Amanda Gorman made her voice heard in January 2021 while reading the poem for President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Four years later, she’s helping children find their voice with her new picture book, “Girls on the Rise.”
With illustrations from artist Loveis Wise, Gorman’s book serves to highlight “the importance of community and allyship,” she said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“It’s about what it means to be a young person in a generation that is going to, and is currently changing the world,” she said.
The 32-page picture book features an original poem by Gorman about the power of girls, especially when they work together, accompanied by Wise’s artwork.
Gorman, 26, rose to literary stardom as a teen herself: In 2015, she published the poetry book “The One for Whom Food is Not Enough.” In 2017, she became the first winner of the National Youth Poet Laureate award. She read “The Hill We Climb,” a poem calling for unity and progress in the U.S. for Biden’s inauguration — making her the youngest-ever inaugural poet.
“I finished it on the night of Jan. 6, and so it’s important for me to just process my own emotions and thoughts as an American watching that violence against our democracy,” Gorman said.
“I had no idea it was going to reverberate and resonate in the way it did. … It was something historic and personal and meaningful and powerful, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said.
After the inauguration, Gorman published another book and co-hosted the Met Gala later that year. Now, she’s focused on building a better world for the next generation with a children’s book “that underscores the importance of community and allyship,” Gorman said.
Gorman’s inaugural poem was restricted in a Florida school in 2023 after a parent filed a complaint against it. She said it was “a bit like a gut punch” when she found out her work would be restricted, but she fears for children’s right to read and learn in the context of the thousands of book bans in schools and libraries in recent years.
“These books that are being banned predominantly feature authors and characters of color, authors and characters of the LGBTQ community, and so we’re seeing entire identities erased from bookshelves,” Gorman said. “And when a child can’t see themselves represented in a story, they can’t dream of their own life, to actualize their own hopes.”
Gorman urged the importance of representation, adding that she felt immense pressure as a then 22-year-old poet in the national spotlight.
“I felt a lot of weight, because I knew if I failed or didn’t do an excellent job, it would” become an excuse to exclude young people from lofty ceremonies, she said. “And so you feel this aspiration to do well for yourself, but to be extraordinary for people who follow.”
Gorman, an activist herself, said she draws inspiration from orators and activists like Maya Angelou — also an inaugural poet in 1993 for President Bill Clinton — and Martin Luther King Jr. She said she may run for president when she’s of age in 2036.
“I hope my mark,” she said, “is being a wordsmith and a change maker who speaks in a language that allows our country to return to love, legacy and connection.”
