Dear Black Girl: I See You is the name of the newest children’s book from Milwaukee author Ebony Haynes.
It features affirmations to make Black girls feel seen for who they are and for the unique challenges they battle growing up.
Haynes is the CEO of E Inspires LLC, a consulting company that does education and workshops around mental health awareness, youth development and DEI. She also works in an equity department for Milwaukee Public Schools. She has worked with youth since she was 19.
Haynes says she’s aware of issues young people face — such as the negative impact of social media on mental health and traumatic experiences in schools — and that work has inspired her stories.
Haynes wrote Dear Black Boy: It's Okay to Cry, a book about breaking stigmas and myths around mental health and wellness for boys and men.
She says of Dear Black Girl, "If you see the book, the image on the front highlights a shadow, and that shadow is throughout the book and she is a reflection of the invisible girl, right?" Haynes says.
"I think so often so many of the things that our girls are dealing with, we don't talk about them enough. They've become just normal things. They've become the way it is," she says.
Haynes says this book is for everyone, not just Black girls. She says everyone should receive affirming messages like ones that can be found in her book, but especially marginalized people.
"So often the message that we get is the opposite. Is that we're not of value, is that we're not right. You know. The world, or the systems or the structures, right, will make us feel less than but it will be the very thing they try to take from," Haynes says.
"And so, just thinking about how do we remind ourselves and how to we remind our children, you know, just of the power that we have in just being, and being ourselves and finding worth and value in that," she says.
