Nadeen Payne talks writing her first children's book
The WNBL stalwart has penned a story encouraging curly-haired kids to love their hair
Basketballer turned author Nadeen Payne grew up with curly hair and didn’t see anyone who looked like her in picture books. So she took matters into her own hands, writing the tale she wanted to read as a kid.
The result is Kenzie and Her Curls. Payne spent two and a half years working on the story, which sees the intrepid title character come to love her hair and embrace diversity.
“The story is based on what I experienced,” Payne tells The Pick and Roll. “I had a lot of nieces and nephews, and also friends with children, who have really curly hair and a lot of them don’t like their hair. They don’t see a lot of it (in pop culture) There’s a real lack of representation for curly-haired kids. There was a market for me to jump into.”
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