The suit, brought alongside the ACLU of Montana, alleges that the Montana House leadership violated Ms Zephyr’s First Amendment rights. This book is a fun, beautiful and powerful tool in our toolboxes, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Montana lawmaker who was barred from the state House of Representatives for criticising a slate of anti-trans bills, has filed a lawsuit against the body’s top Republican officials. Words help ideas take root in a child’s mind: they have the power to instil a sense of worth in our kids as they encounter an objectifying world.

It’s a catchy, funny, brilliantly illustrated read that is fabulous for all kids, but for mixed or Black girls I imagine that our heroine would make an especially good role model.Īs parents, if we want to counteract the culture that cause our girls to dislike how they look, or even who they are, we have work to do. In a world of children’s books that is still inexplicably dominated by male characters – even animals are routinely masculinised by default (looking at you, Giles Andreae) – and white ones at that, this is a breath of fresh air. My daughter is lucky if I’ll read her anything else right now: why tell her stories of male trains or a piggy family when I could boost her self-worth by chanting the catchy lyrics of I Like Myself again? And again? And AGAIN! Better still, the central character is a girl of colour.

“I like myself because I’m me, and me is all I want to be!” is our new family mantra. She announces that she loves her body, doesn’t care what others say, and knows that what other people see is not the total of who she is. In it, a girl uses affirming and celebratory words about herself. I Like Myself is my current favourite weapon in this war. I will protect my daughter’s ability to love herself, with roars and claws if necessary. Like all girls, she may encounter objectification of her appearance and uncharitable assessments of other aspects of her worth. She will probably learn about comparison and self-appraisal at an unprecedented rate.

From the relative intimacy of a pre-school environment, she’ll suddenly become a small fish in a big pond, surrounded by many similar fishes. Of all the things that will change when my daughter starts school this year, perhaps her self-image is the most profound.

I like myself by karen beaumont