We were lucky to catch up with Simmy Buck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Simmy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Loving Little Minds is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides monthly children’s multicultural books to kids ages birth to 6 to battle systemic racism and empower our littles to envision a more just future for all.

We hope to inspire future generations to make positive and inclusive change.

Simmy Buck is the President of Loving Little Minds.

Growing up one of the only kids of Indian-American descent in her hometown, Simmy didn’t have access to textbooks that told a fair story about people of color, and she didn’t remember having access to books that told multidimensional stories about them, either. She found that the limited access she and her surrounding community had to diverse perspectives had ripples effects—in how she was treated in the classroom and in how she often tried to blend in rather than embrace her own differences.

Loving Little Minds aims to bring multicultural children’s books to homes that opt in to do so on a monthly basis so everybody can see themselves—and others unlike them—fully and fairly represented in the pages of a book.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Simmy Buck, and I am a first-generation Indian American. I grew up in a suburban town in Massachusetts as the one of the only students of color in my school, and I felt an immense pressure to assimilate with the culture around me given that I didn’t see many other kids like me. I often hid the complexities and intricacies of my heritage from my classmates, as I didn’t believe that these qualities I had and inherited would be celebrated if I let people see them. I never saw it reflected anywhere on the screen or in the pages of books I read—nobody was talking about the Bollywood music I loved to listen to, the fried luchi I liked to eat, or the colorful bangles I loved to wear.

I know now that I wasn’t alone, and I don’t want this generation of kids to have this experience. I want them to know that they can be a main character in the pages of a book, and that their stories are worth highlighting and validating. Books have a tremendous power to influence who we are and who we think we can be, and so that is why Loving Little Minds Home Library Project’s mission is to increase access to diverse children’s books. We want the stories of traditionally marginalized voices to take centerstage to empower today’s kids and normalize diversity. Bookshelves should be a true reflection of our world–not just the few.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I very distinctly remember a vivid experience in middle school, where the teacher had planned a one-class unit on “Indian Culture.” (One 40 minute class as if that was all there was to say about it.) Being the type of kid who spent most of her childhood trying to blend into the background for various reasons, I remember being a little bit apprehensive anyway. Unsurprisingly, growing up in a primarily white suburban town in the 90s, I was the only Indian American, and often the only POC, in my class. That day, the teacher chose to focus his tirade (there was yelling) on how in Indian culture it’s perfectly acceptable to beat one’s wife, and that hygiene was an issue in the culture. There were also comments about cows and how they hold up traffic but nobody does anything about it, and maybe the strangeness of the food. The take-home message for my peers was that as a people we were weird, repulsive, and backwards—and that’s all there was to know. There were intermittent snickers and gasps and “ewww”s around me in that linoleum classroom, each one making me feel a little more hollow. Whatever was said there by that teacher would have likely been my classmates’ first impression ever of my culture, and maybe even what they used to define it for years afterwards.

I went home that day feeling alienated and demoralized.

After that day, in my grade school education, I don’t remember reading textbooks that told a fair story about POC, and I don’t remember having access to books that told multidimensional stories about POC.

This initiative my family has started brings children’s books to local homes that opt in to do so on a monthly basis. We are focusing on books geared towards ages birth to 6. We work with local bookstores, including those owned and run by POCs, and we hope we can be a vocal member of the community about racial injustices in our education system. The embarrassment of that day was a lonely feeling, and yet I know any young POC will find it a familiar one. We can and must do better.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

We ensure that we are making connections with local business owners like us, at local market and festivals where we have a regular presence. This ensures that we’re interfacing with families who would be a good fit for our subscription service and who can get behind our mission. Local business owners have given us tremendous support by allowing us to do pop-ups and read-alouds in their space (places like the The Toyary in Melrose and Colleen’s in Medford), which gives us exposure and momentum.

Contact Info:

• Website: lovinglittleminds.org
• Instagram: lovinglittleminds
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lovinglittleminds
• Thread: lovinglittleminds

Image Credits
Family photo-Dyuti Majumdar Photography