diversity resources
just like me
This is such a VIBRANT book celebrating that there are all kinds of girls. Through a combination of incredible illustrations and poetic, reflective words, it holds much for its reader in terms of celebrating girls. There is so much to love about this book as it upholds themes such as kindness, strength, validating feelings, accepting and loving one's body, and much more. One page tells of a city girl longing to be a country girl and a country girl longing to be a city girl, validating the way we idealize other people's lives and long for what we do not have. This book would be an asset to any home as well as any classroom and especially to a school counselor's library for classroom guidance.
WHOEVER YOU ARE
This is a beautiful book celebrating the diversity of all people. It emphasizes that despite our differences in who we are, what we look like, and where we live, that we share likeness in our humanity--in our love, in our pain, in our joy, in our smile, and in our hearts. In this way, it acknowledges and celebrates the unique differences among us, yet links our common humanity.
IT’S OKAY TO BE DIFFERENT
This bright colored book emphasizes an important message that "it's okay." Whatever your story, wherever you are from, whatever you feel, there is acceptance communicated to the child reading or hearing the story that they are okay. For some children even something as simple as wearing glasses can feel embarrassing because most kids at school are not wearing glasses. This book normalizes things like that as well as deeper things as well as silly things like eating macaroni and cheese in the bathtub!
Eyes that Kiss in the Corners
This beautiful book tells of a girl noticing the uniqueness of her eyes. She describes her eyes as “eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea.” While she notices the difference in her appearance from her peers, she sees the likeness that she shares with her family and the beauty of each woman in her family. She ultimately concludes that she has beautiful eyes.
LOVELY
This simple book poses the question “what is lovely?” and highlights that lovely embodies all differences in human beings. Loveliness is different skin colors, different heights, wearing glasses or not, having tattoos or not, different hair types, wearing braces, different sizes, and different clothing styles. The all encompassing message is that all of us are lovely, and while this is certainly about diversity, there’s also this inherent message of accepting yourself and your loveliness. More body image resources can be found here.
DISCLAIMER: Elizabeth is a member of Amazon Affiliates. If you choose to buy a product from any of these links, Burton Counseling will receive a small portion of the proceeds. You may choose instead to support your local bookstore and buy directly from them. These are book recommendations with therapeutic and character education themes that may or may not be helpful. This is not therapy itself.
Elizabeth B. Burton is a licensed professional counselor and life coach with Burton Counseling, PLLC. Elizabeth lives just outside of Chattanooga, TN., and you can learn about Elizabeth here. You can learn more about working directly with Elizabeth here. Elizabeth also provides support to individuals and groups through an online course on Coping with Anxiety & Stress and through providing workshops. Elizabeth communicates about mental health and well-being through both the Narrating Hope newsletter and podcast as well as through her writing. Elizabeth would love to connect with you and welcomes you to sign up for the newsletter, listen in to the podcast, reach out about working together, and connect on social media.