University of Texas at Austin economics student Pria Gokhale is also a children’s book author. Her recent book, “Her Story Is Our Story,” is about women of color who, in Gokhale’s view, should be celebrated by everyone.
“When I was a kid … I rarely saw a person who looked like me, celebrated in my classrooms or printed in my history books or made into statues. And I genuinely believed for a long time that that was just because most women of color had not done anything notable. Obviously, I know now that that is not the case.”
“Representation is very much a luxury. And it took me a really long time to reframe my mindset and kind of understand that representation is something that women of color are entitled to. [All] people of color, but especially women of color, because it makes a very big difference in how we see ourselves and how others see us as part of a similar society.”
“If we teach children that there are many different people worth celebrating, regardless of the ones that you might see in your school curriculum, I think that can make a pretty tangible difference and allow them to, you know, develop a more diverse mindset as they grow up. …That is why I wrote this.”
“There are 10 women in this book. Each of them has their own illustration and then a page featuring their specific accomplishments and a key takeaway or lesson that I think children could learn from what they did.”
Proceeds for Gokhale’s book will go to the organization Girl Forward, which provides resources and helps empower young, female refugees.
