Marley Dias: Protecting Every Story

Welcome to Into The Mix, a Ben & Jerry’s podcast about joy and justice. 

This season, we’re swirling up inspiring stories from progressive heroes. People who didn’t set out to be activists, but found themselves stepping up for something bigger than themselves. 

You'd think challenging the publishing industry would take the combined efforts of writers, publishers, and activists. Instead, one ten-year-old (now twenty one) sparked the conversation. Marley Dias was ten when she looked at the books being assigned in her school and noticed that girls who looked like her were almost nowhere to be found. She didn't wait for someone else to fix it. She launched #1000BlackGirlBooks — a campaign to collect and distribute books featuring Black girls as the main character — and what started as a three-month project became an international movement that put diverse books into the hands of children around the world. Now a Harvard graduate with her own books out, Marley has grown her work from fighting for representation to transforming the systems that prevented it in the first place.

Marley joins Ashley C. Ford on Into the Mix, a Ben & Jerry's podcast to talk about representation, resistance, and what it looks like to rewrite the rules from the inside.

Want to get involved?

Pledge to fight for your First Amendment rights with Ben & Jerry’s and the ACLU.

Follow Marley Dias and learn more about the #1000BlackGirlBooks

Order Marley's new book “I Am The Dream Come True” 

Support the Grassroots Community Foundation in rebuilding the Saint James Parish Library in Jamaica

Music provided by Shearaton Carter: Slow Season, Epidemic Sound. Custom Music by: Rondell Patterson.