Hi! I’m Melody Dawson. I write D&I children’s books with stories based on my research about Ancient African Civilizations to help all young readers move from pain to power. I am part of the growing effort to make books with culturally diverse and inclusive characters and story lines for young readers.
By day, I’m a product marketing executive in the tech industry. By night, I study Kemetic history, and I write it into children’s fiction books, self-published by my new company, BIPOC Lyfe Publishing.
My passion for storytelling can be traced back to grade school. I was fascinated by the psychology of persuasion of TV commercials. I often wrote in my diary about rarely seeing people in the ads who looked like me and it made me feel left out. I also journaled about growing up in Oakland, CA, where I was single handedly raised by my mother who exposed me to social activism, Black history, and the importance of education through her work as a school principal and through her successful pursuit of her Ph.D.
These early experiences led me to become a marketing professional, a published Authorpreneur with an MBA from Texas Christian University, a historian trained in Black history and Ancient African history at UCLA and Prescott College, and an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Research shows that people who identify as BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) often struggle from childhood to overcome weakened self-esteem as a result of systemic unconscious bias and micro aggressions towards them. As a mother and member of the BIPOC community, I have lived through these experiences, but I don’t want my son, or anyone else’s children to.
My research also reveals that knowledge of the ancient African past can help young readers better understand the circumstances of their present, and it can inspire them to successfully transform their vision of themselves and the possibility of their future. I want my readers to know that they are valuable, that their life has meaning, and that they are significant. And that is why I am enthusiastically dedicated to telling inspiring stories that help young readers to overcome self-doubt and to develop unconditional self-love and self-esteem.