If you have young people in your life, you may know Vashti Harrison as the New York Times bestselling creator of the “Little Leaders,” “Little Dreamers” and “Little Legends” books as well as the illustrator of Matthew Cherry’s wildly popular children’s book, “Hair Love.”
Her beautiful work has brought Black history to life for many young readers (and their parents too). And now she’s back with a new picture book that teaches a very important lesson.
The Root caught up with Harrison to talk about her new book, “BIG,” and the message she hopes to share with readers, young and old.
A Personal Project Becomes a Bestseller
Harrison’s path to creating books for children wasn’t exactly a straight shot. The author/illustrator says she drew a lot as a kid but found herself more interested in making movies than putting pencil to paper when she got to college.
“I went to CalArts for grad school, which is an incredible school for experimental films. But it’s most famous because it’s the Disney School of Animation,” she said.
Harrison found work in television and film at the end of her program. But she set a daily drawing goal to keep her skills fresh. And the more she drew, the more excited she got. “I was going home and not working on my film stuff. I was drawing every night,” she said.
And when the television show she was working on was canceled, Harrison found herself at a crossroads, wondering if she could make a career out of illustrating books. “I felt passionate about this return to drawing after film school and creating work for and about Black children,” she said. “It was 2016, the year of the election, and I wanted to make something meaningful in a time when we felt out of control with what was happening in the country.”
Her goal led to the creation of her 2017 book, “Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History,” which teaches kids about prominent female figures in Black history, including Shirley Chisholm, Ruby Bridges, and Bessie Coleman. “It started as a personal project to learn about an incredible person every day of the month, but it also forced me to draw every day,” she said.
A Little Book With a BIG Message
Harrison’s latest book, “BIG,” follows a little girl and her feelings about her body. And it explores how the meaning of being a “big girl” changes as she gets older.
She writes:
“She grew and learned and laughed and dreamed, and grew and grew and grew. And it was good...until it wasn’t.”
Although the book is written for kids ages 3 to 5, Harrison uses the story to explore some very real challenges young black girls face, including anti-fat bias. And while the message is powerful, “BIG” has very few words, something Harrison said was intentional so that her artwork could do the heavy lifting.
“The words are like characters on the page. They move around and affect the main character in different ways. Words are important. And as adults, we say things we may not even imagine may stick with someone,” she said. “I wanted to capture more of an emotion than writing the specific words on the page. The beauty of children’s books is the marriage between image and language to showcase and share a story with young readers.”
And while Harrison says she does have a personal connection to the main character, she hopes the message speaks to a larger audience. She said she chose not to give her main character a name so readers could empathize with her experience on a more emotional level.
As families read “BIG” together, Harrison said she hopes parents and children will be reminded of the power words have.
“I want readers to know that all kids deserve nurturing and care and that their presence is important. It’s also important to me to encourage them to use their words to lift people up,” she said. “I hope [”BIG”] showcases that even throwaway comments we may not notice have the power to hurt people, especially young people. I hope it encourages people to think more about how we speak to each other and how it feels to walk around with other people’s labels on you.”