[00:00:00] Aditi Singh: I noticed that there were not a lot of people talking about how difficult It is to raise multicultural kids and often people don't understand... People have no idea that you are raising a multicultural kid. If your kid is going in an any environment today they are in a multicultural environment.
[00:00:16] Dori Durbin: As adults, most of us have been in a place where we felt awkwardly out of place. Would that discomfort be here now if, as young kids, we are encouraged to be curious, accepting, and embrace other cultures, and even just confident in our own self?
[00:00:32] Dori Durbin: Welcome to the power of kids books where we believe books are a catalyst to empower and inspire change. I'm your host, Dori Durbin.
[00:00:42] Dori Durbin: Our guest today is a multi award winning, best selling author. She is an authoritative voice in cultural sensitivity and empowerment, and has been featured in numerous global publications and broadcast networks like NBC and CBS.
[00:00:56] Dori Durbin: She is also the founder of RaisingWorldChildren. com. Her [00:01:00] books are meant to help parents diversify their libraries by lifting up other multicultural authors like herself. Oh, and she also choreographs dances for kids while raising mindful awareness for readers everywhere. Welcome to the show, Aditi .
[00:01:14] Dori Durbin: Thank you so much, Dori. I'm so excited to be on this platform with you.
[00:01:18] Dori Durbin: Oh, thank you for taking the time. So we'll cut to the chase and start with the tough stuff. So you're a parent, you're an educator, and now you've been a children's author for a few years, anyway, for sure.
[00:01:30] Dori Durbin: Where do you feel cultural awareness and acceptance are still failing short in our kids lives? Where do you see the holes?
[00:01:39] Aditi Singh: Wow. That's a really real doozy. If they still say that I honestly feel that there's a huge gap between how we perceive our kids versus how kids perceive themselves. And I think it is very important for all of us to take the time to understand our [00:02:00] children's mindsets and Have more awareness of the kind of conversations they are having with their friends often I have spoken to you about this earlier in our conversations that I teach writing to kids and often, very often I have kids saying that, Oh, those American kids did this to me and I'll be like,
[00:02:17] Aditi Singh: why do you say that you are American of Indian heritage, so you're as American as anyone else. I understand in their heads where it's coming from. But if that course correction doesn't happen, it leads to a sense of not belonging. And that is very innate, that's often it comes from parents who are probably immigrants who don't see themselves as American yet, even though they may have citizenship.
[00:02:43] Aditi Singh: That is from the perspective of. People of color and I feel cultural awareness is also lacking because representation usually happens in stereotypes because that is those are the easier ones you're leaning into, right? So it is more important to understand that yes, it's [00:03:00] fine. Those stereotypes exist for a reason because of course, chai is very important to Indian homes.
[00:03:04] Aditi Singh: And a lot of people do have certain things like Sic people wear turbans, but yes, there are always exceptions to every rule and we need to understand and explain that to kids. So not everyone wears bindi, not everyone loves chai.
[00:03:18] Aditi Singh: So that is where I think the gap is where, and that's actually I feel I often talk about grace and I feel we all need to have grace for each other where in today's world, we are the cultural awareness has become borderline you
[00:03:30] Aditi Singh: penalize someone for not knowing something, but your job may not be to educate people, but yes, creating awareness is beneficial to everyone. So there should never be a thought that, Oh, why don't they not know? Why don't they educate themselves?
[00:03:47] Aditi Singh: the fact of the matter is that people do not know what they do not know. And that is where every single person comes in, where you can invite people into your home. Show them your world and then they'll be like, Oh, okay. [00:04:00] So this is how Indian culture is in your home. Cause India is extremely diverse.
[00:04:05] Aditi Singh: India is probably, I think I don't even know geographically, but probably like one 50th of the size of us, but the diversity within India is exponential.
[00:04:16] Dori Durbin: It's funny. You said so many good things there and I deserve it because I asked you a really big question.
[00:04:24] Dori Durbin: I do think that, we do make assumptions based off of what we know and even. What I knew about people when I was growing up was out of a book that cracked when it opened and dust flew out of it. It was not a realistic representation of what was going on.
[00:04:42] Dori Durbin: And I think, as parents, if we don't have that background, we don't have that knowledge. We equip them with the dusty book scenario and it's just not fair to anyone. Yeah, I think that's great. And what you said too, about, different. Families are going to [00:05:00] be representing their culture in different ways, like they're not all going to have the same tradition, the same food.
[00:05:05] Dori Durbin: Those are really essential pieces. So was there something like in your own experience that really called to you that made you say, I need to capture this in a kid's book. I need to put this out there for other parents to use for kids to understand.
[00:05:24] Aditi Singh: Oh, yes, definitely. My first book, Strong Roots Have No Fear, was a book for parents. It is a resource for young parents who are looking to empower their kids to be confident in making the choices and to have a strong cultural identity.
[00:05:40] Aditi Singh: Now that comes from me understanding that my childhood affected my parenting a lot. Often, we can become two kinds of parents. Either. We can become exactly like our parents or completely opposite. And we need, unless we take the time to understand why we make decisions, it's often going to be [00:06:00] either, here is why we are doing everything or because I said so.
[00:06:05] Aditi Singh: And we need to have a balance between those two. Which is where that came from. How our skin sparkles came from my son going to school and now I have heard a lot more stories of bullying and colorism happening, but for him, it was a very innocent why are you different from all of us at preschool?
[00:06:25] Aditi Singh: And he came home and everyone I would talk to about it would be like, ha. This has happened to my kid too. And I said, why isn't anyone addressing it? And that's where my book came from, because it uses science and culture to explain that where this why everyone's skin color is different.
[00:06:43] Aditi Singh: And it's not our skin color, but our kindness and our choices that define us. Then came a sparkles of joy. Which is my son's desire to celebrate our festivals with his friends Because often unfortunately, I often see christmas is not very social we are [00:07:00] not invited to a lot of christmases here Even for diwali we tend to hesitate.
[00:07:04] Aditi Singh: I will be honest I have But I do invite his friends, but I feel very awkward in inviting the parents because i'm not sure if They would be interested or whatever. So I thought this was a great way to show everyone that christmas hanukkah and Diwali are very similar but they're rooted in different stories and those kinds of things.
[00:07:22] Aditi Singh: How the beauty of togetherness is. Then came smaller, tall, we sparkle after all, which is my daughter's story. Because she's extremely short. So she, a lot of time gets comments, unnecessary comments, I must say about how, Oh, she's so cute. Can I put her in my pocket or, Oh, I can't believe you're not in kindergarten.
[00:07:41] Aditi Singh: And they hurt her. So I thought it was important for kids to understand again the science behind it because growth is very hormone driven. And you don't have control. A lot of people have this misconception.
[00:07:52] Aditi Singh: I asked two worlds is my own story because I used to feel the most. out of place. I have grown up in Kuwait. [00:08:00] I am Indian by birth, but I was born and raised in Kuwait, which is similar to my kids situation. And I used to feel the most out of place in India, when during the Gulf War, we had to live in India for three years.
[00:08:11] Aditi Singh: And often people would ask me, where are you from? And I would be like, India? And they expected, a state answer, or, they could make out from my, the way I was, that I was an Indian, I never had those kind of, there's a different mentality many Indians have, and I was not language driven, I was not state driven, so it used to confuse people.
[00:08:30] Aditi Singh: Then came The Sparkles Within, which is a children's book which I thought many kids today need because we often do not know what our talents are. Even as adults, none of us know. Like we're still figuring these things out. But Sparkles of The Sparkles Within is a story of a girl who wants to perform and she sees all these amazing people doing amazing things.
[00:08:53] Aditi Singh: And she's wait, what's my talent? And she again, uses culture and. A real life [00:09:00] examples around her and the book also shows adults that I really hope that adults see this, that There is no age limit for practicing and learning new skills. So that's where that book came from. Oh my god! Within is a fiction book that I've written.
[00:09:16] Aditi Singh: It's 30 stories about stereotype breaking. messages that I want people to understand about Indian culture and Indians themselves. I hope they, many have reached out to me saying, oh, I, I wish, I had thought like that. Stories about periods, stories about LGBTQ community, stories about how we perceive things.
[00:09:37] Aditi Singh: Whereas sometimes it's simply a matter of thinking from the other person's perspective having grace in those moments. And of course, my, the one I'm most proud of is raising the global mindset. It's effort by 25 women around the world to talk about the challenges in multicultural parenting and how we can overcome them in our daily lives.[00:10:00]
Please excuse this interruption, but I couldn't help. But notice that you had a thought just now. I think you said you wished you had a book that truly spoke to you when you were a kid. Well, it's not too late. You can write that book and I'd love to help you. Let's book a call and we can chat about it. Just use the link in the show notes below. Okay. Back to the podcast
[00:10:24] Dori Durbin: so definitely driven by experience and definitely driven with the desire to change what, what is perceived right now. Yes. All right. Okay. I'm still absorbing the volume of what you're producing. It's, that's amazing. So I know that with the dance choreography, that has been something that you did, I believe, before the books.
[00:10:47] Dori Durbin: Yes. And probably a passion of yours. Yes. Have you been able to use that? Sounds like maybe, but have you been able to use that passion in your actual writing?
[00:10:58] Aditi Singh: Yes. Every book. [00:11:00] I did not even notice it till the third book. Every book has dancing in it because I've done, and even in Sparkles of Joy, there is a moment.
[00:11:09] Aditi Singh: Even then I have made it a point when I realized in Sparkles of Joy, there's a moment where one boy says to another, you don't need to dance if you don't want to. It's fine. But every book has a, has dancing in it because Indian culture is very dance driven. Like you dance. Enjoy you a lot. A lot of people even like even one of our gods in Hinduism.
[00:11:32] Aditi Singh: He dances when he's really angry. So that it's very ingrained in the culture in Hinduism and the weddings, the festivals, the, the celebrations. So yes, every book has dancing in it.
[00:11:47] Dori Durbin: That's awesome. I wondered and then the sparkles piece, where does that come in?
[00:11:52] Aditi Singh: Oh, that's just because I feel we all sparkle.
[00:11:55] Aditi Singh: So the series is called the Sparkling Me Children's Books because I [00:12:00] love the fact, and I often, I feel that especially as adults, we all forget that we have our own sparkles and we start comparing our sparkles with another's and that's where all the challenges come from.
[00:12:12] Dori Durbin: You're so right. I love that concept too, because sparkles They stand out, they have this attractive quality that everyone wants to have sparkles, so it's that's really great.
[00:12:23] Aditi Singh: Whether it's firecrackers, whether it's fireworks, I think sparkles are something that always, make us feel happy and I think that's where that comes from.
[00:12:33] Dori Durbin: And that celebration piece of it too. Yes. Yes. Yeah. All right. So tell me about raisingworldchildren.
[00:12:39] Dori Durbin: com. What is it and why do you have it?
[00:12:43] Aditi Singh: Yes. Again, this would lead me to speaking a little bit about my journey. I started blogging back on Orkut when Orkut was a thing in 2007. Because I couldn't get a visa. I couldn't work. So my husband said, Hey, you always enjoyed writing a lot. Why don't lean into this?
[00:12:58] Aditi Singh: This is something new that's up and [00:13:00] coming. And I said, okay. So I had a group of people. We used to blog and comment on each other's stuff and improve our writing skills and things like that. From there, I had a baby and I, we, my husband and I were always clear that, I wanted to be at home. But writing is, you can do at home.
[00:13:15] Aditi Singh: I would freelance. As a writer and, I grew through that and I was writing for a lot of publications. I wrote for Huffington Post. I wrote for Thrive. I wrote for a lot of in print magazines, but I noticed that there were not a lot of people talking about how difficult It is to raise multicultural kids and often people don't understand and I think this answers a little bit of your first question also is that a lot of people have no idea that you are raising a multicultural kid.
[00:13:43] Aditi Singh: If your kid is going in an in any environment today they are in a multicultural environment. I realized and I never in my life have ever claimed to know all the answers. So I thought there needs to be a platform where there are people talking about These challenges. [00:14:00] So we have Raising World Children was born in 2017.
[00:14:04] Aditi Singh: Took me 10 years to get there and it was 35 writers to begin with. And we used to publish three articles every week. And of course, two, two and a half years later, I moved into publishing and I was doing that. And along with that, I was doing my dance recitals and I was teaching kids. So it was. All of it just morphed into one or the other.
[00:14:25] Aditi Singh: And today we are doing that and we've shifted to printing and I help other people write their stories about, lived
[00:14:32] Dori Durbin: experiences. That's so amazing. It's really cool to listen to your journey too, because you took like something that was a pain, an emotional pain in your life, and something that you loved, the dancing and expressing, and then the writing for An Occupation, you just merged them all together.
[00:14:49] Dori Durbin: And I think that's really inspiring. Daring to people, because I think a lot of times you tell yourself, I can't do this. I don't have this degree. I don't have this. I don't have that. And when you [00:15:00] find a hole that needs your attention and you go after it with passion, it really creates something really amazing.
[00:15:05] Dori Durbin: So congratulations on that.
[00:15:07] Aditi Singh: Thank you. It's very hard to see the sparkle in myself most days because creativity is very subjective, but I believe that my intention is clear and I'm hoping that more and more people can see it with time.
[00:15:20] Dori Durbin: That's awesome. Speaking of your creativity, would you like to share a book with us?
[00:15:26] Aditi Singh: Yes, sure. So do you want me to read from the middle or? Do we go from the beginning? You can. This is which one? This is the, this is Sparkles of Joy. This is the one because the holiday season is coming up. So I thought this would be a great fit for the podcast this
[00:15:39] Dori Durbin: time. Just choose a spot in the middle.
[00:15:41] Dori Durbin: Make us hang and want more!
[00:15:43] Aditi Singh: Okay, cool. Since we spoke about dancing, I was gonna read another part, but maybe I should speak about the dancing. , .
[00:15:49] Dori Durbin: You might as well!
[00:15:50] Aditi Singh: Okay. Okay. So I'm gonna do two pages. This is from sparkles of joy. It is about how a boy moves into a new [00:16:00] neighborhood and he's welcomed into the Friends group, and he's invited for the Diwali party, and all the kids start talking about how Diwali, Christmas, and Hanukkah are similar in many ways, and that's what the crux is, and it's a lot of celebration and festivities, and in this moment, you'll see the kids having a little fun together.
[00:16:22] Aditi Singh: Maya and I make the Diwali snacks together too. We love putting music on and dancing while cooking. Rhea runs to play Indian songs and grabs Ella's hands. Let's dance! Ella mimics Rhea. Warren joins in with his own moves. Dave rolls his eyes and whispers to Caleb, You don't have to if you don't want to. My mom keeps trying to get me to dance too.
[00:16:44] Aditi Singh: But I just like listening to Christmas carols when we put our tree. Rhea stops dancing to sit with Dev and Caleb. Rhea says to Caleb, did you know the different days of Diwali have different rituals? Caleb shakes his head. [00:17:00] Rhea counts the five days of Diwali on her fingers. Dhanteras, Choti Diwali, Badi Diwali, Naya Saal, Bhai Duj.
[00:17:08] Aditi Singh: Dev shrugs, that's okay though, that's different everywhere too. In our home, we only celebrate Diwali for two days. The best part though has to be the firecrackers. Caleb finally beams. I love the firecrackers display on July 4th. Riya's dad enters the room with a box. That's great because it's time for firecrackers.
[00:17:30] Aditi Singh: He goes over the safety rules with them. So then you go over the safety rules and then you see the kids celebrating outside and it's a really fun time and the surprise is, and that's a spoiler, that Caleb celebrates Hanukkah. So finally he says that, oh, you know what, some of these things are similar in Hanukkah as well.
[00:17:50] Aditi Singh: So that's what the story is about.
[00:17:52] Dori Durbin: How fun. It is so fun to listen to you read too, by the way. Very fun. You guys can't see her and I'm sorry for that, but [00:18:00] she just gets into the book. It's awesome. I love it. So thank you for reading that. And I love that you tied it to what we were just talking about too.
[00:18:07] Dori Durbin: Cause it, it really, you can really see that.
[00:18:11] Aditi Singh: Okay. All of this means a lot coming from you because I've been observing your journey and it's aspiring to, I want to be you when I grow up. It's like that. And I only hope and that we can someday work together and build something else.
[00:18:27] Dori Durbin: I think when we're done, we need to do that was just make it a plan that would be great. That would be great. Speaking of that, not to rush you, but I'm curious how, as far as feeling successful as an author, how have you been able to measure your success?
[00:18:42] Aditi Singh: That's a very tough one. Like I said, creativity is very subjective.
[00:18:48] Aditi Singh: Sparkles of Joy, actually three of my books have, actually all of my books are loved by teachers and educators a lot, but Sparkles of Joy especially is loved, especially loved during the holiday season, [00:19:00] which is why I thought it would be appropriate. This one has hit the bestseller on Amazon. Two, two years since it's been released three years.
[00:19:06] Aditi Singh: It's the third year. And how are skin sparkles? My first children's book was picked teachers pick by Amazon. So just those kinds of validations let you know you're on the right track because I'm sure you can attest to it, that success as an author means different things for different people.
[00:19:23] Aditi Singh: For me to be very honest, these validations let me know I'm on the right track. And then, of course, when there's a monetary benefit, that's, of course, a bonus. But on top of all of this, when you get messages from people saying how the book has impacted them, like so many people message me about...
[00:19:40] Aditi Singh: small or tall we sparkle after all because the kids are struggling with either being tall too tall in class or too small in class or when unfortunately someone messages me that my kids was told that you know your skin color is the color of poop You know, it breaks my heart to hear that kids are doing this [00:20:00] to each other, but I'm so happy that there are these resources that parents can use in the classroom that teachers can use in the classroom and help affect the change that is required because we all know that nothing is like one and done a kid.
[00:20:13] Aditi Singh: No kid understands things. You need repetition. And when you read different stories that tell different, have different lessons it is just reinforcing the message that it's your choices and your kindness that makes you who you are, not how much money you have, how you look. What things you have, but your talent and your choices.
[00:20:33] Aditi Singh: So I'm really glad that these resources are there and I'm helping create them. I have worked with so many authors now in the past year that, that are doing it. And I tell each and every one that I am so proud of us. We are putting, how they say, put your money where your mouth is. We believe in a positive impact on the world and we are many, it's, it takes a long time to be successful.
[00:20:55] Aditi Singh: But we are willing to put in the work because we believe in our message. And I think that's [00:21:00] what success is for me.
[00:21:02] Dori Durbin: So well said. You said a lot just in the fact that I think when people come in expecting to make a lot of money with books, they're frequently disappointed because it really, if you go after the purpose and the impact of the book, it's a lot more rewarding anyway.
[00:21:18] Dori Durbin: So what are your next plans as an author? And what will that look like, just even go a year out from now? What are you Thinking?
[00:21:25] Aditi Singh: Oh, gosh. A year out, I have three books planned. Actually, I have a festival series planned in bilingual that's bilingual. So there's Diwali, Holi, and Raksha Bandhan probably that I'll be working on.
[00:21:41] Aditi Singh: Raksha Bandhan is in process. Diwali and Holi are in production right now. And I have a middle grade book that I'm working on that is a story about my journey. During the Gulf War, because it was when Iraq invaded Kuwait and we had to leave home and a lot of people love hearing the story [00:22:00] and often I've told it from, my perspective as a 10 year old, but I have had so many years and now as a parent, I often think of the impact it had on me growing up and how it impacted my parents and immigrant, the immigrant thought process in totality.
[00:22:15] Aditi Singh: And I'm really excited about it. I'm very guilty because that book I wrote five chapters last year and I'm working. It's it should have been finished and in production now, but it's not, but you know how it is, right? You get when you're a multi creative, you keep getting sidetracked. So those are the four things I'm working on right now.
[00:22:32] Aditi Singh: And I have two children's books that are written. That I'm hoping to produce by start production next year and they're written, we have to pick and choose where we invest our time. So those are about how our language is important and the importance of our name. Is that it?
[00:22:48] Dori Durbin: That's all?
[00:22:52] Aditi Singh: Those are my dreams
[00:22:53] Dori Durbin: for the next coming years. That's so awesome though. And the fact that you know that already a year out, [00:23:00] that's impressive. You're more organized than you claim.
[00:23:03] Aditi Singh: I have people mess. I sent out the first five chapters because it's my first middle grade book. And that's a quick tip for people who are listening is it was a new genre for me.
[00:23:14] Aditi Singh: So it was a new. I did not know if I was writing for middle grade whether it was right. So I wrote for five chapters and I sent it out to 55 people, 55 kids. And the response was positive. And I'm like, okay, I know I'm on the right track. And then I just stopped writing because I got so, because it's a very emotional book.
[00:23:34] Aditi Singh: And I have to be very careful about how I portray my own parents, because sometimes it's not very nice, and it's a very tricky place to be in, so I think I'm very scared to move ahead, but the tip for everyone who's listening is, please, if you're trying something new, make sure you get feedback from Thank Readers to know you're on the right track before you invest more time and money into it.
[00:23:54] Dori Durbin: That's a great tip. Yeah. Because if you're producing something that just you love. Yes. You're gonna have to buy a lot of copies. [00:24:00]
[00:24:02] Aditi Singh: Not even then, I'm sure you yourself won't put more money
[00:24:05] Dori Durbin: into it. Just giving them away at that point. Yes, for sure. That's very good. Okay. They're going to want to know where to find your books and how to.
[00:24:14] Dori Durbin: Find you. So where are the best places to find you?
[00:24:16] Aditi Singh: Instagram, I'm, I practically live online. Instagram my personal email address sorry. My personal handle is Aditi dot I'm sorry. I'm fumbling so much all of a sudden Aditi W Singh and Of course, Raising World Children, you can always contact me there.
[00:24:31] Aditi Singh: I am most active on Raising World Children because that's my baby. So you can, of course, you can anytime email me on contact at RaisingWorldChildren. com and please do visit the website RaisingWorldChildren. com because there are tons of resources for parents who are looking for Ways to raise thought leaders of tomorrow.
[00:24:51] Aditi Singh: And there are lots of free stuff, so you can download it. You can, there are activity sheets that you can use for your kids to help them understand what diversity means, what [00:25:00] inclusion means, and everything is very age appropriate and there's a lot of fun festive printables also. So you get a little introduction to a festival and then you can do something along those lines.
[00:25:09] Aditi Singh: So yeah, there's a lot on the site.
[00:25:12] Dori Durbin: I took a peek and there is, and I think it's a really fun site to go through. So definitely check it out. Adithi, thank you so much for your time today. This was really fun. And I know people got a lot out of it. Thank you. Thank you.
