Jessie Strobel’s book subscription service gives kids and parents access to anti-racism education

• Jessie Strobel founded Speak Up Book Club Inc. following the death of George Floyd. 
• The subscription-based service offers books written by Black authors, as well as educational materials to help families create change in their communities. 
• For every subscription Speak Up gets, the company donates a book to a child in need, and they’ve even created a special holiday box that celebrates different cultures. 
• “If the books that you are reading don’t represent your children or your community, it’s really a disadvantage to them,” Strobel told Insider.
• The articles is part of a series titled, The Doers. 

Jessie Strobel lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband and two sons — just under a mile from the site of George Floyd’s death. 

Strobel, 39, also lived in the area when Jamar Clark and Philando Castile were killed by police officers in Minnesota.

“I didn’t do anything after” their deaths, she told Insider. 

But she said watching protesters march past her house made the collective grief and injustice of Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer harder to look away from.

"Whether you think your kids are watching you or not, they are," Strobel said. "I wanted to be sure that my kids knew that if they wanted to, they could make a difference, and you need to work hard to do that."

Strobel knew she had to take action.

Strobel founded Speak Up Book Club Inc., a nonprofit book subscription service dedicated to educating families about race

After Floyd's death, Strobel saw that there was an education gap when it came to race and racism. 

"I realized after George Floyd that there weren't really resources out there for families" hoping to learn more about racism and bias, Strobel told Insider. "And if the books that you are reading don't represent your children or your community, it's really a disadvantage to them."

That thinking led Strobel to found Speak Up Book Club Inc., a book subscription service dedicated to providing families with books that help them understand and confront racism, in June 2020. 

"Our mission is to encourage dialogue and action through educating parents and children on tough topics such as racism and white privilege," the company's website states. "Each month we choose an engaging book your child will love, provide new resources, action plans, activities, and crafts that help parents facilitate discussions of these hard topics."

The accompanying material provides families with options for initial steps they can take to be anti-racist that go beyond books, whether it be through joining organizations or by simply taking their kids to more diverse parks. 

Each box costs $30. Speak Up donates a book to a child in need for each subscription it gets.

The Speak Up team is also offering a special Holiday Box for December. The box costs $24.99 and has four books instead of one, each of which educates readers about holidays from different cultures.

"I grew up in the '80s where we didn't talk about many holidays besides Christmas or Thanksgiving," Strobel said, and she doesn't want kids today to have the same experience. 

"We really want to make it affordable to anybody that wants this education," Strobel said.

Strobel partnered with her friend and former colleague Lola Ayisat Oshodi to bring the idea to life, and volunteers make the boxes happen each month. Speak Up was awaiting its nonprofit status at the time of writing. 

Volunteers review the books that go into the subscription boxes, and almost all of them are written by Black authors

The company provides subscription boxes for three age ranges: infant to 4-year-olds, 4 to 8-year-olds, and 10-year-olds and up.

Almost all of the Speak Up books are written by Black authors, and the books come from locally-owned and BIPOC-owned bookstores.

"Black authors, in general, have been underrepresented, misrepresented, or invisible in children's literature," Strobel said of why the company focuses on Black authors. "We just want to do our part to have those voices heard."

The Speak Up team consists of Strobel, Oshodi, and six other volunteers who select the books that go into the boxes.

Strobel said that the team spends "countless hours" vetting the books for the boxes. 

"Usually, we try to pick a theme for each month," she said. "They'll usually come up with three or four different books that fit that theme." The group will then discuss the options and nominate the book that they think would be the best fit. 

The company also allows customers to nominate kids in need to receive a free book through its website year-round.

"I would just give them to everyone if I could," Strobel said of why free books are part of the company's business model. 

Founding Speak Up has shown Strobel how much she still has to learn about anti-racism and her own privilege

Strobel has degrees in psychology and social work, and education has been a common thread throughout her career. She's run afterschool programs for homeless and at-risk students, and she has taught in preschools and Montessori schools.

But Strobel told Insider that as she's explored new books through the company, she's realized how much she still has to learn about anti-racism and her own privilege.

"I can't tell you how much I learned from just reading some of these books," Strobel said. "It was quite embarrassing. For someone that thought that I probably had pretty good knowledge of the subject matter, there was so much I didn't know."

Strobel said her own children's bookshelf has changed dramatically since Speak Up was founded. "We've always had really open conversations about everything, but now we're quite more intentional with what books come into the house and which ones we read," she said. Her youngest son's favorite book was Ibram X. Kendi's "Antiracist Baby" at the time of writing. 

"It's an ongoing journey," Strobel added of her anti-racism efforts. "There's work to be done every day."

Strobel also hopes the work she's doing with Speak Up can help white people be better allies to the Black community

"For so long, people just didn't want to ruffle feathers," Strobel told Insider of how white people often approach racism."But if someone's a racist, call it out. I don't care if they're your friends or your family. Tell them that they're wrong."

She hopes Speak Up's work can help white people be better allies to the Black community.

Strobel is trying to put her money where her mouth is by getting involved in her community with her family. "With my kids' school, we do the equity and justice committee," she said. "We sit on two board meetings. You want change to start at your level."

For Strobel, her work all comes back to what she wants her kids to bring to the world.

"I want to raise good humans," she said. "They can be whoever they want to be, and love whoever they want to. They just need to be good people."

You can learn more about Speak Up Book Club here.

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