The Idea

The idea for this book was all Aria! It all began with Aria creating an imaginary world where she had superpowers that would help her keep her sister safe. I would notice her chasing after Cady pretending to freeze her with her hands or swirl the air around like a tornado to keep her from falling over (Cady was only 1 at the time and was still unsteady on her feet). When I asked her what she was doing, she began to tell me a very detailed story about her as a superhero named Super Skye and Cady as a super villain named Titantrum (yup, she came up with those names herself). She had very specific ideas about what their powers should be, how their costumes should look, and the whole point was for Super Skye to come to the rescue when Titantrum needed to be calmed down or kept safe. I thought it was the cutest thing and began telling friends and family about it, with no thought in my head to write a book. It was just another “cute kid” story. 

It wasn’t until I shared the story with a good friend at work (hi JB!) who had the great idea to turn the story into a mock comic book cover. She asked a friend of hers to draw it and gave it to me as a gift after I had a particularly rough couple of months. She just wanted to cheer me up. What she didn’t know is that her kind gesture would spark the idea for what has now become one of my greatest experiences and accomplishments. That gift showed me that Aria’s cute little story could be brought to life.

From there, I went looking for similar books. At the time, we were dealing with so much social unrest in America, specifically around racially charged topics (think George Floyd and Trayvon Martin) so books about the beauty and majesty of being black were in abundance. I found so many books highlighting black people and teaching black children to love themselves and be proud of their heritage, hair, skin, culture etc… What I didn’t find were very many books featuring black girls, that weren’t about BEING black. I also didn’t find many books featuring black girls as superheroes. It was honestly disheartening and sad to know that my babies wouldn’t see themselves fully represented as the smart, curious, powerful little girls that they are in the books that they read. I’m a huge advocate of recent movements that aim to teach our babies about equality and to love themselves, but I really want young black girls to love their whole selves, including but not limited to their blackness. 

After that, I went on a mission to publish Aria’s story to share how she sees herself and how she expresses love for her sister with the world. I’m so excited to add our book to the library of black authors highlighting and celebrating black children all over the world, and I hope you and your children take as much joy from reading it, as we did in ideating and writing it!