CULTURE | MAR. 13, 2024
A Note from A’ja
Cover of Wilson’s book Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You
By Alacia Williams
A radiant smile, reflecting years of hard work, graces the cover of A’ja Wilson’s latest book, "Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You." Within its pages, the two-time WNBA champion generously shares invaluable life lessons she's acquired as a Black woman with the Howard community and the women’s basketball team. In collaboration with PepsiCo, Wilson visited campus to discuss her book and the profound wisdom encapsulated within its chapters.
The event commenced with a generous giveaway presenting her book to the first 100 students in attendance. Following a panel discussion, the atmosphere buzzed with excitement as she invited students to a book signing session. Eager attendees lined up for the chance to have their freshly acquired books signed and capture a one-on-one moment in a photograph.
While these enticing perks certainly enhanced the event's appeal, the true pinnacle unfolded in A’ja Wilson's spellbinding storytelling. She seamlessly wove indispensable life lessons into her book, emphasizing profound themes such as discovering one's purpose and recognizing the importance of community.
“If I’m satisfied with being comfortable, I’m never going to grow,” Wilson said. In her book, she speaks about the vulnerability that comes with change but urges readers to face it head-on because there is always success at the other end, just like it was for her.
Despite her initial aversion to sweating, Wilson, driven by her father's encouragement, embraced basketball as a teenager, leading the University of South Carolina to a championship. Amid fame and pressure, her grandmother provided a grounding influence, emphasizing the importance of holding onto living grandparents. However, she also urged students to remember to be kind to themselves through these journeys. She said, “Give yourself some grace. Whatever is meant for you will come.”
Wilson also spoke about the importance of community, another theme that comes up in her book as she had an arsenal of strong Black women behind her for most of her journey. As she started to gather more fame and additional pressure from the outside world due to her collegiate basketball career, she said she often turned to her grandmother who allowed her to simply be herself.
“If you have living grandparents still, hold on to them tight,” she noted as she reminisced on the time spent with her own. Wilson also had the support of her mother who seemed to balance out her father’s attempts of developing her basketball skills.
The mixture of family support ensured that she had resources in multiple areas of life, and she urged the audience, especially other black women, to find their community and keep them close and the world often “sweeps us under the rug”.
“The world is never going to let up on us. That can’t shake us from being successful,” Wilson shared. The reason she wrote the book and decided to share it with Howard students lies with the shared experiences Black women have been forced to face in this world.
“I actually can’t stand reading,” said Wilson. The ironic statement came about as she began to discuss the reasoning behind writing the book. Despite her earlier statements of wanting to be an author and illustrator when she was younger, she revealed that reading is not a favorable hobby for her.
“I’ll spend like an hour rereading the same page,” Wilson clarified. Because of this, she knew that she wanted her book to be different. Her desire to fulfill that childhood dream of being an author while also catering to those who may not enjoy reading as much as others, she wrote her book in a journal format. The formatting allowed her to get her message across in a concise method that drew attention to the lessons she was teaching rather than a distracting format which turned out to be successful.
Stories from her childhood of dealing with microaggressions revolving around her name or just racism in South Carolina as a whole fill the pages as she knows many Black girls are going through something similar. The book’s key purpose is to give black women the confidence to go out and change the world for the better. The book acts as a form of encouragement and a reminder that black women are not alone in this world.
