Agarwal reading in the background: “Angelique Kidjo was born into a family of musicians, and surrounded by traditional Beninese and Yoruba music growing up...”
That would be Natasha Agarwal, reading from her new book, “Tales of African Women Trailblazers.” It describes the lives of 21 African-born women who have overcome challenges to find success in various fields. And if you could hear her and she sounds young, that’s because she is. She is a 17-year-old high school senior at the Canterbury School in Fort Myers.
She wrote the books because she wanted young African girls to be able to see a successful future for themselves with education and freedom to pursue their interests.
She describes how she selected the women she highlights in the book.
“I really wanted to highlight people from different career paths and different countries in Africa,” she said.
Agarwal was able to contact one of the women in the book. Nana Ama Browne Klutse, a professor of physics at the University of Ghana, offered to spearhead distributing the book in her home country.
“She told us she planned to visit 50 schools and distribute 20 books to each school,“ Agarwal said.
In 2021, Agarwal created the nonprofit organization BelieveNBooks, which distributes books to underserved children. Together with the group, Agarwal continues to do book drives. They have distributed 120,000 books so far.
Agarwal hopes to continue a series that features women from other continents.
Order the book from Agarwal's website, BelieveNBooks. Proceeds from book sales will go to help distribution in Africa.
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