Bossy! Magazine Issue 24 November 2018 | Page 39

BOSSY: I would think it really could become almost a family heirloom right?

Terri: I would love that. Pass your book down and then buy your kid one of their own. I would love for folks to build a library. There are eight books in the series. And I’m working on Series Two now. I do everything and it really is a lot of work, from writing the story, the sketches, the layout, the colorizing;all the way to the proofreading; seeing the payoff in the reactions is everything.

BOSSY: What do you hope the children take away from seeing themselves represented so well in the RISI series?

Terri: I want them to take away a pride in knowing they are perfect exactly as they are. I’ll give you an example; I went on a particular website that was very much automated. They had a set face you could choose from, but you could customize with a few clicks on your computer. You could change eye and hair color, or add glasses, things like that. Our girls wear so many different styles, braids, afro puffs, my granddaughter has locs, none of that was offered. I guess I am a medium brown. When you got to the last page to choose complexion, the darkest color available was about three shades lighter than me. Now my granddaughter is beautiful, she’s the color of soy sauce, she’s jet black with a sheen. Now I thought to myself, if I was just a regular person trying to order this for her, I’d have to send her a book where the representation of her is three shades lighter than she is. What is that message? What does that embed in their psyche? When something so normal to you, what you see in the mirror every day, seems to be an afterthought with rest of the world?