Johnna Roberson’s love for children led her to write Who Am I?, a book geared toward helping African American children understand who they are, where they come from, and what they can be in life. Roberson shows children that they don’t have to stop at being a firefighter or doctor, but owning a business and being an entrepreneur could also be a career goal.
Roberson spoke with rolling out about her book and what she thinks it can do for the younger generation.
When did you decide to write this book?
It had to be when I was probably fresh out of college. The first year, I was going through it, and I had a [serious] depression. It was just me, myself, and God in a bedroom, sometimes not even leaving the house, and just trying to think of ways to make more money and to [help] other people and students because my passion was always for kids. I always had the thought in the back of my head that I could be an author and do children’s books. A few weeks after that, I went ahead and put it in my Notes [app]. I wrote this book in my Notes, and I had it in my Notes for years before I stopped procrastinating and did it. It didn’t even take long when I did it. The long wait was the illustration part, but now I can do it quickly.
What can this book do for the younger generation?T
This generation [doesn’t] have much guidance now, and I don’t know whether [it’s because of] younger parents or too many parents or guardians aren’t there in their child’s lives anymore. I feel that this [book] was needed for these kids to have some sense of direction. That’s why I’m a teacher: to give my kids a sense of direction and guidance other than what they do have, and if they don’t have it, I am missing some guidance and direction. With this book, I feel like, if I can’t be there in person, this book can teach you something about what you can do, what you can see, and who you can be because you may not even know until you read it. I can only teach my 500 students here at this school, but this can get to the masses and hopefully make a big change. I know these kids around here; they need it, the different demographics and our Black kids need it heavily. This is just a source of guidance for them, especially in this day and age with social media. This can be a small outlet so they’ll know what’s true, and it’ll stick.
