I hope that this book is required reading for anyone pursuing careers in social work, criminal justice, and/or education. It was eye opening, frustrating, educational, and opened up soo many different conversations about how your girls, specifically those of color who fall victim to adversity and how the government and society sets so many of them up for failure.

I listen to this on Audiobook, and I can tell you the number of times I found myself speaking right along with the narrator sharing my views on so many topics from poverty to the criminalization of existing, to society's fetishization and refusal to allow black and brown girls live soft lives and be children. The excessive use of force by authority figures, being labeled as difficult when simply asking questions, fighting stereotypes such as being loud, trouble, and having an attitude. There was soo much between these pages I can't even begin to break it all down for you.

So many of the firsthand accounts that were given in this book were relatable to me throughout my entire educational journey. From preschool through college as a student who was dismissed and barely graduated with a 1.4 GPA and asked by many if I was going to drop out despite never expressing an interest in doing so, to becoming a two-time college graduate who is rarely given credit for said accomplishments and often dismissed as unknowledgeable against my peers. I also recognized a lot of similarities within my own daughter's journeys with authority and educational institutions and how as a black mother, whenever I spoke up, I was treated as a nuisance and/or the enemy.

Another conversation is how Black women and young girls are constantly policed. Our bodies, our hair, our tone, our very existence. The fact that there had to be a law passed to stop employers from discriminating and/or punishing black women from wearing their hair naturally is just one of many sad examples of how combating a right to exist has been made.

I learned a lot in this book. I feel like each chapter could be used as a discussion. I would absolutely recommend this again for anyone in or pursuing a career in social work, education, or criminal justice, as well as any and all parents.