Garcelle Beauvais with the children in attendance for her book reading of I Am Awesome at WeVillage Los Angeles in Sherman Oaks. PHOTO BY STEPHANIE DAY FOR OGRAPHER INC.
It was an awesome day at WeVillage Flexible Childcare in Sherman Oaks recently as actress, producer and author Garcelle Beauvais met with pint-size fans of her children’s book “I Am Awesome,” which she co-wrote with Sebastian A. Jones. The book is part of Beauvais’s I Am Book series, which also includes the titles “I am Living in 2 Homes” and “I Am Mixed.”
Beauvais says she was inspired to become a writer after having her now 10-year-old twin sons, who are mixed race. “I couldn’t find any books that celebrated diversity, and my kids rarely saw characters that looked like them,” she says. Her stories aim to help children from diverse backgrounds feel empowered. “It’s about making them feel awesome, whether it’s not being afraid of the dark, or helping a friend that’s being bullied, or knowing how to ride a bike,” Beauvais says. At the WeVillage event, celebrities of all ages were in attendance, including Ali Landry, Linsey Godfrey, Benjamin Akili Patterson, Kheri Rogers, William Artope, Hunter and Easton Von Der Lieth, Grae Carter, and Leila Gharache.
“I can’t say enough about [WeVillage Los Angeles],” Beauvais says. “If I was a kid, I’d hang out there all the time. As a parent, you always want to find things to do with your kids, so going to a book reading [not] only inspires kids to read and meet an author, it might also inspire them to see a book inside themselves.” For more information about the I Am Book Series, visit garcelle.com/books.
