Oshún and Me Blog Feature!

Last summer, Adiba Nelson and I had the pleasure of talking to Andrea Plaid about the making of the upcoming picture book, Oshún and Me. Andrea is a Media & Cultural Analyst from Detroit whose work has appeared on places like Newsweek, Vogue, and The Guardian. She was also named one of Ebony.com's "8 Dynamic Black Women Editors in New Media."

In the beginning of the interview, Andrea talks to author and disability activist Adiba Nelson about disability and the Black community, and how Oshún and Me is a necessary counter narrative for Black communities. 

"What I love about [the story] is [Yadira’s] nervousness about being the new kid has nothing to do with her disability,” Nelson said about her latest book, which will drop on January 14, 2025. “It’s, ‘I’m a new kid, and I got this weird shell on my forehead. Why do I have to do this?"

In my conversation with Andrea, I talk about my role as illustrator and making sure that the main character, Yadira, was illustrated with respect.

“I wanted to be respectful with the main character, Yadira, who's in a wheelchair. So, I wanted to make sure that was illustrated correctly,” Harris said. “And she also has a gait trainer, so I wanted to make sure that visually, when the [other] kids interact with her, you can tell they weren’t treating her any differently. That it was normal interactions with her mom, the way she gets around — it was [all] normal and that kids and adults can feel that." 

You can check out the full interview here.

Make sure you give Andrea a follow! Her blog, Funky &, is here and you can find more of her articles here.

Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids, written by Adiba Nelson and illustrated by me, is out on Wednesday, January 14, 2025! You can preorder here if you haven't already.

Counting down excitedly,

Alleanna