The Miss Zee Coloring Book Project

I am really excited to share this amazing project with you all! The Miss Zee Coloring Book will cater to young girls of color.

Think of one coloring book centered around a puffy-haired character of a darker hue. Can you think of any? I sure could not. When I was a little girl, all that were presented to me were the complete opposite. I was raised being exposed to infamous, lovable characters like Belle of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbelle and a countless amount of other characters that I looked nothing like. These characters were all over television and graced various products in stores.

Although I still love those classic characters to this very day, there was a phase that I went through as a child where I felt ashamed of my appearance, due to the various media that was always presented to me. I do not want my daughter to end up with the same identity issues that I did as a child. I want her to feel free to be herself inside and out. 

The idea for Miss Zee's coloring books originally came about when I couldn't find any coloring books that contained characters with the likeness of my daughter, Zee. (Zee has medium brown skin and dark, puffy afro hair.) This resulted in me only buying her coloring books that contained images of non-human like characters like Hello Kitty. However, coloring books with human-like characters that had straight hair and white skin (when in color) were purchased for her by family members anyway. Rather than throwing those books away, I taught Zee how to create more diverse images by coloring them in different shades (including one similar to her's) and how to draw on afros, to prevent her for from feeling guilt for not looking like these characters, as I did as a child.
I then realized that having to alter lines in a coloring book was far too much for a child to have to do. The image should already be there for one to color as-is. To combat this issue, I took it upon myself to create her a character that she could relate to.
 
I created a puffy-haired character named "Miss Zee." Miss Zee represents my daughter and all the other little girls who are often left out.

After I finished the first two pages of my daughter's custom coloring book, I shared the files on the internet free of charge and received an overwhelming amount of positive responses and a request for a line of coloring books that could be purchased.

Like me, they all shared the same frustration with not having coloring books geared towards little girls of color. This reinforced the fact that simple media like this is greatly desired. 

I think that this will be a great way for little girls of color to identify with the characters in their coloring books. The Miss Zee characters are so adorable!


Check out the Kickstarter project launch here to see how you can contribute. Also, check out her Facebook page and show some love and support! I would love to see the success of this amazing project!