Lupita Nyong’o performs Sulwe.Photo: Matthew Soltesz
Lupita Nyong’o is adding a magical performance to go along with her inspirational children’s book,Sulwe.
On Friday, theUsactress exclusively shared with PEOPLE that she’s narrated an audiobook of her award-winning 2019 story that follows 5-year-old Sulwe, who has the darkest skin color in her family and wants to be beautiful like her mother and sister. Only after a magical trip through the night sky does the young girl — whose name means “star” — learn how special and lovely she is.
The actress.Matthew Soltesz
Since it published in 2019,Sulwehas gone on to earn a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Literary Work. But, most importantly, Nyong’o’s book has inspired children to love themselves, no matter the color of their skin.
Simon and Schuster
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“I wrote my children’s bookSulwebased on my experience with colorism from a very young age,” the actresstold PEOPLE in November 2019. “My goal was to plant a seed of self-worth in children just as they are starting to get a sense of the larger world, and internalizing how other people see them.”
While colorism is a difficult topic to explain to little ones, Nyong’o wanted to address it and the importance of self-love in an accessible, nurturing way.
“Although colorism is a heavy topic,” she said at the time, “it was important to me that Sulwe’s story have warmth, whimsy and exist in a land of dreams.”
source: people.com
