Ms. Piggle Wiggle and Nancy Drew got me hooked on books in elementary school. My teacher read them aloud to us. I loved when Ms. Piggle Wiggle put the whammy on the little boy that disobeyed his parents and how one Nancy Drew was brilliant enough to solve mysteries versus the two Hardy Boys (her male counterparts in a separate books series).
But then I got my period. I was 10-years-old at the time, and the stories with the cute little “diddies” where magic powers was a cure-all was not enough anymore. Oh no.
Enter Judy Blume and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. My school issued all 5th-grade girls a copy during the annual “Girl Talk.” I fell in love with Judy Blume. She always kept it real in her books. But one question always loomed – where are the black people? Sadly for me not in books.
One day, my friend had a book on her desk with a picture of a black girl in braids on the cover. “Where’d you get that?” I asked. “From the school library. It’s Alice Childress’ book Rainbow Jordan. It’s good, gurl,” she said. I was 13-years old then. For the first time I was reading a character who talked like me (“Wazzup?”) and who had kinky hair that needed a Motions Relaxer every six weeks like me, and who lived in a neighborhood with other black people…like me. It revolutionized my life. Suddenly there was a glimmer of significance. But the battle was far from over.
Twenty-five years later, there are still little black girls out there reading and enjoying stories with characters that don’t look like them, and they, too, are asking, “Where are the black people?” In 2006, there are more black authors writing young black characters than back in the day. Take for example… moi. Yet I still struggle to find a place at the literary table, often feeling like the new girl standing in front of a table with my lunch tray and the popular girls are telling me, “Sorry, this seat’s taken. And so is that one and that one,” pointing to a round of empty chairs. Do I walk off defeated, accepting their word as the gospel? Or do I sit down anyway?
There is room for me at the table and there is room for my stories. There is room for black characters to rub shoulders with white characters through the dust jackets on bookshelves. We are present and significant in both literature and life. - Alexis
Alexis Rhone is a talented and amazing writer and
a Girls For A Change Coach in Phoenix, Arizona
What would you like to change in your community? What I would like to change is that I don't want any killing or shooting. - Erendira, 11yrs old. 
What would you like to change in your community? More equality towards women. I want domestic violence to stop. I want discrimination against women to stop. I want to not worry about walking down the street at night. - Fred, 15 years old. 
