Speaker 1: The term activist, to me is really important that we
Speaker 1: also use the you know words like social problems over
Speaker 1: because I want people to know that it's not like
Speaker 1: a position you can get hired for. That your unique
Speaker 1: experience is what can make you an activist. What makes
Speaker 1: me an activist, and what makes so many other amazing
Speaker 1: people in my generation activists is their ability to combine
Speaker 1: their own personal training and education and research with their
Speaker 1: personal experiences and passions. That was Marley Dais and given
Speaker 1: all she's accomplished, it's hard to believe she's only sixteen,
Speaker 1: the youngest member of Forbes thirty Under thirty list. Marley
Speaker 1: is an activist, author, and TV host. She first came
Speaker 1: to national attention for her campaign hashtag one thousand Black
Speaker 1: Girl Books, which she started when she was only ten
Speaker 1: years old. I'm a Land Vervier and this is Seneca's
Speaker 1: one Women to Hear. We are bringing you one hundred
Speaker 1: of the world's most inspiring and history making women you
Speaker 1: need to hear. Marley started hashtag one thousand Black Girl
Speaker 1: Books with a mission to collect and donate a thousand
Speaker 1: books that feature black girls as the main character. The
Speaker 1: campaign passed its goal in just its first few months,
Speaker 1: and so far she's collected more than thirteen thousand Black
Speaker 1: Girl Books. Today, Marley is an ambassador for the National
Speaker 1: Education Association and the host of the Netflix show Bookmarks,
Speaker 1: where celebrities and artists read and discussed children's books by
Speaker 1: black authors. She's also author of the autobiography Marley Das
Speaker 1: Gets It Done and so can you listen and learn
Speaker 1: why Marley Das is one of Seneca's one hundred Women
Speaker 1: to Hear. I'm so delighted to be here today with
Speaker 1: Marley Dias, the founder of one thousand Black Girl Books.
Speaker 1: She's an activist and author and so much more, and
Speaker 1: we are just really thrilled to be able to engage
Speaker 1: in this conversation with her. So Marley, welcome, Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. You first gained national attention with a
Speaker 1: thousand Black Girl Books, which you launched when you were
Speaker 1: just ten years old, and that was back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen. Explain the campaign, how you got started,
Speaker 1: why did you do this, what was your motivation? We're
Speaker 1: eager to hear. So I, like you said, um when
Speaker 1: I've been a really avid reader for my whole life,
Speaker 1: and my parents have encouraged me to use reading as
Speaker 1: a way to gain more vocabulary, to entertain myself as
Speaker 1: an only child, UM, and to do the things I can,
Speaker 1: you know, in my everyday life, to learn more about
Speaker 1: the world around me, and to have fun. UM. And
Speaker 1: I had to really diverse and still have a very
Speaker 1: diverse library through you know, the resources of my parents
Speaker 1: and their ability to buy me any books I want
Speaker 1: or or I asked for. UM. But when I went
Speaker 1: to school, even though I live in a fairly affluent district,
Speaker 1: we did not have diverse books. And our teachers and
Speaker 1: educators were not able to make an active and take
Speaker 1: an active step in including the stories of black girls
Speaker 1: and diverse stories in general. So I noticed kind of
Speaker 1: the difference between my home library and my school's library,
Speaker 1: and I talked to my mom about it, and I
Speaker 1: and I said that there was a problem that somebody
Speaker 1: to be done, because if so many young black girls
Speaker 1: like me are going to school thinking that this is
Speaker 1: going to be the way they learned about the world,
Speaker 1: about history and feel educated and understood, we have to
Speaker 1: make sure that our schools are backing up those claims
Speaker 1: with the books they assigned, the videos they show, and
Speaker 1: the way they teach students. So after complaining to my mom,
Speaker 1: she just basically told me, what are you going to
Speaker 1: do about it? Because she's not a student, she can,
Speaker 1: you know, just buy whatever books she wants and encouraged
Speaker 1: me to think beyond my self, UM and to do
Speaker 1: things that could help others. So I decided I was
Speaker 1: going to collect one thousand books where black girls were
Speaker 1: the main characters, and I have now donated over thirteen
Speaker 1: thousand books. Are collected thirteen thousand books and donated more
Speaker 1: than half two communities across the world. It's so visionary
Speaker 1: of you and such a real strong commitment to helping
Speaker 1: others at a very young age. So you undertook this plan,
Speaker 1: you must have confronted some challenges or hurdles that you
Speaker 1: had to overcome to get a thousand black girl books
Speaker 1: off the ground. Can you tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about how it went and what you learned along the way. Well,
Speaker 1: this process has been really enjoyable and difficult at sometimes
Speaker 1: UM and one of the things my mom and I
Speaker 1: often discussed and talk about. My mom runs a foundation
Speaker 1: for women and girls called the Grassroots Community Foundation, and
Speaker 1: oftentimes she is she runs a leadership can't for young
Speaker 1: black girls, and the way in order to get people
Speaker 1: to donate and support, often to black initiatives and black work,
Speaker 1: is that we have to look like we're in pain,
Speaker 1: that we're an absolute strife and absolute misery. And it's
Speaker 1: very difficult for people to understand that even middle class, wealthy,
Speaker 1: you know, people that have all types of resources that
Speaker 1: are black, need these need these helps and supports. So
Speaker 1: oftentimes you might see very popular campaigns that are fighting
Speaker 1: world hunger and poverty, and the only way you can
Speaker 1: get people to donate is if these kids look extremely
Speaker 1: sick and unkempt and any of these things that might
Speaker 1: be true or not. So it can be really hard
Speaker 1: for people to understand that racism exists in so many
Speaker 1: different forms. There's so many different kinds of people, and
Speaker 1: although I have more resources than other kids in the country,
Speaker 1: it's really important that we make sure that all kinds
Speaker 1: of people are able to live equitable lives and they
Speaker 1: don't have to be at these extreme lows or extreme
Speaker 1: highs to get resources or to give resources. So I
Speaker 1: think it was really hard at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: campaign to encourage people to donate because many people think
Speaker 1: that once there is a presence of books, it's automatically
Speaker 1: a gift. But if these books are spreading mistruth, that
Speaker 1: are spreading stereotypes that are not edgy hating, there is
Speaker 1: much less of a gift in giving these stories to
Speaker 1: young kids. So once it becomes kind of a nuance
Speaker 1: issue where I don't necessarily have a kind of difficult
Speaker 1: and tragic story to share with people, it can be
Speaker 1: really hard for people to understand that they should still help.
Speaker 1: But there's still something to give to someone who has
Speaker 1: some things but not everything. So did you personally gather
Speaker 1: the books or did you have a network that was
Speaker 1: engaged in this? What was your process like? So our
Speaker 1: process was really through my mom's foundation, as I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: the Grassroot Community Foundation. Um, she has an office space
Speaker 1: and she actually ran a leadership She runs a leadership
Speaker 1: camp called SuperCamp. As I said, that has you know,
Speaker 1: kind of other young girls my age training and launching
Speaker 1: social action projects. Although mine is currently the most notable,
Speaker 1: there are several others, several others, but I was the
Speaker 1: first one to you know, kind of start this. So
Speaker 1: we would send out, you know, uh information on social
Speaker 1: media about what's going on in children's publishing. What how
Speaker 1: you can help by donating books or you know, financially
Speaker 1: supporting the campaign UM and then we would receive books
Speaker 1: that were shipped into the Grassroots office where my mom works,
Speaker 1: so we would have the books, We catalog them, we
Speaker 1: log them, we write down how many we get, and
Speaker 1: we try to keep at least two of every copy
Speaker 1: of book because we like to have the idea that
Speaker 1: we know we have one of the we could say
Speaker 1: we have one of the largest collections of black girl
Speaker 1: books and UM. So that's why some of the books
Speaker 1: that we have are not They're not all donated because
Speaker 1: we want to keep and protect these stories, especially for
Speaker 1: self published authors. So once we receive the books, we
Speaker 1: count them, and then we look at emails, letters and
Speaker 1: messages on Instagram or other social media platforms from schools
Speaker 1: and teachers and uh any districts that are interested in
Speaker 1: partnering with us UM. And that's often through the work
Speaker 1: of my mom because I'm still in school. But we're
Speaker 1: always looking to make sure that we're working in areas
Speaker 1: that are both you know, maybe homogeneous black spaces, homogeneous
Speaker 1: white spaces, really diverse spaces, and making sure that people
Speaker 1: understand that diversity needs to come from, you know, both
Speaker 1: diverse communities themselves that are sharing their own stories and
Speaker 1: for munities that are a majority of one race or
Speaker 1: one experience, so they can learn so much more about
Speaker 1: the world around them. Such an important thing to be doing. Now.
Speaker 1: You're only sixteen now, but you've already been featured in
Speaker 1: Time magazine and Forbes. You've got a Netflix show on
Speaker 1: which you have celebrities reading children's books. Allowed you've published
Speaker 1: an autobiography, and these are just a few of your accomplishments.
Speaker 1: By the time you turned sixteen, When did you first
Speaker 1: realize you were an activist? Where did this inspiration come from?
Speaker 1: What's your earliest memory of trying to make a difference
Speaker 1: in the world. Was it back when you were ten
Speaker 1: or can you go back even farther. I think this
Speaker 1: is such a fun question because the word activists is
Speaker 1: really interesting to me because I have never I call
Speaker 1: myself an activist because people understand what that means now,
Speaker 1: maybe just through social media, are the way that times
Speaker 1: are changing. But when my mom, you know, like she
Speaker 1: was actually still raising me, but when she was raising me,
Speaker 1: really when I was really young, she never used that
Speaker 1: word with me. Even with people like Angela Davis or
Speaker 1: Malcolm X. The world was always revolutionary, and I actually
Speaker 1: was not very familiar with the term activists, but it
Speaker 1: is often used, you know, to describe this work, because
Speaker 1: what I do is not necessarily of that same scale
Speaker 1: or anything of the sort. But the term activist, to me,
Speaker 1: is really important that we also use the you know
Speaker 1: words like social problem solver, because I want people to
Speaker 1: know that it's not like a position you can get
Speaker 1: hired for, that your unique experience is what can make
Speaker 1: you an activist. And sometimes when I use that word,
Speaker 1: especially around young kids, they think that they somehow need
Speaker 1: to have like a resume and all these like you
Speaker 1: know formalities. Um, But what makes me an activist, and
Speaker 1: what makes so many other amazing people in my generation
Speaker 1: activists is their ability to combine their own personal training
Speaker 1: and education and research with their personal experiences and passions.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know that that's really one thousand
Speaker 1: Black Girl Books is my first experience of me being
Speaker 1: solely kind of by myself, with just a collaboration of
Speaker 1: my mom and her foundation working on something. But through
Speaker 1: the Graphic Community Foundation my mom runs, I've been working
Speaker 1: with her on several projects where she has healthcare initiatives
Speaker 1: called Roots Rock Run, where there's a yearly run in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to help make sure that kids understand the importance
Speaker 1: of nutrition and you know, breaking down some of the
Speaker 1: institutional barriers for healthcare and healthy lives for black people
Speaker 1: in poor communities. She also works on things like Give
Speaker 1: Thanks to campaign in Newark, New Jersey that is focused
Speaker 1: on giving away turkeys and fresh fruits and vegetables. So
Speaker 1: I'd often watched my mom be an activist, but I
Speaker 1: never would describe my mom as an activist. I would
Speaker 1: say that she was as a problem solver. She just
Speaker 1: did what other people were thinking about, what they were
Speaker 1: complaining about, and she took her time. Maybe it's because
Speaker 1: she's a sociologist and a professor, but she has the
Speaker 1: ability to command people in a way that I really admire,
Speaker 1: but also a way to listen to them before she
Speaker 1: decides to do that commanding, before she decides to be
Speaker 1: the leader, before she decides to you know, stand up
Speaker 1: for something that she's really willing to hear people out
Speaker 1: for who they are, and to never put her own
Speaker 1: perspect active or idea into a project before somebody else's need.
Speaker 1: So it really had come from my mom and just
Speaker 1: kind of being her sidekick for a long time where
Speaker 1: she would take me to these things that I didn't
Speaker 1: have a babysitter, um, and just watching her do things
Speaker 1: that were really cool and impacted the way I saw
Speaker 1: my own potential. There's a really important lesson and what
Speaker 1: you just said, I think for parents and children just
Speaker 1: listening to you, So your mom was clearly an inspiration. Yes,
Speaker 1: she always is. I'm I'm always impressed by her, and
Speaker 1: she recently just published a book called parent Like It Matters,
Speaker 1: How to raise joyful, change making girls, which is really
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of her because I've watched her go
Speaker 1: through this process during a pandemic, during all this you know, craziness, um,
Speaker 1: And I'm always, you know, super proud of her. And
Speaker 1: I feel like now that I'm older, I can root
Speaker 1: for her in a different way because I see more
Speaker 1: of the challenges she has to overcome than I did
Speaker 1: when I was, you know, seven or eight. So you
Speaker 1: saw your mom as a problem solver. I think you
Speaker 1: see yourself from what you said, solving problems as well
Speaker 1: making a difference for other people. Does this sense of
Speaker 1: trying to make a difference. Is that a strong influence
Speaker 1: on you. Yes, it has a very strong influence on me,
Speaker 1: and it's honestly, it's stronger on my mom because almost
Speaker 1: every day after I do online school, I must complain
Speaker 1: to her about something and she always wants me to
Speaker 1: take it to the next level. And to be honest,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of great ideas I've had or
Speaker 1: problems I've seen that I might have shut down just
Speaker 1: because I'm tired and I feel like I'm working on
Speaker 1: something really big and I get super stressed. But you know,
Speaker 1: my mom has this ability where she and she often
Speaker 1: asked me the question, what are you going to do
Speaker 1: about it? Not just about one thousand Black Girl books
Speaker 1: that I had a kind of racially insensitive interaction at
Speaker 1: my job and an interaction at school, and she told
Speaker 1: me that there are probably other girls like this, other
Speaker 1: girls that are hearing these kinds of things, and you
Speaker 1: need to stop those types of behaviors. And she's often
Speaker 1: pushing me to do more, and I try my best,
Speaker 1: but I think it's really important that I get that
Speaker 1: encouragement anyway, that even if I'm not pursuing something, she's
Speaker 1: willing to listen to me. When I notice a pattern
Speaker 1: in my school and giving me the words to identify
Speaker 1: by those patterns of when things are problematic or they're hurtful,
Speaker 1: or maybe I'm doing something hurtful. So she was a
Speaker 1: guide in many ways as well, sort of moving you
Speaker 1: on to the next thing, or don't you, morrelly see
Speaker 1: this problem ahead of you, maybe you can do something
Speaker 1: about that. I think that's a that's a wonderful way
Speaker 1: to be an inspiration as well. Now I know, and
Speaker 1: you've described how a thousand Black girl books gathers books,
Speaker 1: how you influence other girls. But what do you see
Speaker 1: as it's greater mission? You've alluded to that a good bit.
Speaker 1: Are there other projects that are currently underway as part
Speaker 1: of this? Um? I don't know. I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: answer that, you know, I can't answer that, But I
Speaker 1: have I have some things, you know, in my head
Speaker 1: that I've been thinking about. But UM, the larger thing,
Speaker 1: the thing at large, and the goal at large for
Speaker 1: one thousand Black girl books is really true things. Um,
Speaker 1: it's for the humanity of black girls to be respected
Speaker 1: through the media that has created about us, by us,
Speaker 1: for us, and for audiences that don't look like us.
Speaker 1: So that is diverse books. It is you know, movies
Speaker 1: that are accurate and and they're portraying the Black girls experiences.
Speaker 1: It is an education UM and business people that lead
Speaker 1: businesses UM. And then the second part is for all
Speaker 1: kids and all young people to value the experience of
Speaker 1: learning about the world around them, to be interested in training,
Speaker 1: to be interested in social science, to be interested in
Speaker 1: history UM. And then to use those interests in whatever
Speaker 1: patterns they discover about the world around us, and try
Speaker 1: to stop them, to try to make things better, to
Speaker 1: try to include their own interests and goals and desires
Speaker 1: and do something that helps others and specifically the communities
Speaker 1: around them and the people that they love. Oh that's
Speaker 1: beautifully said. And you're clearly wise beyond your years, certainly
Speaker 1: in in what you're doing and the way you articulated
Speaker 1: senecas one hundred Women to hear. Will be back after
Speaker 1: the short break. So I mentioned in the context of
Speaker 1: the many things you've done at a very young age,
Speaker 1: I might add your new Netflix show bookmarks. Now I
Speaker 1: know that you have celebrities like Misty Copeland and Lapite,
Speaker 1: and you ango read children's books allowed you are both
Speaker 1: the host and you are the executive producer, So tell
Speaker 1: us about Bookmarks, What is its school, what do you
Speaker 1: see as its mission? And what's it like to be
Speaker 1: an executive producer of a show that has such powerful
Speaker 1: people appear on it. It makes me feel really really
Speaker 1: grateful for you know, the things that I've been able
Speaker 1: to do and the people that have trusted in my belief,
Speaker 1: in my perspective or wanted to hear from me. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think I probably said listening or hearing like
Speaker 1: ten million times because it's really important, I think, to
Speaker 1: working well with adults and with young people. UM. But
Speaker 1: Netflix reached out to me an interest of just seeing
Speaker 1: what I thought about what kinds of books, what stories
Speaker 1: were important for kids to know more about. And I
Speaker 1: had compiled a list and talked to who would become
Speaker 1: my directors and producers at the time, but I didn't
Speaker 1: really I didn't know of what book Marks is going
Speaker 1: to be. And then they kind of mentioned and pitched
Speaker 1: to me the idea that I would be hosting the show, UH,
Speaker 1: and I would be able to introduce these books how
Speaker 1: come up with the questions And they had actually worked
Speaker 1: with a really amazing UM researcher named Dr Kevin Clark,
Speaker 1: who came up with the curriculum for Bookmarks, which is
Speaker 1: available on our website. So they had kind of the
Speaker 1: idea in mind, and the idea that's really important to
Speaker 1: me is that there is a really interesting way to
Speaker 1: educate virtually and to engage really young kids and their
Speaker 1: parents in conversations about who they are and how they
Speaker 1: see the world. But oftentimes when young kids act out
Speaker 1: or they say something that sounds crazy, it's because they
Speaker 1: don't have the vocabulary and the understanding to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: to talk to their parents about. Maybe they see something
Speaker 1: that's racist and they don't know what to call it,
Speaker 1: or they feel uncomfortable in their their bodies and they're
Speaker 1: growing up and they're scared. So book Marks is really
Speaker 1: about giving kids the language and the sense of comfort
Speaker 1: to be who they are um and for kids that
Speaker 1: are not black, to learn more about the kind of
Speaker 1: universal struggles and to value the difference of all people.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes when I talk or my campaign gets described,
Speaker 1: people often use the word or phrase regardless of race,
Speaker 1: and I find that phrase to be very problematic because
Speaker 1: there is no way to ignore race and to ignore
Speaker 1: racial politics and to ignore white supremacy, and if we
Speaker 1: value and critically think about those things, we can think
Speaker 1: of including race and conversations as to be great benefits
Speaker 1: to our society. Um. So this is really about including
Speaker 1: race in those conversations and not making racial injustice or
Speaker 1: any of these difficult topics feel inaccessible to kids because
Speaker 1: they experience that same kind of racism. They experience those
Speaker 1: same kind of stereotypes. And if we don't give young
Speaker 1: kids the vocabulary to express when something is wrong and
Speaker 1: something is right, or teach them about the way that
Speaker 1: the world works, they will then become adult that are
Speaker 1: scared to communicate what is happening to them. So Bookmarks
Speaker 1: is about giving kids and parents the words to really
Speaker 1: talk about things that matter. Um. And it was such
Speaker 1: a pleasure for me to do that and to be
Speaker 1: a part of it, and I really hope that we're
Speaker 1: able to continue it in the future. So how does
Speaker 1: Bookmarks work? If I were to tune into it, I
Speaker 1: would see a celebrity reading a certain book allowed and
Speaker 1: then is there an exchange that goes on in a conversation.
Speaker 1: So the way that Bookmarks works is that I start
Speaker 1: off by introducing the name of the book, the title
Speaker 1: and kind of what the theme is. Then it will
Speaker 1: you know, sweep over into an author sitting in a
Speaker 1: very pretty set with an animated background of actually the
Speaker 1: book and the pages turning of the book so you
Speaker 1: can see it really big instead of them turning it around. Um,
Speaker 1: and we have really funny people like Tiffany Hattish and
Speaker 1: Caleb McLaughlin and Marse Martin and Lucid and the Ago
Speaker 1: like you said, and uh, and then after they read
Speaker 1: the book, they look, you know, straight to camera and
Speaker 1: they ask a question. So it's maybe why do you
Speaker 1: love your hair? Who are some people that you really admire?
Speaker 1: Do you feel that you are enough? So those aren't
Speaker 1: the exact questions, but you know, just giving parents away
Speaker 1: to maybe learn more about their kids, learner about what
Speaker 1: they just read and saw and how that affects them.
Speaker 1: So the show you know, wraps up with that, but
Speaker 1: it's really about the introduction and seeing a bright face
Speaker 1: like mine, the you know, immersive and really hilarious storytelling
Speaker 1: of some of these authors, and then a question that
Speaker 1: makes them still think about these stories after they are
Speaker 1: done hearing them very good. So it seems that your generation, Marley,
Speaker 1: at least it's my experience and observation, is very activist
Speaker 1: and engaged, very committed to really trying to have an
Speaker 1: imprint and impact in some some way. That makes a difference.
Speaker 1: So among young women in your age group, are there
Speaker 1: any who inspire you among my age group? I think
Speaker 1: the number one person that inspires me among my age
Speaker 1: group is my my dear friend Marse Martin. She is
Speaker 1: She actually executive produced and started a movie called Little
Speaker 1: with Lisa ray Um, and I will always look up
Speaker 1: to h and see her as someone that you know,
Speaker 1: has just taught me so much about the world. She's
Speaker 1: an actress and she starts in the show Blackish, and
Speaker 1: I remember meeting her originally for a reading party I
Speaker 1: was doing with the former Obama administration's Department of Education
Speaker 1: focused on bringing black kids from inner cities of d
Speaker 1: C to come get free books and to meet the
Speaker 1: author of a book called One Crazy Summer. So I
Speaker 1: had reached out to her family and team as someone
Speaker 1: I wanted to host with me, and she just encouraged
Speaker 1: me to be more of myself, to be more funny,
Speaker 1: to show more of who I am, because as an actor,
Speaker 1: you know, you do that automatically. But as someone like me,
Speaker 1: who you know, is talking about like facts and you know,
Speaker 1: things that make people sometimes stressed or uncomfortable, I felt
Speaker 1: like it was going to be too hard. UM. But
Speaker 1: she's always encouraged me to be more of myself and
Speaker 1: she is just always been really great to me as
Speaker 1: a family, as a support system. UM. And she was
Speaker 1: the first executive producer I ever saw that was a teenager,
Speaker 1: and she's the youngest executive producer I'm pretty sure of
Speaker 1: a major film like that. So she honestly pushed me. UM,
Speaker 1: just kind of seeing through her success that maybe I
Speaker 1: could do it too, and that my opinion could be
Speaker 1: valuable in a conversation like this. So she's been a
Speaker 1: mentor in some ways. To you, it sounds like, do
Speaker 1: you have advice as a result of learnings you've gotten
Speaker 1: that you give or could give to young people who
Speaker 1: want to have impact the way you've had impact. I
Speaker 1: think the best advice I can give to young people,
Speaker 1: specifically teenagers, and this is kind of coming from a
Speaker 1: critique of myself, is that you know, as a young
Speaker 1: person that has strong ideas and experiences some success, you
Speaker 1: can feel very prideful and that in the fact that
Speaker 1: you've gotten something right and that you know everything, and
Speaker 1: that is very, very far from the truth. UM. And
Speaker 1: I think one thing that's really helped me is my
Speaker 1: mom's encouragement of me to, you know, look at the
Speaker 1: world before I existed, To look at the world before phones,
Speaker 1: to look at the world in times that are you know,
Speaker 1: recorded history and have no photographs and no videos, and
Speaker 1: to try to just think critically and think harder about
Speaker 1: you know, the ways the ways that you know, my
Speaker 1: campaign or my issue has existed for centuries before I've existed, um,
Speaker 1: And just doing the work to learn more about the
Speaker 1: patterns that exist in our history. And if you can
Speaker 1: identify those patterns through you know, large bands of times,
Speaker 1: you'll be able to identify the patterns in your school,
Speaker 1: in your community, and in your family. So I think
Speaker 1: for teenagers especially, you should always be looking to do
Speaker 1: things that you care about and that you're passionate about.
Speaker 1: But also remembering that even though this this work is
Speaker 1: always going to be centered a little bit through your
Speaker 1: own personal experience, that there are many, many, many other
Speaker 1: people that are going through similar things, and if we
Speaker 1: look back in history, we can find out how they
Speaker 1: overcame those things, what they could have done, and the
Speaker 1: ways that you can maybe help others by learning more.
Speaker 1: Such good advice. So what's ahead from Marley Das? I mean,
Speaker 1: what will the twenty five year old Marley be doing?
Speaker 1: You've done so much, uh and you're only sixteen? What
Speaker 1: will you like? Do you have any aspirations? Particular aspiration?
Speaker 1: I think you know. I'm I'm interested in going to college,
Speaker 1: and I've I've been I think, fairly vocal about that
Speaker 1: that I don't want to, you know, take away from
Speaker 1: I've been. I think out of the there are many
Speaker 1: activists like me that are able to do this, and
Speaker 1: they end up leaving school or not staying in school,
Speaker 1: or doing homeschool. And I've been very adamant about staying
Speaker 1: in public school because I started this from my experience
Speaker 1: of public school, and I felt that I wanted to
Speaker 1: just stay with my community and see how it changes
Speaker 1: and see how it evolves. And maybe that's been too
Speaker 1: stressful for my mom and my dad, but I think
Speaker 1: it's been worth it in the end. Um And I'm
Speaker 1: interested in going to college and I don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm going to study yet, but I clearly like to
Speaker 1: write and I like to read, and I don't know
Speaker 1: how I can mix you know, my interest in social
Speaker 1: science with that. But UM, after college, I think it's
Speaker 1: really just learning more about how I can, you know,
Speaker 1: help somebody else succeed or be a resource to new people. UM.
Speaker 1: And one thousand Black Girl Books is you know, It's
Speaker 1: something that I started when I was able to, you know,
Speaker 1: be around my parents. And I still obviously live with
Speaker 1: my parents, but once I've moved out, I think things
Speaker 1: like this will evolve definitely because of the benefits we
Speaker 1: have of you know, my mom is like right next
Speaker 1: to me in the door over versus if I live
Speaker 1: somewhere different. UM. But we we've always talked about and
Speaker 1: I've been I think I've been fairly vocal about how
Speaker 1: things will evolve and change after I finished high school.
Speaker 1: But the message is always very strong for me that
Speaker 1: I will continue to fight for justice, equity and an understanding. UM.
Speaker 1: And when I go to college, I think I'll leave
Speaker 1: feeling much more strong in that understanding. That's also very
Speaker 1: well said. And I think you're right to be grounded
Speaker 1: in a very good education. UM. That will make you
Speaker 1: even more effective at what you want to do in
Speaker 1: the way you've just described, because clearly you have the
Speaker 1: capacity and I can only imagine where you'll be not
Speaker 1: just a but well beyond. So you know, it gives
Speaker 1: me hope to talk to you. Really, you're clearly an optimist,
Speaker 1: and I wonder what particularly gives you hope right now.
Speaker 1: You know we've gone through a lot of a oil
Speaker 1: in our country, that we have a lot of needs
Speaker 1: that will continue in many ways. But what gives you hope?
Speaker 1: That is a tricky truth question because I've had a
Speaker 1: very long week this week and I lost. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, there's I think every day it can be
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit more difficult and you overcome,
Speaker 1: you know, your fears of hopelessness or your pessimism. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think that hopefully once I'm older, once I'm
Speaker 1: older and after you know, the world continues to change,
Speaker 1: that there will be more people like me. And I'm
Speaker 1: just and I think there are, but I'm really really
Speaker 1: hopeful that I will be I will never be the
Speaker 1: last of any young person to do something like this,
Speaker 1: and I hope that. I think, but every time I
Speaker 1: do an opportunity like this where I have I'm not
Speaker 1: a podcast or doing an interview that I you know,
Speaker 1: make people smile and make them feel happy and comfortable,
Speaker 1: and that they've learned something from me so that they
Speaker 1: bring other young people into shows like this or opportunities
Speaker 1: like this. So one thing that gives me hope is
Speaker 1: that when I feel like I've been able to connect
Speaker 1: with someone who I don't think would always be interested
Speaker 1: in hearing my story you or do something that I
Speaker 1: hope means a lot to other people, it makes me
Speaker 1: feel like there will be more young people in the
Speaker 1: future that can have more safe space to talk about
Speaker 1: how they feel to help others um and that if
Speaker 1: I do something good right now, it could hopefully help
Speaker 1: someone later. You know, these conversations go all too fast,
Speaker 1: and this one has gone much too fast. But I
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough, Marley Das for the inspiration that
Speaker 1: you represent and for all the good you've done already.
Speaker 1: And I wish you well and I'm sure we're going
Speaker 1: to be hearing a lot more about you in the
Speaker 1: years to come. But as the founder of a thousand
Speaker 1: Black Girl books and your activism, even if you don't
Speaker 1: want to call it that, your problem solving, the work
Speaker 1: that you've already done. It's just been exceptionable and it
Speaker 1: has truly made a difference. So all the best to you,
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for being part of this
Speaker 1: conversation today. Thank you, I appreciate it so much and
Speaker 1: I'm very very happy to talk to you. If you've
Speaker 1: ever needed proof that there's a better tomorrow ahead, well
Speaker 1: you just heard it. Marley Dais is a true leader,
Speaker 1: a light for the future. Here are three things I
Speaker 1: took from that fascinating conversation. First, Marley wisely suggests that
Speaker 1: we need a fresh way to think about creating change
Speaker 1: in the world. Rather than praising people for being activists,
Speaker 1: she suggests we call them problem solvers. That we encourage
Speaker 1: people to use their education and experiences and interests not
Speaker 1: to just complain about a problem, but to actually solve it. Second,
Speaker 1: as Marley says, there's no way to ignore race and
Speaker 1: the problems of racial injustice. Only when we study and
Speaker 1: critically think about these issues can we begin to make
Speaker 1: progress toward a solution. Finally, we have to learn the
Speaker 1: lessons of the past in order to move forward. Marley
Speaker 1: cautions young people to work on the problems that they're
Speaker 1: passionate about, but also to remember that others have dealt
Speaker 1: with these topics before, and that there is much to learn.
Speaker 1: Tune in next Tuesday to hear about our next featured
Speaker 1: woman and discover why she's one of Seneca's one Women
Speaker 1: to Hear. Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a
Speaker 1: collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: with support from founding partner Pung. Have a great day.