-The following is a special presentation.

♪♪ -Hello, and welcome to New Hampshire Civics Treat Talk, Kid Power!

A conversation with Marley Dias.

I'm Allyson Ryder, executive director of New Hampshire Civics, and I'm pleased to welcome Marley Dias, along with a group of New Hampshire fourth graders from Somersworth elementary schools as we explore student engagement and civic participation.

We also have nearly 500 students in grades three through seven watching from across the country for today's talk.

Let's all say hello!

[in unison] -Hey!

Many of them submitted questions which will be featured during our question and answer session with Marley today.

Marley Dias is as insightful, dynamic and purpose driven change maker who launched the viral 1000 Black Girl Books campaign and author of Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!

At just 13, she became the youngest person ever named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list which was in 2018, and her campaign has since collected over 15,000 books.

Transforming the conversation of representation in children's literature.

She is currently a student at Harvard University where she's finishing up her senior year.

She wrote for The Harvard Crimson, in 2025, Marley launched Third Space, a weekly newsletter that invites readers to explore culture, identity and imagination.

Marley, thank you so much for joining us today!

-So happy to be here, thank you for having me!

-We're really, really glad to have you.

We have some amazing questions from the students, but before we dive into that, I think we want to know who is Marley Dias?

Can you tell us a little bit more about where you grew up?

Your interests, your background and what kind of brought you to where you are today?

-Yeah, I mean, first I want to start with some facts.

So my name is Marley Amoke Emerson Dias.

I'm going to tell you guys about the meaning of my name, if that's okay.

So Marley means-- It's an English word for pleasant wood.

That's what it means.

It means that it is a wooden boundary area or field.

It is also the name of Bob Marley, the Jamaican reggae singer, and my mom is Jamaican.

My African name or Yoruba name, which comes from Nigeria, is Amoke, which means to know her is to cherish her, or a special person.

My other middle name is Emerson, which comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a writer and poet who went to Harvard, the school that I go to, and who told stories about nature, and about people.

And my last name is Dias.

(Pronounced as DYE-Ahs) It is not DEE-Ahs .

And, it is the name that my father has to.

So that's me.

And I think you guys will understand that.

That I'm an author, I'm an activist, I'm an artist, and I'm a pleasant wood, that is to be known and to be cherished, and that I love to write and that I am my dad's daughter.

And I think those are the facts so, does that makes sense?

-Yeah, perfect.

Thanks, Marley.

Do you-- I know you're in Boston now for the time being, until that big college thing wraps up.

Do you, mind sharing a little bit where you grew up and what that was like for you?

-Yeah!

I grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, around, so many other amazing girls who looked like me, and I had such really fun, all-girl friend groups my whole life, and then I had two very close boyfriends, my friend Zach and friend Kai, and I say boy space friend for those of you that might have caught me being fast.

But I had two good friends who were like my close-- elementary school friends, and I grew up with my mom founding a nonprofit called the Grassroots Community Foundation.

And she started it in our kitchen table in 2010 as a way to build space for girls to go to camp together during the summer.

So my mom started that when I was younger, and I was able to go and see my kitchen table kind of become like just the place where I was doing my math homework, and then all of a sudden become a real life camp where we're doing poetry and art and dancing and reading and singing.

And by the time I had gotten to fifth grade, I had realized that that was the most important thing to me was community.

And I wanted to build my own community.

And the best way I could do that was by giving people the opportunity to read about my stories.

So I brought these books for you guys to see today.

These are-- You guys can look at them and touch them.

These are books that I have taken out of the library, and these are books that I'm currently reading.

I'm going to Brazil tonight, Rio de Janeiro tonight for my college spring break.

So I got a book so that I can understand everything that's happening.

So I grew up in a community that told me that books were the most important thing, and I have followed them to the edge of the world and now look where I'm going.

-Yeah.

-So you guys wanna see the book?

Here you go.

And you guys can pass it around.

-Yeah definitely and hearing your story, one of the things that we've been talking alot about at New Hampshire civics and when we're working with youth across the state is just how do kids get information?

And books are absolutely a key part of that.

Are there other, other ways that you remember from when you grew up about whether it was TV shows or other ways that you, you felt help you, create the understanding of yourself that you have today and why your voice mattered?

-Yeah.

I think the best thing I did is I journaled every single day.

From the day that I could write to the last day of high school, Every time, as a student, as a public school student, I think it is so important to complain about your teachers and the things they say, because you can't go to a different school and you can't-- You don't want to go to private school because you don't want to go to a harder school.

And you don't want to leave your friends, and you don't want to change your life.

You just want to be with your people having fun.

-Yeah.

-And my advice is always to journal, because now I can look back and see that I loved fashion design, and I always wanted to live in Los Angeles and Tokyo and I've always loved Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and I got to go to the Super Bowl this year and and see Bad Bunny perform.

I have always dreamed of these things, and I've always wanted them, and it didn't happen because I pressured myself.

It happened because I dreamed about it.

-Yeah.

-And journaling is the private, kind of way that you get that.

-Yeah.

-And what these books are and what my book is, is just my journal.

I took my journals and I made it into this book.

And I think for you guys, if you have any journals, ever, know that they can just be made into a book.

-Yeah.

-And that people will read it.

Just the people that you love, or maybe the entire world.

-Yeah.

-And it might be that the people you love reading it is actually the scariest thing and not the entire world.

So think about that.

-Absolutely.

Well, Marley, this is a great pivot to the questions that we received because as much as I have a million questions for you, I know we received over 60 questions from students for you.

We don't have time to get to all of them today, but we're going to try to get to as many as we can.

-Okay.

-And so the one that came today-- to you today for the first question, actually came to us from a school in the Bronx as well as, here in Seabrook, New Hampshire, the Barnard Elementary School.

The question is, what was the pivotal moment that made you choose the path of being an author and an activist?

And how did you feel when you first started out?

-I mean, my story is clear and online, so I don't think that it's I think really for the sake of time, I would say that I was sick and tired of reading about white boys and their dogs in my assigned reading lists in schools.

I did not read about black girls.

I was the smartest person in my class and my teachers knew it, and there was nothing that they could do to show me something about the world that I didn't already know, and they thought they were helping me by showing me their experience.

But instead they were being dominant and they were being kind of like paternalistic, which is a big word that you guys would like, paternalistic towards me, and they were making me feel, clueless, about life.

Which I will say, for those who get it, get that reference.

[zipper zips] So yeah, I went from clueless, I decided to take my story into my own hands and to no longer be clueless about how people were gonna talk about black girls, or talk about women, or talk about smart people, or only children, or left handed people, or people who don't like ice cream like me, or people who support the Patriots like me, or people who have never eaten a burger like me!

[Allyson chuckles] And who still deserve all the amazing things in the world just because they don't like steak.

-Yeah.

-You know?

-Absolutely.

And for those who don't know, Orange County is probably pretty big Jets territory.

So to be a Patriots fan in in New Jersey-- -Yeah.

-That’s pretty bold.

-Exactly.

-Marley.

-It is, Essex County is, is the belly of the beast-- -I’m sure you weren’t getting the books we were up here about the great Patriots, with Tom Brady, so.

I also want to talk about, what it means to be a trailblazer.

And this came to us from a student, at Shaker Road in Loudon Elementary about what gave you the courage to do this in the first place and to keep going, especially when things felt overwhelming or hard?

-My parents, our parents all do so much for us, you know?

And they don't want to a lot of the time.

So I think sometimes it just felt very obvious to me that my parents were trying really hard and that I should do something, and there was nothing more I could ask of them.

You know?

There was nothing more I could put on my Christmas list, that was going to fix anything.

-Yeah.

And so you decided to try to fix it yourself.

And how did that feel when you had, you know, classmates who maybe had different experiences for you, but were reading books that felt like they matched with their experiences and didn't understand why you were doing what you were doing?

How did you help them understand why it was important to make sure that there were a lot of different stories out there?

-There were two-- I had two options.

I first, the first thing is I cried.

the first thing is always crying.

And I want to say that that’s okay, for kids and for any-- and any activist in life, it's either to cry or to be angry.

Raise your hand if when you're upset, the first thing you do is to cry.

[paper rustling] Raise your hand and now raise it high.

We all have to raise as high and show each other that we can all do it.

And now raise your hand if the first thing that when you get angry is to hit.

[Allyson chuckles] So for me, I'm both.

I go like this.

[imitated screaming] So that's what I did.

I went, [imitated screaming] and I did that for about ten years, and now I'm about to graduate college.

And I kind of did what I wanted to do.

I wrote two books.

I got an award at the United Nations.

I got the Forbes 30 under 30 award.

I got all the-- I got an Obama Foundation award where I got to travel the world this past summer.

I went-- Go to Harvard.

I met all my best friends.

Like life happens in school, guys.

So when you're in school and you feel bad, it's not normal.

It's not normal to not like school.

And you're going to have so many friends that will tell you and in that moment they were telling me Well I like school Well, I like school I like school, and I hated going to school because I wasn't learning anything.

And then I would go on my phone and at night and I would learn everything, about the world.

So if that's your experience, then you have to go out there and you have to tell someone and you don't have to do it today.

But you have to remember it, remember what I'm saying, and you have to take my advice when you need it.

-Yeah.

-You know what I'm saying?

You have to take my advice when you need it.

It doesn't have to be now.

But you gotta take my advice.

-Thank you Marley.

-Of course.

-And this came again from Barnard, school in Seabrook and so we know certainly at 11, you launched your-- Formally launched your campaign.

Did it happen overnight Marley?

And if not, how long did it take before you decided, You know what I'm going to be the person to do something about this -It took my entire life.

I mean, that's why I told you guys about my name.

So the idea is that Marley's are-- Marley is the idea of a pleasant wood.

It's the idea of a boundary.

The idea that we have each our own home.

That's what I’m-- I'm Marley!

Marley, your English accent, whatever it would be, that's what it would be.

And Bob Marley is a Jamaican person who was a part of the British-- Jamaica was a part of the British Empire.

And his name was Marley because it's a British name.

And that name means boundary and that name means Earth.

It means nice earth.

And then I have Amoke, which means to know her is to cherish her.

It means special.

And then I have Emerson, which is Ralph Waldo Emerson, a writer who went to Harvard, the school that I go to.

And then I have Dias, which is my dad and is Portugal and is Brazil, the place that I'm getting to go for my senior year, spring break.

So life can be magical if you do hard things, but if you try to make it short and sweet, it will just be that.

But life is long, and fun!

And, hold up the books because those are your tickets to go anywhere you want in the world kids.

-Even from-- -Anywhere you want, even from your home.

-Yeah.

-So those are your tickets.

You guys want to come to Rio with me?

If you read about it, then you come to Rio with me, and we can go on a trip to Rio.

Perfect!

-Thank you Marley.

Shaker Road.

What was the most rewarding part of the experience when you-- I know it still lives in your body today, but what was-- And when you think back to that time of all of a sudden you went viral and you know, you-- -What was the reference to the first-- you said Shaker-- -Shaker Road is a school that asked the question, oh, my apologies, yep.

-So Shaker Road wanted to know when you-- When it went viral and all of a sudden-- So what was that-- How was that a rewarding-- Was that a rewarding experience for you and if so, how?

And then also did this change who you are as a person or do you feel like it fit who you were meant to be?

-Well those questions there’s-- There’s a-- There was a flaw in that question it’s that who you are-- You don't get to choose who you're meant to be.

You have two parents and they have opinions and perspectives, and they're going to tell you what to do and they're going to put pressure on you to make decisions, and they're going to figure life out, and my parents are the best parents ever.

So I-- The reason why I was able to do this is because of-- It's both because of them, and it was both hard with them.

You know?

Like my dad has helped me through everything.

My mom helps me through everything.

I've always been like this, this girl that you see.

And the only reason that I know that is because of my parents, Right?

Like I didn't know that I was quirky and I didn't know that I could change the world, but my parents saw that.

So sometimes your parents are going to tell you something that's going to make you so upset where they're like, You could be the greatest socce player ever, or you could be the greatest writer ever, or you could be the-- whatever, and you're going to have to choose to not be afraid of reaching your highest potential.

You're gonna have to run to catch the bus.

You're going to have to do things afraid.

And I'm right now meeting the highest potential version of myself, because I did everything that my parents advised me to do.

[Allyson chuckles] Even when I didn't want to do it.

And it hurt.

But I am at the highest potential version of myself, and that is something that all kids need to know about taking advice from your parents.

It's going to lead you to the best you, but it's going to make you cry and it's going to make you go, [imitated screaming] as I literally have through creating 1000 Black Girl Books, you just fight back.

You fight back against things that hurt you.

And you do it consistently and you do it with a smile on your face and you do it with books.

-Yeah.

Thank you Marley.

I think that's just a great segue into where our students from Hill, which is a very small school in New Hampshire and Weare, New Hampshire as well, not where, but Weare.

And so we're just thinking about one of the pieces that we hear time and time again in New Hampshire civics and I'm sure you see it and know it and feel it, and I'm sure you all, as well as-- We-- One side say, kids are the most important thing in this world, and then don't always take what they say seriously.

So if they're sitting here today and saying, I see something that I don't think is very fair or is missing what are some ways that they can speak up and help and make a change?

-I'll be so honest, do you guys think that you have the tools based off of what I've said?

Is my question, because to me it's reading and writing and journaling and asking for help and talking to friends.

And if you're angry about something, doing something about it, does everybody feel clear on that?

That is all my advice.

So I think that any other question you ask me, it should be about my life because y'all got it!

I have full trust.

-Absolutely.

-I have full trust that anyone that is listening understands.

So thank you for that question, but that is the answer.

-That's really helpful and I think, when I, you know, I do love a good hashtag too and so that was like-- I was-- When I was reading about your background and thinking about, you know, what, you have agency and what you had agency over, you had amazing, supportive parents that helped and made sure that you had to the platforms and you had a awesome friend circle that worked with you and also you thought, what's a thing I can do that if this gets out there, people will wonder, what the heck am I talking about?

Right?

-Exactly -Thank you Marley.

Our friends here from Somersworth, you want me to ask about your life, and they want me to ask about your life as well and so they want to know-- We know you love to read.

We know you love to write.

What hobbies do you have?

Did you play any sports growing up?

And music, all of the, all the pieces so they-- They want to know a little more about you, Marley about what you do.

-I did, I'm going to give you everything that I tried-- Actually I’ll just tell you the story.

I’ll just tell you-- We’ll do the story.

We'll do the story.

-We'll do like I'm going to do a speed round and then just quick story.

I did gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer.

I was a goalie in soccer.

I was an attack in lacrosse.

I was a, defensive basketball player.

I was a quarterback of my flag football team for two years.

My dad coached that team.

I did 55 hurdles in high school.

I ran the 400 hurdles.

I ran the 200 meter.

I ran the 100 meter dash.

I ran the, I used to do weightlifting.

I boxed before, I use my hands to do sign language so I can say my name.

So I really believe that if you're someone like me who struggles with feelings, like I struggle with feelings a lot, I have to use my hands.

So I know ASL.

So I can say, hi my name is I can go, hi, my name is, M, A, R, L, E, Y, D, I, A, S, and I can say yes, and I can say no, and I can say I don't understand, and I can say I do understand and I can say, but, this is but and I can say want, and I can say more and I can say, you know, coffee I can say things with my, the way I take up space.

And I encourage you all to do that even when it's scary.

So that's why I used to dance the most.

And that was my biggest form of athletics, was dancing, and loving to dance.

-I have nieces who are huge dancers.

Do you mind sharing-- I know there's a million types and they're really into, lyrical jazz and all the fancy-- -Ballet.

-Ballet?

-Awesome.

-Ballet.

-Did you get on point?

-Yes, I did.

-I don't envy your feet.

-I did.

[both chuckle] Ballet was my favorite, and the most challenging style, if anyone ever wants to get-- If you ever want to actually be fit and strong in life, you must learn an African dance or a ballroom dance.

Ballroom dance is the hardest thing if you're a guy, you have to pick girls up, you ice skate, you ballroom dance, they pick girls up, they have to lift them and hold them and climb them and swing them and pull them around, you should watch it.

How men have to move in ballroom dancing and in ballet and in all that.

They have to hold up the lady.

The small, like the most like beautiful it'll be-- They'll be dressed like a swan, and then the boy just has to hold them and move them around.

And the girl has to do everything to balance on just that one little part of her finger.

And it's beaut-- Or of her toe.

Or sometimes even her finger, probably who knows?

We'll do upside down ballet.

-It’s the foot finger.

-Yeah, yeah the foot finger.

So just to say that like creative stuff is cool too.

-We have 500 students from across the country zooming in right now and I know your next book is going to have just as much power to it and unfortunately, we don't have it in front of us today the way we have the luxury of having your other book and so do you mind sharing a little bit more about what the, the new book coming out is going to be entitled?

What we can look forward to about it?

What, you know, who-- I know everyone should read it, but who were you really thinking of when you wrote it?

Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!

Is a title in the third person.

This book is a book called, I Am the Dream Come True.

So it's a book written in the first person.

And, any book that tells your story should be a book written in the first person.

-Great.

And did you have anyone in mind when you were writing it?

I know-- -Myself.

-Yourself?

-It's the story of my life.

-Yeah?

-I am the dream come true.

-Absolutely.

-And the book is a story about my mother's immigration from a village of 235 people, with no running water, or electricity.

My mother grew up in a village in Jamaica with 235 people, with no running water or electricity.

She only had access to the Bible, until she was 13 years old, and she immigrated from Jamaica, the middle of nowhere, to Boston.

And my dad is from Hyannis, on the Cape where the Kennedys are from.

And my great grandmother worked as a maid for president-- Former President John F Kennedy, who you may have heard of.

So history is weird and the past is funny, and whatever you believe in will find its way back to you in a gift of a dream of a child.

-And I, for better or worse, am that child.

And that is the story that I am telling.

-Thank you Marley.

Very last question as we wrap it up.

You got to meet the class here today.

What are you walking away today after having had the chance to meet these awesome kids from Somersworth?

What are you walking away feeling today?

-I just want you all to-- I want to literally, personally know what each and every one of you does ten years from now.

That is all I desire, is to know what you guys will be doing when you're in 14th grade, which is your sophomore year of college?

-Yeah, your second year after highschool, whatever that-- -Yeah, second year after high school-- -Absolutely, yeah.

Marley, thank you so much for joining us today for this important discussion.

We so appreciate your presence.

We appreciate all of you joining us in studio.

You have absolutely inspired our audiences, young, old, alike across the country and here with us today so thank you so much again, Marley.

-Well, thank you guys so much.

You guys are the best!

I want a group hug.

If we could do a group hug.

[applause] ♪♪ -This has been a special presentation: The New Hampshire Civics Treat Talk.

♪♪ ♪♪