Minda Harts - You Are More Than Magic: The Black and Brown Girls Guide to Finding Your Voice

When I was eleven years old, I felt like I had no cares in the world.

I was living in sunny Southern California, and at the time the older of two kids; my youngest brother wasnt born yet. I spent weekends playing with all my cousins and shopping at Pennys with my grandmother. I didnt think my life could get any better.

I had the pleasure of growing up with my mothers side of the family (my mom is one of five sisters). I had never pictured my life without them a short car ride away. At the time, I had so many amazing Black women surrounding me with love, like my grandmother and great-grandmother, and my grandmothers sister, my aunt Neicy. All of these amazing women made me feel like anything was possible for me.

The sense of belonging I felt at that age is something I wish I could bottle up and give to every young Black girl I meet. Its a feeling I didnt know that I would need to hold tightly to later in my life.

When I least expected it, my dad told us we were moving to Illinois, where he was going to start a church in the small town where he grew up.

How could he?! We were so close to our family in California, and I had never lived anywhere else. I meanpeople dream about moving to California; I had never heard of a mass exodus to Illinois! I lived two doors down from one of my aunts, and I could walk to her house at will. I was on a personal campaign to get her to stop smoking cigarettesshe was down to a few cigarettes a dayI couldnt leave now, we were starting to make real progress!

Now, you might be thinking, Minda, what does your family leaving California have to do with this book? And I am so glad you asked that question! That family move changed my life forever. If it had not been for that move from California to Illinois, I probably wouldnt have written this book.

When I moved to that small, majority white town in rural Illinois, it was the first time I remember experiencing racism. It was the first time that I felt being a Black girl wasnt beautiful. And, it was the first time I questioned whether I belonged. The lessons and stories that I will share with you in this book are about some of the hard lessons and ugly truths I learned as a Black girl in a small, white town that only trial and error could teach me.

If Id had a book like this one back then, I might have loved the skin Im in so much earlier in my life. Back then, I was going through the angst of being a teenager and feeling isolated, like many teenagers probably feel, regardless of race. But not all teenagers will experience being one of the only Black girls in a class full of white kids, nor will every teenager be called racial slurs. And not every girl will grow up in a country that treats people like her as second-class citizens because they are Black or brown. If I had a book like You Are More Than Magic when I was growing up, I might have been able to see my own worth way before I became an adult.