Meet your favorite new author: Lupita Nyong’o.
The Oscar-winning actress has penned a children’s book, and the best part is that it contains a message every adult should consider. Nyong’o took to Instagram to share the news.
“I am pleased to reveal that I have written a children’s book! It’s called Sulwe! Sulwe is a dark skinned girl who goes on a starry-eyed adventure, and awakens with a reimagined sense of beauty. She encounters lessons that we learn as children and spend our lives unlearning,” she wrote. “This is a story for little ones, but no matter the age I hope it serves as an inspiration for everyone to walk with joy in their own skin.”
According to The New York Times, the book, which Nyong’o shared is coming January 2019, is written for kids between 5 and 7. Sulwe, the protagonist, is uncomfortable with her dark skin color, and begins a journey with family that helps her realize she’s beautiful. The idea resonated with the Academy Award winner because as a child she too struggled with her own skin color.
She told the Times that reading with her mother as a child was special to her and that she hopes the book has a similar effect on others. She said the lessons the story gives are some that children “don’t necessarily recognize when they are reading the books,” but can carry on in life.
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In 2014, she delivered a speech that encouraged a young girl not to feel pressure to lighten her skin, after Nyong’o learned of her story. “I hope that my presence on your screens and in magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel validation of your external beauty, but also, get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside,” she said.
