OurShelves founder Alli HarperHarper adds that the lack of other types of diversity, both within and outside of the realm of LGBTQ+ kids’ books, ultimately influenced the direction of OurShelves.
And she’s done her homework. She notes, for example, that over half of babies in the U.S. today are of color and that by the age of 6 months, a baby’s brain can notice race-based differences — and by ages 2 to 4, children can internalize racial bias.“We had many discussions about whether our books would only feature LGBTQ characters or not, and we ended up going with more broadly diverse books.
The people we tested really said they wanted diversity more broadly. And secondly, we felt like the current book offerings featuring LGBTQ characters are.