Marley Dias Sits Down to Discuss Her Book Drive and Why Representation is So Important

Marley Dias started a book drive to collect stories that centered Black girls that look like her and became a national story. She stopped by The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore to talk a little bit more about the project.

Marley, clearly an astute reader, said she got the idea when she noticed that all the books about white boys she read, Where the Red Fern Grown, Shiloh, and Old Yeller, had disconcertingly similar plots.

She told Larry why it's so important to read stories about people you can relate to. "Like you host a tv show," she explained. "If you were to read a story about a Black man who hosts a tv show, then you'd remember whatever he learned, so you could use it on the show."

Her favorite book? Jacqueline Woodson's National Book Award-winning Brown Girl Dreaming .

black girls books Marley Dias