I don't want anyone to walk through the world feeling invisible ever again.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognition and visibility for every individual.
Jacqueline Woodson's quote expresses a deep desire for every person to be acknowledged and seen in the world. It highlights the pain that comes from feeling invisible and stresses the significance of connection and validation in human relationships, advocating for empathy and awareness towards one another.
In practice
In a speech at a community gathering, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of inclusion.
'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.
In the midst of observing the world and coming to consciousness, I was becoming a writer, and what I wanted to put on the page were the stories of people who looked like me.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
The strength of my mother is something I didn't pay attention to for so long. Here she was, this single mom, who was part of the Great Migration, who was part of a Jim Crow south, who said, 'I'm getting my kids out of here. I'm creating opportunities for these young people by any means necessary.'
I would have written 'Brown Girl Dreaming' if no one had ever wanted to buy it, if it went nowhere but inside a desk drawer that my own children pulled out one day to find a tool for survival, a symbol of how strong we are and how much we've come through.
I love how much love there is in the world of young adult and children's literature.
No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.
I waited for my daughter, Billie, to come to me with her troubles - but I'm glad I didn't hold my breath.
We have a stake in one another...what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart.
After the discovery in 1918 of love letters revealing that Franklin was involved with Lucy Mercer: The bottom dropped out of my own particular world, I faced myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first time.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
So she viewed time spent in the land of the normal as an investigation into the world of marriage-worthy men, even if she was unsure about her own interest in marriage. There must be one solid citizen who also had a spark of life, a sense of humor and adventure.
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