Linsey Davis has done it again. The ABC News anchor and New York Times bestselling author just released her sixth children’s book, and this one made me cry. And no, I’m not afraid to admit that. Her beyond-moving story has themes of bravery and asking for what you need, and I think it’s brave to ask for a tissue!
Davis’ new book, Girls of the World, is an empowering picture book for young girls that was released on Super Tuesday. A fact that didn’t pass Davis by. When talking to SheKnows, the first thing Davis touched on is the astounding fact that the United States has never had a female president. Despite considering ourselves to be an “advanced nation,” so many other countries are “way ahead of us” when it comes to female leadership in politics and business.
“And so it feels like we still haven’t cracked those ultimate glass ceilings in many cases,” Davis tells SheKnowsexclusively. “And that starts at a young age where they’re often just subliminal messages for young girls as far as the boxes that they should be in and the expectations of what they can be and how big their dream should be.”
In Girls of the World, Davis is planting all new subliminal messages. In each rhyming stanza and each beautifully illustrated page full of diverse characters, Davis is spreading messages that young girls have “unlimited potential” and that they are “brave and strong and courageous and bold.”
“These are all words that we find in the book,” she says. “And often, these are words that are associated with boys and we see what happens when women grow up and they can be labeled as too ambitious, too bossy. And quite often you don’t have that negative connotation when it’s when it applies to men.”
Not only is it an important book for young girls, but it’s an important one for young boys too. It can be the start of a conversation about inherent inequity. When Davis first read it to her 9-year-old son Ayden — who she always uses as a litmus test for her books — he asked, “Why don’t you do one about boys?”
“Because you guys get this affirmation every day,” Davis says truthfully. “Boys are constantly affirmed.”
It’s young girls who need the affirmations andbooks like Davis’ that say things like, “Let’s ‘Hooray!’ the heroes that we will become” and “Let’s reach for the stars. Let’s go beyond great.”
In this sixth book of hers — following One Big Heart, The World Is Awake for Little Ones, Stay This Way Forever for Little Ones, How High is Heaven?, and The Smallest Spot of a Dot — Linsey says she hopes to inspire girls to “believe that they can do what they want to do.”
“I hope that it inspires girls not to let anyone else squash their dream,” she says. “…That we can just change the narrative about girls and the boxes they belong in.”
“And if I can just know that I’ve changed just a handful of girls and potentially changed their trajectory, I’m a happy woman.”
Natural hair is beautiful, and these books teach little girls to love their curls from a young age.
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