An Interview With Lupita Nyong’o On Her Debut Picture Book, Sulwe, and the Seed of Self-Value

By melissasarno / October 17, 2019 at 9:00 am

Sulwe

By Lupita Nyong'o
Illustrator Vashti Harrison

In Stock Online

Hardcover $17.99

Sulwe is a moving and powerful picture book from Academy award-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o. The heartwarming story of a young girl with skin the color of midnight is based on Nyong’o’s own childhood in Kenya, where she was teased for her dark skin. Like Nyong’o did, Sulwe also comes to understand her unique beauty in a magical journey to find the light within.

In this interview, Nyong’o shares more about the inspiration for her debut picture book and her hopes for a new generation of readers.

Sulwe is so beautiful; the kind of book I want to clutch to my heart. In your author’s note, you talk about how, like Sulwe, you were also teased as a child about the color of your skin and wished for “beauty”. What changed and how have your feelings about beauty evolved throughout your life?

Thank you! That heart-clutching reaction is exactly what I hope readers will feel. One of the reasons I decided to write a children’s book was to heal grown-up wounds. I wanted to give myself the book I never had. In terms of my own experience, I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, in a predominantly Black and dark-skinned world. Yet even there the preference for lighter skin prevailed. Pale skin was ubiquitous in the media that I consumed and in the advertising that surrounded me. My mother is and was a guiding light for me, and throughout my life she always reinforced the belief that beauty comes from within. However, the pervasiveness of colorism was difficult to ignore.

One profound moment that impacted my self-image was the success of Alek Wek. Here was a supermodel, dark as night, on magazine covers, walking designer runways. Even Oprah was praising her as a world class beauty. Alek made me see myself anew—as someone of aesthetic value, one who could be celebrated by the gatekeepers of beauty. My perception shifted, and I worked towards building upon that newfound confidence.

A star in the night sky brings Sulwe a story of night and day that changes her perspective about herself. What inspired that story within the story?

When the character of Sulwe first appeared in my imagination, I knew a few things about her. Among them was that she loved nighttime best, because she felt she could hide in the dark more easily. And I knew that Sulwe had to learn to see her beauty as a light that radiated through her midnight skin, and that she did so with her own agency. I spent some time looking at images of the equatorial night sky above Kenya, imagining the comfort that Sulwe might feel. The beauty that exists at night that many people are not awake to witness served as the inspiration for Sulwe’s magical journey. The idea of Night and Day as sisters who each had their own unique beauty grew from there.

Can you tell us more about the evolution of this book? Where did the idea for a picture book begin?

The seed of the idea was planted after a speech I gave: In 2014, I was honored to receive an award at the 7th annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon, presented by ESSENCE Magazine. ESSENCE is, of course, a famed beauty magazine that celebrates black beauty in all its forms—the beauty we possess but also produce. In that speech I spoke about how I struggled to find beauty in my dark skin, and how I hoped my presence on screens and in magazines would be a source of validation for young people growing up with similar struggles today.

That speech struck a chord with many people, and was shared far and wide on the internet. But I realized after that, that the lessons I had learned and was hoping to teach about self-love and self-acceptance needed to be heard also by people that were not going to click on my speech: It needed to be heard by children, at the precipice of change, right when they are starting to get a sense of the larger world and starting to internalize how other people see them. Children the world over face colorism from a very young age, but it is not often directly addressed. And so the character of Sulwe was born to tackle the issue head on.

As an actor, you bring stories and characters to life on screen. What was it like to put the story down on paper?

Challenging! Writing is not easy, but it is rewarding. I had a lot of fun flexing this new creative muscle.

How did the collaboration between art and words work? What was your reaction when you saw Vashti Harrison’s stunning illustrations?

Vashti is a dream collaborator. When I first saw her character sketch of Sulwe, I knew I had found a partner who shared my vision for Sulwe’s story. Although colorism is a heavy topic, it was important to me that Sulwe have warmth and whimsy. Vashti’s illustrations exceeded my hopes for what the book could be.

Tell us more about your life and books. What books stirred your imagination as a child?

I loved books when I was a child, but I did not enjoy reading. The main books I had, and read, were the Ladybird series of “Well-Loved Tales,” like Thumbelina, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and Goldilocks. There was a lot of pale skin and long flowing blonde hair in all these stories, so sadly, my imagination was filled with the desire and aspiration to possess those features. I felt like magic and dreams were fulfilled by and for those with lighter skin than mine. I wrote Sulwe to include dark skin in the world of magic and dreams for the new generation.

In your moving speech at the Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood event, you talked about what it meant for you to see women who looked like you celebrated. What stories or books do you wish more readers had access to?

I would love to see more work by African writers and artists available worldwide. I’d like for the African perspective to exist globally in every genre out there in such a way that it becomes too general to speak of “African” itself as a genre.

What does it mean to you to bring Sulwe to young readers?

From my own experience, I know the impact that having a role model can have. As a child, I struggled to find beauty in my dark skin, and now I hope my presence on screens, in magazines and in the words of my book, can be a source of validation for young people growing up with similar struggles today.

With Sulwe, I wanted a way to reach impressionable children before they had been told that they were not valuable, to kind of change the course of their subconscious thinking. I believe that when children’s books are successful, they are lessons deferred: we love them now and understand them later. Their value grows with time. I want Sulwe to be the seed of self-value that children can grow from and then draw from in later years.

Sulwe is on B&N bookshelves now.