I wrote Jude for my twelve-year-old self, who never saw a brown girl in a book who was proud of her family and where she came from. A brown girl with hopes and dreams of her own. I’m ashamed to admit that growing up I was much more like Jude’s cousin Sarah than like Jude. Through societal conditioning, I learned to be a little afraid and a little embarrassed of my father’s culture. I never was exposed to any media that told me to feel otherwise.
