Today we’d like to introduce you to Kisha Mitchell.
Hi Kisha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I got the desire to write a children’s book, I was settling in as a Graduation Coach at a high school, I had my routine down packed, had a great boss, yes, life was pretty comfortable. I had a successful girls’ mentoring group in which I was feeling pretty fulfilled. I felt as if I were living in my purpose of helping the girls in my building. But, there was always a nudge to impact more girls. I finally realized what I need to write about. It was a topic that made me so passionate, so inspired, so ticked off that I believed that I would be letting not only myself down if I didn’t write about it, but also my two daughters. This inspiration got me fired up enough to get pen to paper and pour my heart out for the world to see in a children’s book. When my daughter was the sweet, tender age of 3 years old, a little girl in her class told her that her brown skin was not beautiful. Yep, just like that. “Your brown skin isn’t beautiful.” It was so direct, so specific, so simple yet so devastating to my little brown girl. After my sweet girl retold me this story while sitting at the dinner table, my mind was racing. I felt anger, sadness, disappointment and hurt. Since my daughter had entered the world, I did everything I could to speak positivity and life to her because raising a self-confident daughter with all of the messages and images in the world telling her that she should be something else is already hard enough. Because I use writing to help me process things and vent, I went to my room and I started writing. I mean, I wrote and wrote and wrote. What I was writing was several love letters to my little girl to tell her how beautiful she was and how much she had to offer the world!
Of course, I shared this devastating news with my village. We searched high and low to find a book that would counter this negative seed that had been planted in my daughter’s mind but could only find one book available at that time. At that moment, Toni Morrison’s words, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” This quote rang in my ears and my heart and I felt the sudden nudge that perhaps all those things I wrote to my sweet girl in my journal needed to be turned into a children’s book! I called the book “Brown Girl, Brown Girl what do you See” to specifically negate the words that the little girl had spoken to her. Also, I remember as a little girl wondering why the skin I looked at was brown, but we were called black. Then, I was reminded of that very thing when my daughter kept telling me she wanted to wear her black boots. I was so confused because she didn’t have any black boots. All along, my three years old was talking about her brown boots, but because her skin is brown and we called it black, she did the same thing with the boots.
From listening to the nudge from God, so many opportunities to sow the book into the lives of children far and near has presented itself. Also, speaking to girls all across Atlanta and working with the WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream was an amazing experience! I eventually began speaking to teachers about Cultural Belonging in schools as well as writing a boy’s book called “Brown Boy, You Must Believe!” which was written after the horrific Trayvon Martin story.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest bump was the fact that I was a writer for personal reasons but I had never a published author! I had no idea what I was doing or how to begin. I literally said, “Lord, you have to show me what to do because you told me to do it and I have no clue.” I had to get an author and learn about the publishing and marketing process.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an educational leader as an assistant principal, an author and podcaster by night. I have authored and co-authored four books. I love focusing on cultural belonging in the work that I do with teachers and students. I am a co-host on the Sweet Tea and Sunshine podcast, where we address issues in education, being a career-oriented mom, wife and friend. I am also a trainer/facilitator for the Teach Your Heart Out Conference where I lead workshops for teachers and leaders. Although I am a professional, I wanted to call myself a creative because I am always creating books, materials for learning and coming up with content for our podcast. Another thing that I am most proud of is facilitating and leading a marriage retreat to help enhance the marriages of those around us. This is also a passion! My sole purpose in life is to help people to become the best versions of themselves as possible; whether you are a child, teacher, leader or a married person just trying to make it, I want to create something to help!!!
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Gosh, I feel like this is the part that I am trying to get better at even at this point of my life. I have always had mentors. So, if you see someone doing something that you think you may want to do simply don’t be shy and start a conversation! We have access to so many people at our fingertips, it is really just one click away!!! Just ask them for advice or what they did to get to where they are, and if you do not get the response you were looking for, keep searching! Your person is out there!
Pricing:
- Brown Girl, Brown Girl, What do you See? 16.99(hardcover)
- Brown Boy, You must Believe! 16.99 (hardcover)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bethelightinc.com
- Instagram: @bethelightinc
- Facebook: @bethelightinc
Image Credits
Heather LaShun
