So, I intentionally stayed away from that. There’s no music, no television show that might have been mentioned 20 years ago. One thing I consciously did (not because I wanted it to be around 20 years later), I didn’t do things to date the book. You probably have to knowingly, or unknowingly write a story that has issues, topics and characters that can transcend time and space. That’s not all of it, but I think that’s some of it. What does it take for a book to not only survive 20 years, but to be as relevant as it was the first day it came out? The Skin I’m In has been out for 20 years. It’s a journey to find your voice, learn to love yourself exactly the way you are, regardless of what the world says, or what the world sees.

Maleeka is being bullied because of how she looks, her clothes, her dark skin, and comes up with this idea that if I’m just friends with this one bully, that’ll make my life easier. It really is a book about a dark skin teenager who has to find her voice and find her inner strength and confidence. She was seven when I wrote it, and she’s never been bullied, really. It’s not my daughter’s story ( The Skin I’m In), people think it is. (One twin was dark, one was light.) What it was like to be a sister to somebody who was always looked at differently? Then, I one day started The Skin I’m In. I went from that to writing my first story about two twins called, Lucky Sister, told from the light skinned sister’s perspective. I wanted her to feel great about the skin she was in. She’s dark skinned, and I knew that colorism was an issue. They could solve crimes, they could do all this wonderful, magical stuff. You know, I tell people, from the moment my daughter was born I started telling her stories about dark skin girls who could fly. Here, at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, I sat down with Sharon to ask questions about The Skin I’m In, her life as an author and how the library had an influence on her as a child.Ĭan you tell us a little about The Skin I’m In and the inspiration behind writing the book?

Flake’s bestselling, Coretta Scott King award winning novel is as relevant today as the first day it was published. That book was The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. A book that would help me and so many others, black or not, love themselves. While standing in front of this mirror, I had no clue a book had been written and released. What were you doing 20 years ago? In 1998, age 11, I stood in front of my grandmother’s mirror, frustrated. Like a blue-black sky after it’s rained and rained.” Miss Saunders, The Skin I’m In

The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake