Episode 01: Agency, Courage, and Building #1000BlackGirlBooks
JULY 21
In this episode of Duke’s Life of Significance series, hosts Sanyin Siang and Pau Gasol interview Marley Dias, the sixteen-year-old founder of #1000BlackGirlBooks, a campaign to identify one thousand books with black girl protagonists. The movement, since its founding in 2015, has collected more than 13,000 books, now complied in a database. In this interview, Marley discusses intergenerational courage, community, and what it means to live a life of significance at any age, saying, “When it comes to living a life of significance, you can start at any point in your life. You don’t have to wait.”
Key Takeaways
1. The narratives we tell ourselves—about who we are and where we come from—matter. In Marley’s case, she says she learned her activist values from her mother, who, in turn, learned them from her mother. Marley situates herself in a long line of courageous, community-oriented women.
2. Maintain a community focus. When Marley struggled to find books with main characters who looked like her, she began to wonder if this was only happening to her. It wasn’t. This realization broadened her sense of possibility and launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign.
3. Don’t wait to live a life of significance. Any person, at any age, and in any stage of life, can make a difference.
“I try to encourage the idea that we don’t have to wait until we grow up to care about others, to want to change the world, to want to be an astronaut or model or athlete or activist—that all these things are achievable in a small or large way, whether you’re younger or older. So, when it comes to living a life of significance, you can start at any point in your life. You don’t have to wait until you graduate college or until you’ve met a certain milestone or met a certain person. You can help others, be kind, be compassionate, and do things that make the world a better place right now.”