be difficult when you dont see stories that reflect your family or that kind of tell your stories so its kind of what led me to write rami the ramadan cattle i think going forward. We need more agents who are willing to take a chance on authors who have muslim characters in their stories are telling muslim stories and joining us now from Los Angeles California matthew age harry is the author and filmmaker of hair love his film was just shortlisted for the 2020 oscars congratulations welcome to the stream so good to have you here. Thank you so much for having me i want you to start right away online because that is where there is so much buzz for your work i want to share this tweet circulating online this is january the hamster thats our handle january says like so many others i contributed to the kickstarter for hair love looks like my 1st foray into the world of arts when raising on the web has paid off mightily a terrific film and critical acclaim so on the show were talking about books but this is a book that came from a film talk to us about your inspiration. Yeah you know a couple years ago i was coming across on a lot of these videos of dad doing their daughters hair and it was really seemed like a great opportunity to kind of get representation on a couple of different brands you know like theres often get one of the worst raps in Mainstream Media about being not present it would be a dead beat dead beats etc then also you know young girls they rarely see themselves you know i think theres so much kind of policing thats going on with black hair nowadays like you saw the situation with Gabrielle Union in americas got talent how they were bad it hurt you to change your spouse who much other stories of kids being discriminated against when they try to wear their hair naturally in school so you know i think for us it was just really kind of an opportunity to really just a representation on a couple of different parts and kind of showcase black family in a way that you know really hasnt been showcased before so matthew the every show i day was to make an animated show excel that we shy people on the kicks out of faith because i just dug it out recently just see what the reaction ross said scottie down to the pictures of beautiful that must have been hostile attraction but here was going to 75000 thats not an elevation fell ill people and. My mother would take my money and let me say just a little clip of what actually looks like. The animation because then that became one of the poll lets take a look at the animation. Now other. Its like nothing it says a little bit does it and i actually want to pick up on that because we got a tweet from child who says i love the movie and i think it resonates with a lot of people of color i am native and the movie really promotes the idea of beauty as ourselves not as how quote i hope white culture define said so in this short and of course also in the book there are lots of layers and there are lots of types of beauty that the dad has a lot similar to yours the mother is wearing a headscarf talked to you about that here you know again you know i think it was just really trying to touch as many inclusive hairstyles as we could you know there not to spoil it for anybody but you know theres a scene towards the end of the sure bill which is a little different than it is in the book you know where the mother you know doesnt care anymore and we just also really wanted to show that. You know were going to be up here you dont have here no regardless of what your style looks like you know youre still beautiful and you know was very still see their mom as the queen so i mean just trying to get as much in there as we could while the people of the sea wanted to stay with us through money and they supported to take stock and then you know publish a story is ridiculous its not like i as i said stick around for publishing what happened. Yes so we did we want our kickstarter you know 2 years ago and what end up happening is that we operate a Childrens Book as part of the kickstarter not really knowing how we were going to do it were just going to being forward thinking you know. Like you know we work so we can try to figure it out and what end up happening was this really amazing how did your work that being random house on the monitor path be reached out to its in the middle market start a Campaign Like a week into it and basically asked if we were out of partner for the book yet you know we were do it was really special and i wanted to be a part and while there were a couple other offers that came in alternately we decided to go with them because you know they got it from the jump and were really disappointed and even when it was in its kickstarter form so yeah and then we came out in may so of course there are lots of good reactions to it i want to share this from susie who says as a parent a grandparent an educator or one who celebrates state versity i feel its important for all kids to see themselves and children slip more books or need its represent our nation of Diverse Learners without stereotyping or misrepresentation which i think you what your work does that very well matthew what are people telling you about it when they see it when they see the book when they see the film its been amazing you know like theres been some story you know ive seen a lot of parents kind of saying like they wish that they had a book like this growing up you know kind of this crazy now when you go into certain books to read you see like whole section there that are devoted to going to africanamerican picture books you know how many a year its an artery yeah yeah im lucky i want to show people how little girls react to your book is that ok i can get me some surviving member of the moment say this is what happens i have accounts look at this park some of them look at head elf lets take a look. Just like in the good that was going on the i. Was. Yelling out its me its me youre looking at the little girl in the book shes obviously loving it how does that make you feel. Really a dream come true you know i think what you know you put it out into the world in the open there and that just like. Being able to see themselves in it and literally say like thats me. You know this is priceless you know and ill bet it all oakley it helps to change peoples confidence around here what we do embrace it more i think its doing just that matthew thank you so much for joining us today congratulations again on the oscar shortlist will be cheering you on from the stream and by when i was growing up as an indian immigrant daughter in the u. S. I never saw anyone who looked like me in the books that i was reading or the t. V. Shows and films that i was watching and so when i wrote my golly folktale and string theory and speired fantasy series kieren mala in the kingdom beyond starring a 12 year old intergalactic demon slaying indian immigrant daughter from new jersey i wrote these books for the 12 year old that i had been who had never seen myself and i wrote these books for my own children and for all our children in response to Toni Morrisons famous call if theres a book you want to read and it hasnt been written yet then you must write. Oh my goodness i show that story must resonate with south. With her Publishing House but babies shes looking to change south asian representation in Childrens Books such as thanks for joining us the idea of you setting up a popish in house why did you get that idea because its not easy. Its not easy it on thank you so much for having me so the journey to creating our babies really started my own journey to motherhood i was pregnant with my daughter and i was having this library baby shower as you do in the interests and i really wanted to cook books on our bookshelves that reflected my own culture my history my heritage and what i found out there was really problematic you know there were books out there that some of them were developmentally inappropriate some of them were culturally an accurate or worse culturally insensitive and i couldnt believe that in this day and age my daughter wasnt going to see herself on the cover of the book so it took leaving my ph d. Program and a 1000. 00 of startup capital but thats how our babies muslims we have a tweet here that is perfect for you because this is i have an asher says there are enough platforms that allow people of color to write stories in their own way Publishing Houses expect writers to write in a manner that they want not that the writers want he who has the money has the power to dictate what he wants and ill add in she as well but talk to us about what this tweet makes you feel and if this was some of the thinking behind why you started it. Yeah i think i truly wanted to create a platform where south asian south asian experience could be seen and heard and created and thats why it ended up being a Publishing House you know i tried writing a book and you know maybe one day there will be a book that i write but for some reason it wasnt what was going to happen and so instead i decided to launch a Publishing House because i realized just how important it was to give a platform to others and to give form to this entire community so to us saying that you couldnt find the right books for the family that us stop saying im just scouting for you some of the books in your Publishing House we have finding on coming out next may is powerful always. Solid in the sky i have an art sale it serious as well can you tell us one story that shows what to be culturally sensitive to be culturally aware actually means. Oh thats a really really great question and i think each one of our books does a really phenomenal job of sharing that south asian experience because we recognize that a south asian experience isnt unified its multidimensional you know you have south asians who are muslim who are hindu who are christian who are sikh and we want to share all of that i think there are a lot of books and our popcorn that do that really really well lets celebrate the volley is one of our perennial favorites that really shares how be values the most people holiday and thats a story thats not often told in the Mainstream Media also i think super suck yes things that day is a really phenomenal story because like right there on the cover you have this Multicultural Family you know you have a dad wearing his turban you have his daughter whos proudly speak with her long long hair on the cover and its really just an opportunity for those of us who have so many different backgrounds who have all those different intersections to see ourselves so we are hearing from people who are watching this live and as youre speaking there and talking about the challenges you face i want to bring this in from milky way on you tube chris says the question is whether these diverse heroes will gain acceptance by Public Schools curriculum and ill add in bookstores and book shops across the country and internationally talk to us about that challenge how do you make that happen. Yes so i am a small independent Publishing House in a sea of big strive publisher who own and operate this business so getting seen and heard is hard its really really hard because we dont have the same budgets as these big Publishing Houses do we dont have the same resources as the same Publishing Houses you but we continue to do it and we do it with Grassroots Campaign boots on the ground really focusing our efforts in getting our books into the hands of the people who want them the most you know i think our 1001 guy versus Book Campaign is really our attempt to make sure that children in some of the most areas that dont have access to these books will get access to these books and so its partnering with schools one after another to make sure that they have our books and their bookshelves and that were able to get the our books into the hands of the kids in their classrooms tell us about the same thing youve got some saw. Man but she did. Amazing and i think i went into this really naive i thought i was just going to you know maybe publish one or 2 books a year it would be fun my friends would buy and the response has been phenomenal we find awards weve been featured on mean stream t. V. And all of that its great to get that industry recognition but what was really really sort of makes this all worth it is when little kid comes you know when we do these events and they hear and see the stories and they see themselves and you know they run away with the book because they just are so excited to have seen themselves on the cover of a book and youre usually their parents are more because theyre country uplifting but its just thats what. Moment i have see themselves so i just want to show everybody the pitch to the twitter profile page just bought up a vase is out put up baby so you can find it but the little girl smile when shes looking at pictures of herself representation lapses i think that says so much about what youre trying to teach so that i can only my daughter i knew i knew it i know there was some family relation that. I have every day we have this company and very reasonable right there for us she took a picture thank you very much for joining us here on this thing take a. There has been no reading country into which means children go how access to books are trying to revamp and fun so no serious time professional doesnt work think weve produced over 250 tackles in 7 different languages so in is to teach children how to begin and also dont put in lovers reading for us this means putting books that are culturally relevant that that has character that looks like them that talks about their challenges that talks about their history so my hope is children who are reading on books who are loving who they are in being part of who they are. Well joining us on set now is nina there she is author of im a princess too and along with robin who you saw earlier she also pits welcome to the stream so good to have you here for having me so i want to share some of the buzz about your book which i have here everyone can see it online because there is this is buzz from high places dean of the law whos also been on our show before comedian here in the u. S. As my friend you know wrote a great new book its called im a princess too and its about a young muslim girl who wears a huge job and is just trying to live a normal life by it and support her where did the idea for this come from so the idea came from growing up in never seeing myself in any and any form of media not in books not in t. V. Not in movies it was very frustrating theres a severe lack of diversity that i think was probably when i was growing up in a still is even the needle is shifting its still were not were up a group of Cliffside Park new jersey growing up i love the arts i love acting i love drama club but i never saw myself represented anywhere and it was a was upsetting to me and i caught myself complaining a lot about how we were never represented and no one cared about me or chopped liver but then i realized that i should help change the narrative instead of just complaining about it so i took action and i wrote this book to try and help little girls read it and see themselves in a Childrens Book you know im just looking at Instagram Account and this is this is so beautiful as you. Reading allegedly your book looking at the like so over 3000 likes the support list definitely. Yeah which means that you are now a role model are you comfortable with taking not only i am not comfortable taking on the full model no i am its a lot of pressure but its pressure that i think i could handle i think little girls all over the place muslim non muslim black the black community latin next. Children anybody should grow up and just be who they are and the fact that there isnt any type of representation or there isnt enough representation is really sad so if i can help shift things i would love to be a role model i want to share this experience from. His work the stream before so as has my Kindergarten Teacher gifted me a book called the egyptian senator when she heard we were moving to cairo unfortunately it was about a blue eyed blond hair greek slave girl living in ancient egypt but i guess its the thought that counts so even then you have someone trying to do something good because you know they think this book will help represent you but then it doesnt so. In your book you actually dedicated 2 to 2 people who are they and why yes i dedicated this book to my nieces because there are many me and they all say they want to grow up and be like me they say i want to be comedians i dont think theyre going to be comedians but. I dont know why. They dont go down. You know thats a problem with diversity theres a difference between diversity and inclusion and diversity sometimes isnt always sincere so its kind of like here someone who looks like you shut up and stop complaining but inclusion is when they invite us thats able to help make the decisions and more often than not that doesnt happen so thats why it was so important for me to write the book so i could make sure that i control the narrative because things like that happen definite to you congratulations youve decided i am going to change the narrative literally im writing the book but you cant do it and found a publisher thats really important that connecting and going maybe men stream or getting out of a very small missions that everybody can read what youre writing how did you do that i was very fortunate i found a great Publication Company i just did some Research Basic google searching and the 1st person i found i set up a phone conference and i pitched my book idea and he loved and he took it right away when the. Old friends from high school. And to all the pictures and it was in print within a couple months it was a very quick turnover im very Little Information to the afghanis there are a at its i would have had a more touching story of how it was i dont hardly anybody was reading about it. It was i have a great publisher and he said that he saw the benefit of diversity in Childrens Books he said that we really needed it because if you look at some of the stats from last year less than 5 percent of books were published for the Latin Community less than 10 percent were for the Africanamerican Community muslims didnt even make the poles because it was so little and then you have over 30 percent of books were had animal protagonists like more books were made about animals than all the minorities combined so i think i was very lucky where i found a publisher who understood the struggle ed was totally on board with so i want to share this tweet from earth dog on twitter who says i think its important for children and teenagers to read about and see people like themselves but just as a natural part of the story without everything being heavy handedly about race or gender so in this case i might add in religion do you feel like that is a criticism that some might have a vest like why are you forcing the job and muslims down our throats no i think my story is about a young girl named mina and shes just a girl going to school who are additions for the school play and gets bullied because a bunch of girls are that she can be a princess because she doesnt have long blond hair thats whats in my story is she really doesnt get affected by the bullying she goes home she practices she works hard she lands the audition and gets the role so its not even about. Her being muslim and her faith in her identity she knows who she is she knows who she is shes comfortable too as she is she works really hard and she gets what she wants its not about forcing anybodys throat its just a book about bullying and it could be about any type of bullying really anybody can relate to. It seems ridiculous that were having this conversation in 2019 almost 2020 going into a new decade why do you think we are still talking about inclusion representation matter. I just think the needle is moving because i think its better than it was 20 years ago its moving very slowly and i also think because not enough of us. Are doing things like this i think the Muslim Community really needs to step it up and i was very inspired by tyler perrys speech he said dont fight for a seat at the table create table and i think the Muslim Community really needs to then i think we are doing that this shows like an army out which im a huge fan of there is books theres movies coming out i think we are headed in the right direction i hope it was a little bit quicker so. Were going to school and they really see how the lack of representation of books in the curriculum and in mainstream lit impacts children children feel excluded undervalued as that their voices and experiences arent of importance so one small story from heard there but as we wrap up here are there any plans to get this into schools as part of the curriculum yet its already been picked up by a couple schools they want to come in read it to the class my niece is about to school the teachers are going to the class its been such an amazing turn over im really happy that because this is going to Public Schools and theyre really taking my butt seriously and theyre teaching children about diversity and i just feel like diversity is so important because looking up to somebody and really into them on a physical level helps with selfesteem helps with identity helps Shape Society and just helps things move along quicker and you know were out of time but a big thank you to you and all of our other guests so many new books to add to ourselves that we couldnt let you all go without sharing 2 more from authors from our community have a look i will see you next time. When i was writing my books by the feel that the media was representing my family a multiracial family a Multicultural Family so i decided to write one for myself that had images that looked like my family that talks about my kind of culture i wear a bonnet to bed every night and when i started my daughter on the station that my money started me on i was shocked that there wasnt a book or resource for us to read together and enjoyed this so my advice is if you see a void that you think needs to be filled go ahead and bill it because when i want to read them house and explain this ubiquitous black tradition and how important it is and how great a book would be on it the 1st thing they said was oh my gosh that sounds like a great idea. Business leaders does want to find the brass part. Business leaders does want to find the brass part. I dont know that corruption has reached a level like never ever before in our country. Rank outsider. To president of the united states. The power was in the data we will moderate the American People with the truth and nothing else discovers the formula for winning the white house unfair game on aljazeera. The arab. Im home ahead and in london with the top stories on aljazeera the global infection rates from coronaviruses just passed 1000000 more than 50000 people have no died the economic devastation caused by the pandemic is also becoming clearer with the u. S. Announcing a major rise in the unemployment rates record 6600000 americans a point of run Employment Benefits for the 1st time in the past week about 3000000 more than the week before 10000000 sought benefits in march the u. K. Has reported 569 deaths in the past day the british elf minister says the u. K. Is aiming to test 100000 people