Storytelling, Values & Inclusivity with Author & Actress Bianca Flanders

Actress-turned-author Bianca Flanders has grown up with stories!

She’s here to tell us not only about the power of inclusivity and representation, but also about how her background has enabled her to write children’s books that teach acceptance and so much more. 

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Pumpkin Finds her Queen – Pampoenpit het ‘n Groen Gevoel by Bianca Flanders

What do you want every parent and child to feel when they pick up any one of Bianca Flanders's books and they read it to their children.

I  would like them to feel seen and I’d like them to feel that they are not alone uh and to feel that they can celebrate all their differences and all the things that make them unique.

Aaah you won't believe who I got hold of not her but her creator ladies and gentlemen babybrunch.co.za. I present to you Bianca Flanders. I cannot believe that we actually got hold of you she's an international star and actress and usually when we call her she's on set for something, how are you?

I’m good I am so happy and excited to be talking to you. I picked up this book I actually bought it online every mother should have it. Bianca has also written a new one which I don't have in my hand, but you can see it right now, but I want to know how did you get to become an author you write books! I do I do, children's books, yes uh well I’m actually I’m quite a nerd myself so I love reading and I suppose you know as actors we are we are storytellers um so this is just another medium it's another way of telling a story and I think it's always best to kind of especially when tackling something new to work from what you know um and I thought I guess to be honest I wrote the book for two reasons one is my private special reason that I’ll share with you only on this platform and then one is the reason that I kind of say an interview so the interview reason is, that I wrote the book because I myself struggled with my hair for the longest time and it took me a really long time to learn how to love it so I wanted to help a lot of girls you know I wanted to save them a lot of kind of mental effort and mental gymnastics of having to do all that work because I think representation matters and the private special reason is I would really like kids one day and I wrote it for the daughter that I don't have because I’d like to have a daughter or a son one day and I hope that they can and there is no doubt they are not getting curly hair if it's biological so um this is for them so I hope that they get to one day see themselves and read about themselves um yeah because what we ingest really forms our ideas and it forms the way we think about the world and I think if I can save some kids the kind of trouble that I’ve had to go through that I would have done something good.

And here comes “Pumpkin Finds her Queen” by Bianca Flanders, and she is holding a brush and she is showing all of our children how they can just be themselves, so I’m going to open it anywhere in the in the book, okay perfect I’m opening it on this page, and it says, one day her sister saw her as she brushed and stretched and combed, her secret was found out she feared now everyone would know. Tell me about the book.

It's about um the message for me in the book it's yes it's about curly hair but it's also mostly about how it's our individuality it's our uniqueness that makes us special um and the hair is just it could be it could have been about noses or you know I don't know big feet or whatever it is but you know I just I have hair issues so um it just happened to be about hair and it's about struggling for me pumpkin is I wanted her to be quite real um and as humans we are also flawed and we have uncomfortable feelings and we struggle with things and it's important for me that in children's books we see that as well and I also wanted it to be magical and fun which I think the illustrations really play into that um yeah so it's about just struggling with self-acceptance um and I’m such an advocate for women supporting women and girls supporting girls and I just think the younger we can start doing that the better you know because if we're not stressing about things like our hair or I don't like this one or I don't want to be her friend then that leaves your brain a lot of space to kind of become the CEO of a company or maybe right or study or you know because you're not worrying about things like that and I think the younger we and you know what Elana it has been every week I get my inbox is you know filled with messages from librarians or teachers at school or parents to say how much the book has meant to their kids um how much they didn't like their hair and finally they get excited because they see somebody that looks like them um or is maybe having the same problem that they're having and that that just makes my heart so warm um and the next one I also think you know as a storyteller it's important not to shy away from uncomfortable topics so the next book is in the pumpkin gets a bit jealous so she's got she's really envious of another little girl and she struggles with those feelings um so we kind of unpack what that means and then you know kindness also it takes on um a life of its own so she gets confused because she thinks kindness is something that she can look for behind her ouma's knees or underneath the couch and she can't find it and then she realizes it's from inside and then she gets to watch the magic of that so it's also about naming these uncomfortable feelings and how do we navigate that space because it's normal because we're human um it doesn't make us terrible people so just yeah it's navigating those kinds of spaces.

What do you think as an author right, that is changing the world because that's what you're doing the anger you are changing the world but by bit by telling stories and remember we learn through our children so parents will pick up this book and even though this is a book for a little girl or a little boy we will learn through this but what is your intention what do you want every parent and child to feel when they pick up any one of Bianca Flanders's books and they read it to their children?

I would like them to feel seen and I’d like them to feel that they are not alone uh and to feel that they can celebrate all their differences and all the things that make them unique that is kind of my main inspiration or motivation behind writing the books, and I also you know what I mean we live in such a beautiful troubling country there are so many juxtapositions in South Africa and you know so many people have so many things to complain about but I really want to actively create the world I want to live in and I want to be a citizen that makes South Africa better and I want to contribute to healing um and for me pumpkin my books are a way of doing this even if it makes a difference in five people's lives it would have been five people that were touched so that is kind of my main as cheesy as it sounds that's my main inspiration behind all most of all the work that I do actually yeah. 

There's no cheese here I can tell you that and you're definitely not just inspiring five people there are 5 000 people at this moment listening and watching this video. Bianca Flanders thank you so much, pumpkin finds a queen you can find it at any of the bookshops and what's the new one called it's called Pumpkin finds her Kindness or in Afrikaans “Pampoenpit het ‘n Groen Gevoel”. Don’t have that green feeling! Read the book, thanks so much.