Quotes from Marley Dias

For kids in 2nd or 3rd grade, I would recommend the 'Dear America' series. Most of the stories in the 'Dear America' series, if they have black girls, are about them being enslaved, but they escape or do something really adventurous.

Anyone can change the world however they want for the better!

Black History Month could focus less on slavery and civil rights and more on the Harlem Renaissance and everything we have achieved. I want to know about the whole black experience.

I'm working to create a space where it feels easy to include and imagine black girls and make black girls like me the main characters of our lives.

I believe that feminism needs to teach more girls about how to make institutional changes and how to further engage men and boys into being our allies.

I think it is important to speak your mind. Tolerance of the ignorance sends the wrong message to kids.

In my class - in all fifth-grade classes - we were required to read 'classics,' books like 'Shiloh,' which is about a white boy and the dog he rescues. And 'Old Yeller,' which is about a white boy and the dog that rescues him. And 'Where the Red Fern Grows,' which is about a white boy and the two dogs he trains.

Yes, you can be passionate about school and fashion simultaneously. The two are not mutually exclusive - one doesn't cancel out the other.

It isn't always simple when America discovers you at 11 years old. Suddenly, it's not just homework that you're responsible for. Your name becomes a hashtag, and if you're lucky, you might even get invited on 'Ellen.'

I want young girls to know that their passions are important and that they should pursue them, regardless of whether or not they think that they'll be successful in terms of the mainstream.

I am slightly obsessed with beauty products.

Girls of color and young women need to be seen, heard, and valued. Schools can help make this happen by including our stories in the curriculum.

I love YouTube. You can find me there watching cat videos. I even like to watch other people play video games. I know it's a bit creepy, but it's my thing.

I am unapologetic about the need for social change, greater inclusion, and equity.

Social actions means that you find an issue in your community, and you create an initiative to solve that issue or to help people.

I have role models, but I take the attributes of the people that I admire, and I use them to create my best self.

The first black girl book I fell in love with was most likely 'Please, Puppy, Please' by Spike Lee and Tonya Lee.

It was the desire to see black girls and our experiences in the books that I was given to read at school that forced me to speak my truth. I launched #1000BlackGirlBooks, a book drive to collect the stories of women of color.

Innovation comes from, one, acknowledging yourself; two, studying and understanding the problem; and three, finding a solution.

All my friends can probably only name one publishing house, and that is Scholastic; they are everywhere. Scholastic is the perfect partner for spreading my message of diversity, inclusion, and social action.

I don't want to bring negative energy to myself, and if people feel one way about me, I don't want that changing how I feel or what I believe.

If I meet someone who's Native American and I don't know anything about indigenous people in New Jersey - which I kind of don't, which is not really good - I can learn more and more about their lives, and that makes me a more open person and a more accepting person.

Even though I wear glasses, I'm not just a mousy person who stays in my room - even though I do sometimes stay in my room and read.

Dressing in an androgynous way, mixing up the masculine and feminine, blurring those boundaries - I'm cool with that. No one should ever be limited by stereotypes of gender, just as no one should ever be limited by stereotypes of race.