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Movement #1000BlackGirlBooks, created by American Marley Dias, surpassed the initial goal and brought representative books to schools, libraries, and communities in different countries
The campaign created by a girl of just 11 years old gained international attention by addressing a problem observed daily within her own school: the lack of black protagonists in children’s books.
Conceived by American Marley Dias, the #1000BlackGirlBooks movement began with the goal of collecting a thousand works featuring black girls as protagonists.
However, the initiative quickly grew, mobilized readers, educators, and organizations, and gathered more than 15,000 books destined for different communities.
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Lack of black protagonists motivated the creation of the campaign
The idea arose after Marley noticed that the books recommended by the school repeatedly featured white boys and animals as main characters.
Although she enjoyed reading, the young girl found few stories in which girls like her were at the center of the narratives.
Faced with this, Marley shared her dissatisfaction with her mother, Janice Johnson Dias.
The mother then asked what her daughter could do to change that reality.
The answer came in November 2015, when Marley created the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign with the support of the GrassROOTS Community Foundation.
The initial goal was to collect a thousand children’s books with black girls as protagonists.
Campaign quickly surpassed the goal of a thousand books
The initiative began to receive support from families, teachers, writers, schools, and organizations interested in expanding literary diversity.
Additionally, Marley’s story gained space in newspapers, television programs, and international media outlets.
Consequently, donations began to arrive from different regions, causing the campaign to quickly surpass the initial goal.
The official project page reported that more than 13,000 books were collected during the movement’s expansion.
Subsequently, a profile published by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation indicated that the total had exceeded 15,000 copies.
Part of the works was sent to Jamaica, the country of origin of Marley’s mother.
Similarly, the campaign promoted actions aimed at schools in Ghana and encouraged debates about representation in other communities.
Black girls began to occupy the center of narratives
The movement did not intend to just increase the number of books available in schools and libraries.
Marley sought stories in which black girls appeared with dreams, families, challenges, and their own experiences.
Previously, these characters used to occupy secondary roles or simply did not appear in the books used in the classroom.
This absence made it difficult for many children to identify with the stories presented by educational institutions.
The campaign, therefore, turned an individual experience into a broader discussion about editorial diversity and the formation of school collections.
Additionally, the movement provided a database with about a thousand titles featuring black girls as protagonists.
The tool began to serve as a reference for families, teachers, librarians, and institutions interested in finding more representative works.
Young activist also became a writer
The campaign’s impact opened new paths for Marley Dias within education and the publishing world.
The young girl started participating in interviews, conferences, and meetings related to equality, literature, and cultural representation.
In 2018, Marley released the book Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!.
In the work, the activist presents her journey and encourages children and teenagers to develop projects capable of transforming their communities.
During that same period, the campaign had already collected more than 11,000 books, according to a survey released by PBS NewsHour.
A child’s complaint gained international reach
The creation of #1000BlackGirlBooks showed that an experience lived by a child can generate a large-scale mobilization.
A fundraising campaign, a hashtag, and a direct message helped Marley gather thousands of supporters.
The movement also demonstrated that representation does not just mean putting different characters on book covers.
Children need to find diverse protagonists living adventures, facing difficulties, making mistakes, and building their own stories.
Thousands of books later, the campaign remains associated with the idea that motivated Marley from the beginning.
Black girls do not need to remain in the background of narratives, as they can also be the main characters in books and in their own lives.
Do you believe that Brazilian schools offer enough books with protagonists from different backgrounds and realities?
