Why the approval of the JCPS Females of Color STEAM Academy brought me to tears

In a 2017 research article from the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law, “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls Childhood,” authors Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake and Thalia Gonzalez wrote that often times black girls are seen as being older, louder and more difficult…I can speak from personal experience. I was always the tallest girl in class and looked older than my peers. People thought I should say certain things, do certain things and carry myself a certain way. I was 10 years old but looked like a teenager, so when I acted like a 10-year-old, people couldn’t understand why, and they were often frustrated. I never quite felt like I fit in.