When I wrote A Beautiful Girl, I was taking a class on child education. One of the books I read in the class talked about the fact that children need direct, straightforward talks about diversity. It sighted studies where children thought their parents hated people of a different race. The parents were shocked, because they had never said anything negative, but they had also never had proactive conversations about diversity either. I realized that I wanted to be sure to have those types of conversations with Addy (she was our only child at the time), so one night, that was the story I made up at bedtime. After she fell asleep, I wrote it down. It was important to me, not only to teach her to love and accept the people around her, but also to teach her to give herself the same love.
