Spreading Inclusivity with Her Skin-Colored Crayons by J Villa
A young activist, Bellen Woodard has created a movement with her More Than Peach message.
By Amy Ayres
Bellen Woodard is an activist, a CEO, and now an author. And she’s only 11 years old.
At home on a summer morning, she recalls the incident that sparked her More Than Peach message, when she was 8 years old and third grade in Leesburg. “I noticed my classmates were calling the peach crayon the skin-colored crayon,” she says. “Everyone automatically knew that was the peach crayon. It hit me that something was wrong.”
Bellen asked her mom about it, and her mom suggested passing her friends the brown crayon the next time they asked. But Bellen had another idea. She decided she would ask them which color they wanted, since it could be an array of beautiful colors.