Marley Dias, the precocious and purpose-driven 13-year-old founder of #1000BlackGirlBooks, is also author of Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You! and Editor in Residence of her own digital zine, Marley Mag on Elle.com, whose successful campaign has garnered over six billion media impressions.
#1000BlackGirlBooks is a global movement to collect and donate children’s books featuring Black girls as the lead character. Marley launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks drive in November 2015, leveraging the power of social media to reach a larger audience. The goal was to collect 1,000 books featuring Black female protagonists by February 2016. The story went viral and was picked up by media outlets around the world, as well as bloggers, schools, youth-focused organizations, and millions of individuals who wanted to participate in the project. Marley has collected over 11,000 books to this day.
She has spoken at the White House’s United State of Women alongside Michelle Obama and Oprah, The Forbes Women’s Summit, United Nation’s Girl Up, Inbound, CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion, the Social Innovation Summit, and several others.
In light of the campaign’s huge success, Marley has appeared on Ellen, CBS This Morning, and The Today Show. As an Editor in Residence at ELLE, Marley has interviewed Ava DuVernay, Misty Copeland and Hillary Clinton for Elle.com. Marley has been featured in a Microsoft commercial and a Disney World Resorts digital campaign. Marley is a 21 under 21 Teen Vogue Ambassador and the youngest member of the Forbes “30 under 30” list for 2018. Marley resides in West Orange, New Jersey with her mother and father.