It started out as a comic series that went viral, and now it is an essential reading resource for anyone looking to raise the next generation of woke baes (or in this case, woke babies). If you aren’t yet familiar with writer and illustrator Loryn Brantz, here’s your chance to catch up. She has just released a book called ‘Feminist Baby’ which is essentially a guide to infusing feminist messages into the life of your little one.
Loryn is a two-time Emmy Award-winning illustrator an design professional based out of New York, who has worked for the likes of PBS, Facebook and is currently on staff at Buzzfeed. She has also won an award for a previous book called ‘Harvey and the Child Mime’, and if her past accolades and accomplishments are anything to go by, we have no doubt ‘Feminist Baby’ is going to be another success.
The book features a range of everyday parent-baby scenarios, but with a feminist twist. The protagonist is a baby girl who is fearless, unapologetic, and smashes the patriarchy with her witty take on social gender constructs and comebacks that can subtly be a teaching tool for parents. Aimed at kids ages newborn to 2 years-old, the mission is to ensure young minds are exposed to different types of messaging at a stage when influence is key.
“We have to raise our kids with their eyes wide open,” she told Time.com in an interview, being unapologetic about her intent to encourage more children to become liberal and progressive thinkers. It was also Loryn’s way of contributing to the collective determination to squash lingering negative connotations about feminism.
“They’re not going to take away all the nuances and important parts of feminism necessarily, but it’s important just to have it be in their vocabulary and part of their life rather than discovering it when they’re older. It’s so that they’re aware of feminism and see it as a good thing and not a bad thing,” she said.
Messages that reinforce gender stereotypes happen early in the life of a child, and are often subconscious. They are present in the way we greet young girls, “you are SO pretty!” which can start the trend of subconsciously making her aware that looks are an important part of her self-worth. It often takes intentional effort to change the way we are used to communicating with males and females. This is something Loryn has previously illustrated and discussed in a Buzzfeed post titled ‘7 Things To Talk To Little Girls About Other Than Being Cute‘.
When boys get the message early on that they are smart, strong, powerful, heroic and capable of anything, and girls hear more about how they look, their hair styles, their outfit and anything physical as opposed to their intelligence or capabilities, it’s not hard to see where the gender construct divide begins.
With books like ‘Feminist Baby’ and others like ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’ which has become a viral sensation in and of itself after its uber-successful crowd-funding campaign, we have a chance to really make a change in the way the next generation thinks about gender and equality. Loryn makes it clear that this shouldn’t just be about raising girls, but also about the messages boys are raised with.
“They need to grow up with feminism and not be scared of it and not think that it means they’re going to be overpowered by women someday. It just means wanting equality for everyone. It’s not something they think they need to fight when they’re older,” she said.
Loryn told Time.com she started writing the book 2 years ago, long before Donald Trump became the president, but his disgusting messages around women and their bodies has become a great reason to invest in a book like this as a tool of the resistance. While his administration will only last a few years (God forbid he manages to finish his first term and somehow get a second…) the impact of a book like ‘Feminist Baby’ can last an entire generation, and that is what counts.
“Hopefully if we raise a whole generation of kids with ‘Feminist Baby’ and with older books for kids about feminism and activism, something like this will never happen again,” said Loryn referring to the monumental dumpster fire that was the 2016 Presidential election result.
She hopes the kids who get to read this book will be inspired by the smart, sassy and endearing protagonist, and want to emulate her traits. After all, we’re STILL trying to undo the damage the “princess culture” unleashed. It is time young girls got to grow up with empowering messages about their brilliance, not (subjective, industry-driven) beauty.
“I’d like to think that seeing her be herself and not letting anything stop her will be something that they want to be like,” said Loryn.
You can purchase ‘Feminist Baby’ from the Disney publishing website, or on Amazon.
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