Award-winning Teen Journalist’s Bestselling Book On Activism Approved For School Curriculums

Nationwide… Award-winning teen journalist and former NAACP Youth Council President Alejandra Stack’s debut book Activate Your Activism has been approved for school curriculums after hitting the bestseller list. The 15-year-old wrote the book after a video of her being interviewed at the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests in Atlanta, Georgia, in May 2020 went viral. 

“I have been to other peaceful protests, but the one in May 2020 outside of CNN in Atlanta was unlike anything I had ever seen,” said Stack. “My mom is a journalist too, and she made me write an essay to explain what I knew of the protest and the difference in observing and rioting and protesting because she really didn’t want to take me. But I proved to her I was ready to go out, and she went with me, and it was emotional on so many levels. I was interviewed by another person covering it, and I broke down while expressing my views. A lot of people saw that and asked me to share my experience.”

Stack highlighted lessons learned from civil rights leaders she’s met thus far as well as some personal aspects of her life being the child of an immigrant, identifying as Afro-Latina, and having a homeschool curriculum before COVID19 that focused on the African diaspora in the Caribbean and Americas. The book is filled with photographs she took during the protest, her receiving her membership to the NAACP at age 11, receiving the MLK Rising Star Award at 12, her first newspaper column in The Georgia Star at 9, and meeting the last surviving original Freedom Rider. 

She concluded the book with cartoon highlights and tips on how kids can take a stand for whatever they want to be an activist for, whether its animals, the environment, or another cause, and also how they can activate their inner activist even if they are not allowed to go to the physical protests.

“I just wanted to share my story with other kids and on behalf of kids,” says Stack. “I got invited to speak on a few panels, and I was the only kid, and everyone was like ‘Oh wow Allie, your view is so insightful!’. The thing is a lot of times, adults like to make assumptions like we don’t know what’s going on or ignore topics and think we don’t know. But the truth is even before our parents tell us, some of us experience racism with our peers or online, and we have views too. And some of us who have multicultural heritage experience it with our own relatives. So this book was very important because, for me, I think it gives my generation a voice on a very important topic.”

Activate Your Activism is available at multiple retailers including Amazon, Book Depository UK, and Barnes & Noble while wholesale copies are available at www.alejandrastack.com.

– Arthia Nixon