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When her son was 6 months old, Tamara McNeil started looking for children's books that would feed his growing curiosity. While shopping at big retailers, however, she couldn't find books that prominently featured black characters.
"There weren't a lot of books that were reflective of him," McNeil tells Mashablein a phone interview, as her now 19-month-old son babbles in the background. "There were awesome stories, but just no characters in those books who looked like him."
McNeil tried to think of solutions -- ways to make it easier to find books her son and other black children could relate to. She came up with the Just Like Me! Box, a subscription service that delivers two or three carefully selected books to a child's door each month. Educational activities, like vocabulary-based word searches, complement the reading. The children get to keep the books and activities for their growing libraries.
SEE ALSO:7 inspiring children's books to motivate your young activistThe $25-per-month service, which is split into three age groups, is designed to bring positive depictions of black characters to children up to age 12 -- a demographic that is drastically underserved by children's literature.
Of the 3,400 children’s books published in 2015, surveys estimate that only 270 featured black protagonists. While many children's books feature animal main characters, there's still a serious lack of representation -- and that means black children are often left reading about the lives, adventures and experiences of people who don't look like them.
The Just Like Me! Box is the ideal model to help, McNeil says. With a subscription service, parents can guarantee their children are regularly getting the representation and stories they need. Books from the service include NaturallyMe!, a rhyming story on celebrating your appearance, and A StormCalledKatrina, a book about a young black boy dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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The service has accumulated nearly 1,000 subscribers since it officially launched in May 2016. McNeil says this positive reaction has validated that she's not the only parent looking to increase representation on their children's bookshelves.
"I am just a parent who just saw a need in the community and wanted to fill it."
McNeil personally vets each selection included in a Just Like Me! Box, reading every book to her own son to ensure they celebrate blackness, and instill a sense of joy and pride in black heritage and culture.
Ultimately, she hopes it inspires a passion for reading, too.
"A lifelong love of reading -- that's what I hope the children get out of it," McNeil says. "A habit that turns into a love."
McNeil does say the $25-per-month subscription can be a luxury that low-income families may not be able to afford. To help fill that gap and offer more literary diversity to all children, Just Like Me! also accepts donations to help distribute boxes to shelters, nonprofits and libraries.
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Above all, McNeil says she wants parents to know she is just like them -- just a mom who wanted her child to see himself in the books he reads.
"I am just a parent who just saw a need in the community and wanted to fill it," she says.
The boxes are currently sold out, but new Just Like Me! subscriptions will be available on Jan. 5. To be notified when the boxes are restocked, you can sign up for email notifications on the Just Like Me! website.
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