National Pretty Brown Girl Day

Today is the first National Pretty Brown Girl Day. According to the website, it's a call "for all girls and women across the globe to celebrate themselves, families and friends" and "is a great way for brown girls of all ages, cultures and ethnicities to empower themselves and boost their self-confidence."

Now, if you happen to be of the mindset that says, "Why do they get a special day?" I'll point to this piece I heard on NPR yesterday citing that African Americans account for 13% of the entire U.S. population, but 40% of missing persons! You wouldn't know that judging by the attention media at large gives missing children; if you're not a cute blonde, you won't get any attention at all. If we live in a society that flatly dismisses nearly half of the missing children in America because they're the "wrong" skin color, then we absolutely need to recognize that disparity and do something to counter it. Which is why it's perfectly valid to have Black History Month and Nation Pretty Brown Girl Day.

Now, since this is a comic related blog, I had thought about doing a piece just showcasing photos of black female comic creators. All I could come up with on my own was Charlie Trotman and Ashley Woods. Jackie Ormes if I didn't limit myself to those that are still alive. I thought there's no way that could be it, so I did some searching online.

I quickly found The Ormes Society, "an organization dedicated to supporting black female comic creators and promoting the inclusion of black women in the comics industry as creators, characters, and consumers." Lo and behold, they've already compiled a list black female comic creators! With links to their websites and/or Wikipedia entries to boot!

But, wow, their complete list has only 37 names on it. This is a group specifically organized around supporting black female comic creators, and they only know of 37 people to cite. And some of those names are folks like Rashida Jones (an actress who thought of an idea for a comic book story but didn't actually write it) and Jada Pinkett Smith (an actress who wrote one very badly-received comic back in 1998). This is precisely why we need a National Pretty Brown Girl Day!

Look, it's a Saturday. Football season is over. March Madness hasn't started yet. Take some time to check out those 37 women creators. Read their Wikipedia entries if they have them, check out their sites to see examples of their work. There's only 37 names, and some of them don't even have links associated with them; it's not going to take you that long.

Now, you might look at their work and say, "No, this isn't for me." That's okay! Not every comic is meant for every person. But maybe one or two of them will stand out and you'll say, "Hey, this is interesting. I might need to check out some more of this person's work." And you know what you'd be doing then? You'd be supporting that individual, and you'd be celebrating National Pretty Brown Girl Day.

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