#BlackGirlMagic: Marley Dias Launches New Magazine With 'Elle'
Marley Dias, the New Jersey 11-year-old who launched #1000BlackGirlBooks can now add editor-in-chief to her growing resume. The superstar has teamed up with Elle Magazine for her own digital zine geared toward Black girls called Marley Mag.
For Dias, creating spaces for girls of color to be visible is key and she is proud to use her zine to do just that.
“A year ago, I wanted to collect #1000BlackGirlBooks, but I see now that there is so much more to do and so much more to this journey. I want to use what I’ve learned to elevate the voices of all those who have been ignored and left out,” she said in a letter announcing her new project.
“This experience at Elle has given me a preview into my future and shown me what is possible. So even though I am still very nervous, I hope you will enjoy what this amazing team of women and I have put together,” she added.
For the first issue, she interviewed Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay in New Orleans, where the two talked about pop culture and racial inclusion.
She also got up with ballerina extraordinaire Misty Copeland, another woman who inspires her, which seems to a theme for the debut issue.
“This issue is about women and girls who have left their imprint on the world. Some of them have charted new courses. Some have expanded the way we see the world and what we think is possible. And all the women (and man! Hi, Larry Wilmore!) in Marley Mag are people who have inspired me,” she explained.
And on Thursday in New York City, Dias joined professor and journalist Melissa Harris-Perry and comedian and writer Phoebe Robinson to a packed crowd for the official launch and party for Marley Mag.
Dias continues to inspire and impress, just not girls her own age, but for all of us.