By turkey we listen what is the proposal. For a couple of you know we meet with global newsmakers and talk about the stories that matter to syria. I thought the ok and joy in the Stream Research shows that exposure to reading material early in a childs life has both an immediate i know time 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 cough summarizes where things are in the us and numbers are improving but hardly where they should be today me 3 authors were 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 an environment 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 beat successor and 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 to much other stories that kids are 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 have been joe case before so matthew the every show i gave us to make an animated show it failed that we shy people on the kicks out of faith because i just dug it out recently just see what their reaction ross said scottie down the pitch is a beautiful that must have been hostile to traction but here was a 75000. 00 thats not an allegation fell. People in. My model 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 pull 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 its very still see their mom is the queen so i mean just try to get as much in there as we could while the people of the sea wanted to stay if they spend money and they supported the textile and then you know publishing 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 we just kind of 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 to better work that being a random house on the route that your 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 a partner for the book yet but you know 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 to certain books to read you see like whole section there that are devoted to kind of africanamerican picture books you know many of you here its in our 3 yeah yeah im lucky i want to show people how little girls react to your book is that ok i can give you some surviving member of the moment say they just laugh and have a cows look at this but some of them look ahead elf lets take a look. Just like in the good that was going on i was. Shelling 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 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 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 kiran 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 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 population 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 ive been asked you says there arent 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 writer swan 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 try 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 do you 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 mean is powerful always and jelly sala 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 platform that do that really really well lets celebrate the volley is one of our perennial favorites that really shares how be values a multifaith holiday and thats a story thats not often told in the Mainstream Media also i think super sad 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 too for he 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 campaigns 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 in their bookshelves and that were able to get the our books into the hands of the kids in their classrooms tell us about the faith that 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 die and the response has been phenomenal weve won 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 by 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. A moment i have see themselves so i just want to show everybody the picture that the twitter profile page just bought basis at put up baby say 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 take so that i can only my daughter i knew i knew it i know there was some family relation but. How do you get me out of this company in very reasonable rates that for us she took a picture thank you very much for joining us here on this thing take a. There has been no getting pageant on there which means children go how access to books that are trying to recover and fun so serious time provisional doesnt work think weve progressed over 250 tackles in 7 different languages so it is to teach children how to begin and also have to put in lovers willing for us this means producing goods 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. 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 park new jersey growing up i love the arts i love acting i love drama club but i never saw myself but resentment anywhere and it was always upsetting to me and i call 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 a sort 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. Which means that you are now a role model are you comfortable with taking not only i am not comfortable taking on the old 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 blueeyed bomb here 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 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 but. I dont know why. They dont go down. You know thats a problem with diversity there is a difference between diversity and inclusion and diversity sometimes isnt always sincere so its kind of like heres one 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