A Doc McStuffins doll seemed like the perfect gift. She's African-American and female. She provides for us an abundance of teaching moments.
And so you might understand why Munson Steed was beside himself, sure his goddaughter Skye Johnson would be beside herself, too, the moment she saw it, the set of books and other gadgets Steed had purchased.
“I thought I had done something,” Steed said.
Well, he had. He’d managed once again to stay ahead of the curve. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, Steed knew Skye was something special, that she deserved more than last-minute gifts-in-a-panic. In advance of any big day, he thoughtfully made every purchase so he wouldn’t have to worry about whether she’d be dazzled and to be sure Skye wouldn’t have to ever wonder whether he remembered.
Surely by now you know where I’m going with this. Doc McStuffins didn’t work because, thanks to her mother and Steed’s business manager Melinda, Skye already had one.
Steed was crestfallen, but as publisher of Rolling Out magazine, he knew even the best-laid plans sometimes fail. He just rolled with it, sometimes starting in the middle, sometimes starting from scratch.
After a visit with Skye one day in his office, he was in a planning session with Kareem Kenyada brainstorming 2016 projects with the illustrator and, well, it hit him.
“I tell Kareem we’re going to write a book about her,” Steed recalled recently.
Here’s why that’s so important. Children get ideas about who they are and their worth from toys like Doc McStuffins, Barbie, books and television shows, where positive images of blackness and black females, in particular, are sorely lacking.
Steed decided he’d write a book, with a brown-skinned character that mirrored Skye’s own, that would create in her a healthy self-image and cause her to dream big. And not just Skye but all girls of every hue.
Here’s why that’s so important. Books help shape the world our kids imagine is possible.
Steed, 55, said he wanted to create a voice for Skye that echoes and cascades intelligence so that when she looks back 10 years from now, she’ll not only see the little girl Skye but the smart, wonderful woman she was becoming.
“I hope she’ll see the hope I hold for her and carry that same hope to her peers,” he said.
The son of an Air Force pilot and a mother who worked as a federal civil servant, Steed recalled having an idyllic childhood in which books about African-American history played an important part in shaping his views and expectations.
“Every child doesn’t have that nor does every child have a me in their life,” he said. “But if they got a book that showed them what the possibilities are, that caused them to dream, you could potentially change the trajectory of their life for good.”
And I imagine that’s why Pat Burson George wrote to tell me recently about “Little Professor Skye,” the book inspired by Steed’s 8-year-old goddaughter and her favorite things.
“Most people know Munson Steed only as the publisher of Rolling Out magazine, but recently he penned his first children’s book,” George wrote. “It seeks to inspire all little Brown girls to do great things.”
"Little Professor Skye: Favorite Things" hit bookshelves late last year and is available on Amazon and at Macy's department stores. The first in a series of children's books by Steed, it details a day in the life of Skye, a bright-eyed elementary school student who shares her love for everything from piano and ballet, to soccer and basketball with a robot named Cutie Pie. A companion coloring book, "Little Professor Skye: Coloring the Imagination," was released earlier this year.
The real Skye Johnson is a rising third-grader. She’s as sweet as she is curious. And according to both Steed and her mother, she “has a keen ability to see beyond the surface and is always seeking to understand how things work and how and why people interact with one another the way that they do.”
When I met Steed, I had to ask if Pat Burson George was his mother. His answer was no but I’m not so sure.
What I am sure of is anyone with a child in their lives — not just African-Americans — should pick up a copy of “Little Professor Skye” and share it.
Here’s why that’s important. Every little girl deserves a Munson Steed in her life.
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