Marley Dias is the definition of cool. She’s got moxie and she wants to make the world a better place, which is a pretty sweet combo. The New Jersey resident has already received a Disney Friends for Change grant and traveled to Ghana to help feed orphans, and she’s 11. Next up, she’s pioneering a book drive featuring black female leads, so that she and her peers will have more literary characters to look up to.
The project is called #1000BlackGirlBooks, and Marley told the Philly Voice it came to fruition when she realized she was sick of reading books about “white boys and dogs.” Her mother, Janice, asked her what she was going to do about it (yep, her mom’s awesome, too), so Marley started a book drive. According to an interview with Fox29 News, Marley is hoping to collect 1,000 books by Feb. 1, at which point the books will be donated to a library in rural Jamaica (her mother’s homeland).
To answer your question, yes, the budding philanthropist was in fact named after Bob Marley. Like Bob, she wants to serve as an inspiration for other people to uplift their communities. In the future, she hopes to edit her own magazine. If that happens, we’ll immediately subscribe.
If you want to donate to #1000BlackGirlBooks, Marley is accepting both cash and book donations at the following address:
GrassROOTS Community Foundation
59 Main St. Suite 323, West Orange, NJ 07052.
Let’s help Marley smash her goal out of the park.
