In a world where a person's physically beauty is measured by one Eurocentric standard, young girls of color have had to look within to reaffirm their own image of what is beautiful.

Thanks to the efforts and creativity of Kimberly Cheri Brown, a Tennessee State University senior and published children's author, these girls are able to see themselves as beautiful in coloring books.

beautifullikeme.net

A child colors a page in 'Beautifiul Like Me'

"Beautiful Like Me" is filled with portraits of young girls from different parts of the world with spellings and pronunciations of their names along with bits of information about their cultures.

There is even an interactive element in the book where the children coloring in the book can draw themselves.

"My daughter loves the book and I love that she enjoys it so much,"said Jasmine W. Scott a senior, mass communications major from Nashville and mother of two. "I was tired of her having to color and identify with only white little girls and princesses. This one helps her see blue eyes aren't the only pretty ones."

The concept behind the books came from a place that surprises Brown.

Brown realized the need for this type of book once she began coaching track at the prestigious and affluent private school, Harpeth Hall.

As she began serving as a cross-country track coach, she soon learned that she was not only the first black coach at the school but also not immediately accepted by the girls she had been hired to prepare for competition.

"One of the girls asked me if I ever wash my hair," Brown said with a tinge or outrage in her voice. "I knew then we had to sit down for a cultural one-on-one."

Brown, who currently wears her hair locked, said she had to take a look at herself and figure out a way to educate others because things like non-white hair and skin are rarely addressed.

The talk informed Brown that there were many people still uninformed about cultural diversity and she could be a person to take action. She then took the first step to making her book.

"The images came first," Brown said. "Phyllis Hildreth, the owner of Stillwater's Café, convinced me to do more with them. Had it not been for her kick in the butt, I never would have done it."

After setting her mind to making the book, she then began putting together the parts that would lead up to the current book.

She also ended up giving herself and those who read her work even more opportunities.


In order to get the message and subsequent book out, Brown decided to self-publish her books and supply them as needed. She accomplished this feat by purchasing her very own barcode and ISBN number.

"Commercial publishing is a trap," Brown said. "Because I self-publish I am able to keep my over-head at two percent or less and I've already sold more than a thousand books."

Brown also goes on to say that she wants to let other's know about self-publishing.

"I've always wanted to write myself but I didn't know how," said Dylan Kirkwood, a freshman English major from Orlando. "(Brown) is an inspiration for what she is doing and how she is doing it."

Once she finished her book, Brown also founded her own company that she calls, Therapeutic and Creative Arts as a means to actually publish it.

This company is the vehicle Brown uses as a creative consultant company that publishes her works and can even help others
publish.

Though Brown began creating this book, and another that is currently in the works, as a means to educate, she also feels that people need to learn to accept that there are different kinds of people.

"Sometimes we get caught up worrying about not offending anybody," Brown said. "We've moved past that. That way of thinking is so yesterday."

Gregory Brand Jr. is senior editor of The Meter, the Tennessee State University student newspaper, which originally published this article.