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| Courtesy of ClipArt |
"ZeeBee's Lovely
Stripes" is a
children's story addressing body image. There are two elements behind the
creation of "ZeeBee's Lovely Stripes".
The first: I have two young
daughters, so it is important to me to find positive role models and
female cartoon characters for my girls to be exposed to.
Girls have horrible role models
presented to them in the media. It would appear that the only use for a
woman is for lust and sex. Unacceptable. Even the strong characters like Wonder Woman are
sending bad messages. (I'm choosing Wonder Woman as an example because, in
my experience with little girls, she's what all of them wants to
be--a pretty princess that is strong and kicks the bad guy's ass!)
Wonder Woman's outfit is sexy; It's a halter top and hot pants.
Why? This isn't
functional. Wouldn't her boobs spill out and her pants ride up? There's no need
for sexiness when the world is in certain peril. She has already proven her
worth by continually saving the city so why does she feel it necessary to be
sexy all the time?"Zeebee's Lovely
Stripes" is intended
to combat those toxic images and themes.
The idea for ZeeBee came like a lightning
strike and once it had, I didn't have a choice, the story demanded
existence. My target audience for
this book is Kindergarten to 2nd grade girls and is meant for
parent's-especially dads-to read it aloud with their daughters. I feel
that it is important for fathers to read "girl power" books to their
little girls to support their psychological development.
My oldest, Maelin, was usually a good eater, and would at
least try a bite of most new foods and was active running around all day. So it
came as a disturbing surprise when she suddenly stopped eating.
It seemed to come from no where; it certainly did not from her mom and me. Maelin finally told us that she became friends with an overweight girl named
Jayne (not her real name) and she didn't want to "be fat" like her.
The only thing Maelin knew
to do to keep from getting fat was to stop eating, so that's what she did.
Many parents would say it's sad that she thinks
this way at the age of six--and it is--but I'm glad it happened when it did
because she is still at the age that she isn't keeping secrets from my wife and
me. She hasn't learned what bulimia or anorexia is--if we can squash this now
it will stave off any future disasters so we're lucky this problem
developed when it did.
So. Back to ZeeBee. I couldn't write fast enough.
Day, day and a half maybe was all it took. Polishing is never-ending, however.
I think it was George Lucas that said something to the effect "projects
aren't ever finished; they're abandoned." This will probably be ZeeBee. If the moment with my
daughter (and a repeat incident of it) was the storm behind the lightning
strike, the bolt was the song by Tori Amos titled "Mr. Zebra." This is the second element of
the story's creation.
The first line of her song was magic. It goes: "Hello, Mr. Zebra. Can I have
your sweater because it's cold, cold, cold in my hole, hole, hole?"
It is a cute fun song and the idea of animals trading "clothes"
was very interesting to me and that got me to thinking about how animals would
look with the wrong patterns on. Then that rabbit-holed into imagining
different sized animals swapping pelts as well.
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L-to-R: Harley age 4, Amy, Maelin age 8, me
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"ZeeBee's Lovely Stripes" is the first in a series of books that I have planned for little girls to enjoy. Other topic that I have in mind are: Thinking about consequences, Eating disorders, bullying/sticking up for your friends, and controlling emotions.
Author David Chapman
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