Black Children's Books & Authors

I know my audience has felt “othered” before, causing them to question their own sense of self and beauty. This book is about the diversity of skin colors, self-love, and generating more awareness around the impact that words and labels can have on others. It’s a book I wish that I had when I was younger, and I hope others can see themselves in the main character’s journey.

In my book…a young girl watches her mother proudly take to the streets to march for what she believes in. Mommy marches through the sunshine, through the rain, and through the deepest snow, on her own or hand-in-hand with others, to give voice to causes that need to be heard. Inspired to join the next generation of young activists, her daughter dreams of marching alongside her.

“One in two hundred.” Those were the words my doctor spoke to my mother as I lay in recovery from my fifteenth-plus surgery in August 2019. When I awakened, my mother repeated those very words to me. My name is Ashley Cavalier, and I was born with a rare bone condition, Ollier disease….I wanted to tell my story for the little girl who grew up not feeling worthy or beautiful so that children with differences and disabilities everywhere would have someone they could relate to, unlike me as a child.”

Explain your book’s journey—how long did it take—from idea to publication? 

NerdCrush was an idea I had for a while, but I didn’t start making concrete plans (like giving my protagonist a name) until 2019. That was also when I enrolled in Southern New Hampshire University’s online MFA program, so NerdCrush turned into my thesis project. All in all, I’d say it took me from 2019 until 2021 to write a draft that was polished enough to be sent out to agents. Once I graduated from the program in February 2021, I began querying and got an offer from an agent the following month. My agent got me a book deal in May 2021.