I was always that little girl who spent hours at the library, it was my absolute favourite place. While I loved books, one problem I found was that my imagination of the characters in fairy tales and the graphic representation did not match. This is why I preferred chapter books even as a young age, because I could imagine the characters as they were in my head. Characters that looked more like me and not Snow White.

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As I became a children’s librarian myself, the lack of diversity in children’s books became even more prominent. I could see children holding on tighter to books in where the children looked like themselves – every child needs to be able to see themselves represented as strong superheroes. But the statistics for representation in children’s picture books are disheartening. When I became a mom, I did my best to include diverse books in my children’s library. I found that some of my children’s favourite books, were books where the illustrations of children looked like them.

It was always important to my husband and I that our children learn to speak Tamil and understand their roots. It is why we spoke to our children primarily in Tamil alone. Even when we read stories to our children, we translated them and “read” them aloud in Tamil. When my daughter was born, we searched for books in Tamil, with characters that looked like her, and was sad at the lack of inventory. I instead “read” English books in Tamil to her. My daughter loves stories. we would sit and make up stories together. Once her brother was born, our stories evolved to stories in where she and her younger brother were the leads. Her excitement in hearing these stories is what gave birth to Tamil Storytime. These characters are designed after my daughter and son.  

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The miracle about motherhood is that, while you give birth to your children, it is they who sometimes give a new birth to you.

Tamil Storytime - To my babies.