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7-Year-Old Girl Creates A Superhero To Empower Young Girls Of Color (Photos)

by Emily Arata
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Natalie McGriff never liked her hair, but it became the inspiration for her superhero alter ego, Moxie Girl.

ABC News reports the 7-year-old girl from Jacksonville, Florida recently won more than $16,000 toward publishing her first book, "The Adventures of Moxie Girl."

The main character, loosely based on Natalie, embraces her afro puffs and finds out they actually hold powers.

Harnessing their energy, Moxie Girl goes on to save the Jacksonville Public Library from a group of book-eating monsters.

Natalie and her mother, Angela Nixon, cowrote the book after the young girl began struggling with her self-image and reading skills in December.

Nixon told ABC, "Me being black, of course, I used to get picked on in school for my natural hair, and I didn't want that to happen to my daughter."

"I wanted to step in, boost her self-esteem and foster a love of reading in her."

Hoping to produce a limited number of the book, Nixon entered it into a crowdfunding competition with 530 other stories.

With their $16,423 prize, Nixon and Natalie hope to have Moxie Girl on bookstore shelves in June.

Citations: 7YearOld Florida Girl Wins Over 16K for Moxie Girl Comic Book Empowering Girls of Color (ABC News )