Colouring Non-White Chracters

I have an ongoing search for diverse representations of "princesses", as my daughter loves princesses but I want to challenge what society tells her a princess is/does/wears/looks like/is capable of, etc. Along this search, I found the Princess Truly series by Kelly Greenawalt and illustrated by Amariah Rauscher. She is Black, she is strong, she is independent.

A little while ago, my daughter asked me to draw Princess Truly for her. (She will often make wild requests for me to draw things as if I wasn't completely insecure about my drawing abilities - and I will often abide her requests and do my best.) Following the little drawing guide included at the back of the book, I sketched out Princess Truly, baseball bat in position, ready to hit a home run. My daughter spent some time colouring the picture while I puttered around the house.

When she finished colouring, she ran to show me. She informed me that she "made Princess Truly light-skinned." I took some deep calming breaths while my mind raced about how systemic and cultural racism has already dug its claws into my little girl and she has bought into this cult of White supremacy. Very calmly, I said, "That was an interesting choice. Why did you make her light-skinned?" To which she answered, quite simply, "Because we didn't have the right brown coloured marker."

And herein lies the problem! How often do we think we or our kids prefer something, when in actuality, it is just what is available? What is convenient and easy? How many young children prefer White dolls, and graduate to prefer White people because they simply aren't exposed to any other choice or variety?

I remember being frustrated as a kid when I had to colour myself in. There was basically a dark tan colour, or the lighter peach colour. I didn't feel represented by either of them! Well, here comes Crayola with a great new product... it is about darn time!

If you are a parent, teacher or do any programming with kids, I really encourage you to get your hands on the Colors of the World crayons/pencil crayons/felts, so our kids can colour themselves the way they see themselves; so they can colour in Princess Truly as she is, or any other White or non-White character!

My daughter and I often talk about the shades of skin we see around us, in the real world and within the pages of our stories. We use terms like lighter-skinned or darker-skinned, or terms like beige, pink-ish, brown, etc. to describe them. I try to show no preference towards any colour or shade, but just keep things neutral. My daughter is going through a phase at the moment where she wants family members to "pick who they are in the book" - i.e. choosing a character you relate to or particularly like or see yourself in. In this case, I will always try to choose a BIPOC character (to try to push back against the constant messages of White supremacy society heaps onto us) but I won't say I chose them because of their skin colour. I will find another quality about them that I like (i.e. I want to be this character because they're wearing green and that's my favourite colour too!). This not only helps my daughter form a positive connection with this non-White character, but it also forms the habit of noticing more than just skin colour, noting other qualities about the character and relating them to something familiar.

I know many people were taught - both explicitly and implicitly - that it is rude or even racist to talk about skin colour - but it really isn't! It is a fact of life that we all walk around in our skin and it all looks different! Even folks in the same family may have different tones and shades, and talking about that isn't inherently bad! Unless we start placing value or judgement on those skin tones or shades (i.e. Snow White is beautiful because her skin is so white/light, or all the 'bad' characters in the story just happen to be Black/Brown), then it is no different than teaching our kids to notice hair colour or height. But if we shush them, shame them or feel the need to whisper when we start talking about skin colours, then we will just perpetuate those lessons we learned: talking about race is bad, shameful and should be avoided! Let's break that cycle and start talking about - and colouring in - a diverse array of skin tones!