She Gets It Done!

MARLEY DIAS loves nothing more than getting lost in a book. But the 12-year-old grew frustrated with the reading list she was assigned in school. A black girl was hardly ever a main character. So Marley took matters into her own hands. In November 2015, she set out to gather 1,000 books with black girls as protagonists. Her campaign—#1000BlackGirlBooks—was a big success. She collected more than 10,000 books! “Through my campaign, I want to give kids a stronger sense of identity,” Marley told TFK. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that kids’ voices need to be heard.”

Now the young activist is working on a book of her own. Marley Dias Gets It Done and So Can You will be published in January 2018. “The [book’s] goal is to help systems change,” says Marley.