Marley Dias grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and at age ten grew frustrated that the books assigned in her school largely featured white boys as central characters, with few stories reflecting her own experience as a young Black girl.
In 2015, at age eleven, Dias launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, an initiative to collect and donate one thousand books featuring Black girls as lead characters. The campaign rapidly went viral, drawing international media attention, and Dias far surpassed her original goal, ultimately collecting many thousands of books that she donated to schools and communities both in the United States and in Ghana and Jamaica.
Dias went on to publish her own book, Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!, in 2018, offering guidance to other young people on turning their own ideas into action, and hosted a television series on Netflix exploring young activism. She has continued her advocacy work while pursuing her education, becoming one of the most recognised young activists of her generation for centring representation in literature as a tool for empowerment.
- Founded the viral #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign at age eleven
- Collected and donated thousands of books featuring Black girls as protagonists
- Published author of Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!
- Hosted a Netflix television series on youth activism
- Recognised internationally as one of the leading young activists of her generation
- Age is not a barrier to impact.. She launched a movement that reached an international audience at just eleven years old.
- Personal frustration can become public purpose.. Her own experience with a lack of representation in books became the seed of a global campaign.
- Set ambitious goals.. Her original target of 1,000 books was quickly surpassed many times over.
- Share your process to empower others.. Her book was explicitly designed to help other young people take similar action.