What travels we’ve had. So very awesome we are. Looking back on that day, it all only took a matter of seconds. And yet I’ve been writing about this particular moment in time for years. My mother wrote to me a letter on faith. It was “to be opened” when I was 14. Cameron, my ‘Punzie’, this is from my letter on faith to you…
There’s nothing cooler than my daughter schooling me on what’s trending in her world. She’s an aspiring animator and video editor, and as a biracial teen, she takes note when other multiracial teens are represented […]
Notice how I used the word “connect” over motivate or inspire? For those of us parents and educators in the field of teen advocacy, it may be easy to forget that before we can motivate and inspire teens to reach their potential we actually need to find connection with them first…
Growing up biracial, I’d learned that negative social perceptions of biracial, multiracial and transracially adopted children were largely impacting the growth, well-being, and resources available to members of our own community at home and in schools. Asserting that biracial children were more “mixed-up” than mixed-race only served to further perpetuate negative stereotypes about us…
The backlash against “drone” parenting stems from a view that these parents are using too much technology to monitor and keep tabs on their kids as opposed to taking the time for “real-life” interactions with them. This makes for older children and young adults who may be unable to have inner personal relationships outside of technology later on in life…
We may be able to shake our heads in momentary disgust at incidents like these, but when it happens to our own children, the task of reconciling overt racism and discrimination is far more difficult. So how do we best support our kids after encountering racial discrimination?
This is the first time (another origin of sorts) that Disney Animation has presented a “biracial” central character within any of its feature length animated films. While to some this shouldn’t seem like a big deal at all, to others – like my daughter, it is – because the power of film is that it represents a generation. If done well, a film will not only captivate audiences but it will effectively represent those audiences, providing them with an opportunity to see a bit of themselves up on the big screen too…
My role as gatekeeper to the “sugar express” isn’t made any easier by the ploys and strategic marketing campaigns by the sugary beverage industry pushing sugar-loaded beverages through educational incentives for parents and teens. As if the showdown for sweets at the check-out aisle with my teenager isn’t enough, Big Soda is also spinning the consumption of their products through scholarships and tuition toward higher education…
I’ve been waiting a lifetime for a film like Black or White. Growing up biracial in the mid-70s and late 80’s, I wondered when I would get to see myself up there […]
“I don’t want that to happen to me,” my 9-year-old son whimpered with tears streaming down his face. We’d just finished watching the documentary, Fed Up – which targets the childhood obesity epidemic and the role the food industry plays in marketing unhealthy foods to children. Motherhood provides a myriad of situations where I am faced with supplying just the right words to comfort my son in times of despair. However this time I was well equipped with what to tell him…
LITERATIGURL 