BALTIMORE — They call her ‘Coloring Book Girl.’
Naomi Winston made her first coloring book at age 18, for her young cousins, then seven and four, who experienced colorism.
Watch as Naomi Winston describes her coloring book
“I took them to the park and in no short words, they refused to get out the car because they didn’t want to get too dark,” says Winston,“So, I got a bunch of Black women at my university, at Xavier University which is the only Catholic HBCU in the country, and I designed this coloring book to help little Black girls learn how to love themselves.”
From that one book, Winston has created an empire, The Creative Representation Empire. She’s publishing multicultural, affirmation coloring books that include inspirational messages, poems and stories.
You are enough. You are whole, beautiful and enough just as you are. Yes. Even while you are working being on a better or best version of yourself. Look into the mirror knowing that you are an amazing, beautiful, intellectual and irreplaceable human being.
Her coloring books have now reached 25,000 youth in five countries, helping them navigate loneliness, self-confidence and life transitions.
“Part of the Black boys’ book, one of the lines of the poems that I wrote is ‘I may not understand how you feel as a Black man, but I love you just the same,’ she says. “I received a two-page email. It was this father, pouring his heart out about how much the book meant to him.”
Winston also collaborates with local cultural groups, like ‘Thiyospaye,’ for Native American LifeLines, ‘Living Flowers,’ an homage to Baltimore’s Black creatives. And her newest, a bilingual Hispanic culture book, dropped this week.
“Because our coloring books use real images, they’re really curated from communities across the globe, I like to say that we create physical manifestations of community through our coloring books that youth may not have growing up,” she says.
Some of the coloring books include her personal experiences. Like ‘Find Your Village,’ with a page of her and the friends she made when she first moved to Baltimore three years ago, and a page that reminds her of Louisiana home.
“In my grandmother’s house, this is actually the pattern from the sofa that she had in her living room,” she says. “You know, all Black people have a living room you’re not allowed to sit in. So, this is from that sofa. And this was the last Christmas that we all really spent at my grandmother’s house.”
Adults are enjoying Winston’s coloring books, too, using them for art and therapy.
“When I got frustrated trying to do my taxes, and so I decided to color,” she says. “So, this is your note that coloring is helpful for everyone, not just kids.”
Now 25, Winston is creating a more culturally representative world…one page, one coloring book at a time.
