“What makes you, you?”

This year, I will publish my first children’s picture book, along with my co-author, Dr. Lauren Wadsworth, in collaboration with our publisher Voodoolily Norway.

About this book:

Identity related topics such as Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Religion are constantly being discussed in today’s society. Increasingly we are encouraged to grapple with and discuss topics like privilege and marginalization across differences. However, there are too few resources to help parents, teachers and therapists begin to introduce and explore these topics with children. We, hope to address this gap through our book What Makes You, You?

As clinical psychologists with specialized training and expertise in issues of diversity, developmental psychology and mental health, we are uniquely qualified to write on the topic of identities, and our complex relationships with them. This book is designed to be an introduction for children about the many identities we each hold, along with a brief nod to the existence of privilege and marginalization in society. We have designed this book to allow children to find themselves in each page and hope it will be a validating and empowering book for children (and the adults reading the book) who hold marginalized identities. We hope to incorporate beautiful illustrations to show diversity and intersectionality within each page.

What need does the book fill?  

We are in the midst of a revolution of how openly and how often we discuss aspects of identity. Despite the iron being hot, there is a paucity of books to aid parents, teachers and therapists in introducing and discussing identities, systems of power and oppression, and the importance of embracing diversity. Building off of Dr. Pamela Hays’s ADDRESSING framework (an acronym), we introduce children to Age, Development (difficult and shaping life events), Disabilities, Religion, Ethnicity and Race, Sexuality, Socio Economic Status, Indigenous Heritage and Immigration Status, Nationality, and Gender expression. In the illustrations, children will see the intersection of each of these identities with other identities (e.g. showing people that have disabilities and are people of color; showing elderly people in same gender relationships, etc.). The diversity in illustrations is key to us, as we know there is a lack of diversity in current children’s books available and would like to provide pages where children who hold any marginalized identities can find and point to someone that reminds them of themselves. We believe this is crucial for healthy development in a world that suffers from systemic oppression and want to be a small part of empowering children to embrace differences, despite the stress that can be associated with them.

This book is designed to quickly and lightly introduce some of the many identities children hold, that are believed to be most relevant in their intersection with mental health. We think of this book as a “menu” that allows adults to briefly or deeply discuss each identity, as it is more or less relevant to what the child is experiencing in their lives. We think that introducing children to an adapted version of the ADDRESSING framework will provide children with a scaffolding as their insight into identities and the world around them develops. We will also include a “Note to Parents” with additional information and discussion questions to allow parents and teachers to both increase their own knowledge, and tailor the learning to the child(ren) they are engaging with. We firmly believe that the learning that this book offers can be deepened over time as children interact with the book again and again.

Below are some sketches prepared by our illustrator, Shima Zarei.