“What’s Your Story?” is a guest post feature on BCBA’s blog. Indie/Self-Published authors are invited to write about their books, writing journey, creative process, inspiration, rewards and challenges of publishing, etc. They can go in whatever direction they choose. We are excited and grateful for their willingness to share, and we hope you enjoy Bettinita Harris’s story. Go here for more WYS? Posts.
Bettinita Harris knows how Black girls can be overlooked. She lived the experience, and even though decades have passed, she knows what lies ahead for her three young granddaughters. This knowledge fueled her mission of creating a series of children’s books to help African American girls develop a strong self-image to combat society’s preconceived notions. As America inaugurates its first female African American Vice President, too many Black girls struggle to be seen for the power they possess.
Harris’ multimedia company Colored Girl Wisdom, LLC released in November 2020 Aria’s Rockin’ Poufs, the third book in the Sisters for Life, Best Friends Forever series. All three books—Aria’s Crown was the series debut in 2018, followed by I Am Aria in 2019—tell a story of empowerment and encouragement from the viewpoint of a grandmother having a conversation with Aria, her young granddaughter. “I want to teach my granddaughters life lessons about confidence, standing up for what you believe and loving yourself,” said Harris, a longtime journalist and former editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer. “My hope is that girls around the world with similar hues will learn—sooner than I did—that the goal isn’t trying to fit in. The goal is to have the strength to create your own identity. Define your own standard.”
Each book in the series tells an enlightening and insightful story that invites readers to follow a path toward creating their unique self-image. The themes mirror Colored Girl Wisdom’s mission statement—“A multimedia company created to encourage, inspire and empower black girls to embrace who they are in a world where they are invisible.”
In Aria’s Crown, Aria learns that greatness lives inside her, but first, she must find it and then define it. I Am Aria showcases a daily ritual in which Aria recites positive statements about who she is and what she believes. That empowers the little girl to define her reality in a world where young Black girls are invisible. Aria’s Rockin’ Poufs illustrates Aria’s journey in recognizing that acceptance of her natural hair unlocks her self-confidence and means she doesn’t have to change who she is or how she looks in order to fit in.
Harris’ entry into the world of children’s literature is an outgrowth of her 20+ years of experience as an award-winning reporter and editor at some of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Tampa Tribune, and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. The seeds for the Sisters for Life, Best Friends Forever series were sown in Harris’ journalism career through stories that gave voice to heart-rending tales of suffering and struggle.
She was a pioneer in bringing to light the unseen ramifications of the AIDS crisis in the United States, becoming the nation’s first journalist to tell the story, in The Tampa Tribune, of the three young Ray brothers in Florida. After being diagnosed with HIV contracted through blood transfusions to treat their hemophilia, the boys and their family endured horrific treatment. They were expelled from public school due to hysteria over their condition and ostracized by the community.
Harris’ work as an editor includes guiding reporters on numerous stories that upended the status quo, exposed institutional wrongdoing, or spotlighted the forgotten among us. A race riot in Shreveport, LA was the impetus for an award-winning series of stories in The (Shreveport) Times, examining the roots of conflict in the community and prompting a series of public forums involving nationally renowned experts in race relations. Harris’ experience with publishing includes serving as lead editor for “I Am A Man,” a pictorial history chronicling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s involvement in the Memphis sanitation workers strike that precipitated his 1968 assassination. She worked with numerous civil rights movement leaders to collect their remembrances of the event and preserve a watershed moment of U.S. history. As a reporter, she brought to life the inspirational saga of Linda Brown Smith, a key figure in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
The release of each book in the Sisters for Life, Best Friends Forever series has been accompanied by Harris visiting elementary schools in the Philadelphia region to read the books to students and lead them in hands-on activities to enhance their understanding of the life lessons. She has visited Westtown School in Pennsylvania, Sanford School in Delaware, and numerous School District of Philadelphia elementary schools.
Sisters for Life, Best Friends Forever Series (Bettinita Harris | Nadica Zlatkova Mitevska | Colored Girl Wisdom, LLC)
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