Khristi Lauren Adams - Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way

Praise for Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way

Unbossed is a celebration of sistas and a field guide for making the world a better place. With wit, verve, love, and wisdom, Khristi Lauren Adams introduces us to eight Black girls with expansive vision and leadership acumen.

Jemar Tisby, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and founder of The Witness, Inc.

Khristi Lauren Adamss Unbossed is a bridge that connects the legacy of Black women trailblazers of the past to the Black girls blazing their own trails today. Reading the testimonies of these brilliant young Black leaders, one can only conclude that the kids are all right.

Ekemini Uwan, public theologian and co-host of the Truths Table podcast

In Unbossed , Khristi Lauren Adams offers us a textbook and a masterclass on Black girls innate leadership wisdom. Such a gift has never been more important. If you are committed to being a powerful leader, please read this book!

Vashti DuBois, executive director of The Colored Girls Museum

Khristi Lauren Adamss work is truly needed in this moment in time. She has elevated the context of the Black girls voice, moving us beyond being surprised to acknowledging and embracing the Black girls voice as genius.

Vivian Anderson, founder and director of Every Black Girl

Khristi Lauren Adams has captured what I have always known about Black girls and Black women. We are capable and resilient leaders. We are also vulnerable humans who are in need of love, compassion, tenderness, and support.

Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, author and president of T3 Leadership Solutions, Inc.

This is an astounding book that centers the lives of Black girls in ways that are creative and compelling, but most of all, in ways that see them as free, cherished, loved, and inspired. This is a book I want my daughter to read and return to again and again.

Dant Stewart, author of Shoutin in the Fire

Unbossed needs to be on the syllabus in every home, church, and school.

Rev. Thomas L. Bowen, Earl L. Harrison Minister of Social Justice at Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington

Unbossed is a deeply necessary resource for our time.

Drew G. I. Hart, professor, activist, author, and co-host of Inverse Podcast

This is the kind of resource I wish I had growing up and that I look forward to sharing with the young women and girls in my life. Simply put, this book affirms the ingenuity and brilliance of one of societys most overlooked but valuable gifts.

Jennifer R. Farmer, author of First and Only

If you care about Black women, support Black women, and want to learn wisdom from Black women, this book is for you.

Terence Lester, founder of Love Beyond Walls and author of When We Stand

The book is a must-read for anyone interested in mobilizing others to be the change they wish to see and understanding how Black girls and Black women are leading the way.

Lori Latrice Martin, author of Black Women as Leaders and associate dean and professor at Louisiana State University

From the very first page in the introduction, you will be inspired by the passion Khristi Lauren Adams has for Black girls. She not only captures the brilliance and courage of young Black women; she also traces the lineage of that brilliance and courage to their predecessors before them.

Phil Allen Jr., author of Open Wounds

Khristi Lauren Adams

Foreword by

Chanequa Walker-Barnes

Broadleaf Books

Minneapolis

UNBOSSED

How Black Girls Are Leading the Way

Copyright 2022 Khristi Lauren Adams. Printed by Broadleaf Books, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email copyright@1517.media or write to Permissions, Broadleaf Books, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright 1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Photo of Ssanyu Lukoma, chapter 1: Amir Ballard, A. Ballard Creations

Photo of Tyah-Amoy Roberts, chapter 2: Emilee McGovern

Photo of Hannah Lucas, chapter 3: Vania Stoyanova, Vania Photo Studio

Photo of Grace Callwood, chapter 4: NeAnni Y. Ife

Photo of Jaychele Schenck, chapter 5: Aquinnah Crosby

Photo of Amara Ifeji, chapter 6: Phoebe Parker

Photo of Kynnedy Smith, chapter 7: Alvin Smith, The Urban Design Suite

Photo of Stephanie Younger, chapter 8: Emilee McGovern

Cover illustration by Aruna Rangarajan

Cover design by Mighty Media

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-7426-7

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-7427-4

For my sister, Chloe, whose leadership inspires me every single day.

I n Unbossed , Khristi Lauren Adams shows us that for every Black girl genius in the spotlight, there are countless others in the wings. They are artists and activists, innovators and entrepreneurs, organizers and reformers.

The eight girls (some of them now emerging women) featured in Unbossed epitomize #blackgirlmagic. They are high achievers who have accomplished successes in their preteen and teen years that even high-achieving adults would be proud to pull off. With widely diverse interests and backgrounds, these girls have one thing in common: they saw a problem, dreamed a solution, and implemented it, often with great odds stacked against them.

In some cases, their own struggles helped them to perceive a need, as Hannah Lucas did when her experiences of bullying, harassment, depression, and suicidality inspired her to develop the notOK mobile app. Likewise, Tyah-Amoy Robertsa student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the 2018 campus shootingstepped up as an activist and spokesperson to challenge the medias exclusion of the Black students who made up 25 percent of the schools population.

In other cases, these girls realized that youth voices and leadership were needed in movements dominated by adults. Stephanie Younger acted on this realization to create the Black Feminist Collective, an intergenerational platform for womanist and Black feminist thought. Amara Ifeji brings her age, gender, and race to bear as she attempts to bridge the environmental justice and racial justice movements through her organizing, public education, and research. Jaychele Nicole Schenck has realized that as inheritors of the future, young people need to have a bigger role in shaping it. So she started a youth-led social justice movement, Gen Z: We Want to Live.

In every case, these girls recognized their own power to be change agents. Grace Callwood did this when, in the midst of her own cancer treatment, she realized that she had the power to serve other kids who were in foster care or struggling with illness, poverty, or homelessness. Kynnedy Smith did it when she started I Art Cleveland to promote art education in underresourced communities and again when she started an online forum to promote sisterhood and community among girls and women. Ssanyu Lukoma did it with Brown Kids Read because she saw that kids her age had little exposure to diverse literature.