School psychologist and mother Desiree Williams, MA/AC ’15, got serious about finishing the children’s book she started after her father died a year ago. Now “Brilliant Brown Babies,” which she wrote, illustrated and self-published last spring has been selling about 10 copies a week on
Amazon. She was inspired to start the project when her son Cortland was almost 2. As she read to him, she noticed there were lots of fun and engaging books for young children with white characters. There were not many that featured Black characters. “Children look for role models to see where they could be in life one day,” Williams said. “I think representation is so important. It is essential.”