Janice Johnson Dias PhD

An accessible blueprint to embolden our daughters to be critical thinkers, fearless doers, and joyful change agents for our future--from the proud mother of teen activist Marley Dias, founder of 1000BLACKGIRLBOOKS. "A powerful resource for caregivers trying to raise courageous girls . . . It's my go-to and my how-to."--Kwame Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of Light for the World to See Renowned sociologist Dr. Janice Johnson Dias has devoted her life to nurturing and training girls to become change-makers--whether through her investment in her daughter Marley's humanitarian projects or through her work with the GrassROOTS Community Foundation's "SuperCamp." In these unprecedented times, her work has never been more urgent, as parents find themselves asking: How do we teach our children to change the world? Dr. Johnson Dias knows that self-realized girls are created through intentional parenting. And so she asks parents to make deliberate choices--from babyhood through adolescence--that will give their girls the resources and foundation to take hold of their own futures and to create sustainable social change. Unlike other parenting experts, Dr. Johnson Dias doesn't urge parents to focus solely on their children. Instead, she tasks them with a personal challenge: to find their own joy. Just as Dr. Johnson Dias brings her own jubilant passion to parenting, mentoring, and teaching, she inspires caregivers to do the same. Using cutting-edge research and Dr. Johnson Dias's own experiences, Parent Like It Matters offers information and strategies for making discussions of racism and sexism a daily practice, identifying heroes and mentors, educating yourselves together, and uncovering your girl's passions and what issues drive her the most. Parenting is enormous work; it can be as overwhelming as it is fulfilling. Within the pages of Parent Like It Matters, parents will find the invaluable tools they need to raise resilient, optimistic girls who determine for themselves what their world will look like.

An accessible blueprint to embolden our daughters to be critical thinkers, fearless doers, and joyful change agents for our future--from the proud mother of teen activist Marley Dias, founder of #1000BlackGirlBooks. Can we teach our daughters to change the world? Renowned sociologist Janice Johnson Dias is here to show us how. She knows that self-realized girls are created through purposeful parenting. In this book, she asks parents to make conscious choices--from babyhood through adolescence--that will give our girls the resources to take hold of their futures and reach down the ladder to pull up the girls below them so that change becomes a chain reaction. What is our biggest task as parents? To find our joy. Because as parents, we need to live it to inspire it. Just as Dias brings her own jubilant passion to parenting and teaching, she shows us the vital work we must do on ourselves to lay down the burdens of our past to make space for joy and inspire it in our children. Through anecdotes and personal recollections, she shows us how to turn our challenges into adventures, our failures into lessons. She also offers advice based on both cutting-edge research and her own experience, such as: compliment her every day, let her teach you something every week, create daily affirmations, and help her identify heroes and mentors. Dr. Dias understands how easy it is to feel overwhelmed by the enormous work of parenting, but she gives us invaluable tools to raise resilient, optimistic girls who determine for themselves what their world will look like.