Because childhood should not begin with survival
I’ve been thinking about what it means for a child to exist in a story without needing to survive something first.
Too often, Black children in media are introduced through struggle. Through hardship. Through conflict that demands resilience before joy.
And while resilience is part of our history, it is not the only part.
In When Black Children Aren’t Allowed to Be Children , I reflected on how early expectations can shorten childhood. In Letting Black Kids Be Soft , I acknowledged the delicate line between preparation and pressure.
This is where my writing lives.
I write stories where Black children are imaginative. Curious. Playful. Thoughtful. Capable — without having to prove it.
History is often simplified. Sometimes rewritten. Sometimes reduced to struggle alone. But our story has always included leadership, creativity, joy, invention, softness, brilliance, and wonder.
When children see themselves centered in imagination-forward worlds, they learn something quietly powerful: I am allowed to be whole.
That’s why spaces like TL’s Terrific Tales exist — as environments where Black childhood is reflected without distortion or diminishment.
It’s also why affirmation matters in everyday life. Sometimes it’s as simple as a message that says what we already believe — like the Dream Big T-Shirt , a reminder that ambition and imagination belong to our children without condition.
I don’t write to fix children. I write to protect the space where they can grow.
Black children do not need to earn their humanity through hardship. They deserve stories where they begin whole.
And that’s the story I will keep telling.
Dream Big, Dream Often — TL
