Colin Kaepernick says 'I Color Myself Different' in his first children's book

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/02/ [login to see] /colin-kaepernick-i-color-myself-different-book
When Colin Kaepernick was five years old, his kindergarten teacher gave his class an assignment: Draw a picture of your family.

Kaepernick colored his entire family yellow. When he got to himself, he used the brown crayon.

"What I realized in drawing my family was that in my entire class, I was the only one who didn't look like the rest of my family," says Kaepernick, who is Black and adopted into a white family.

That simple-seeming assignment turned out to be a pivotal moment for how Kaepernick viewed his identity. It also became the inspiration, many years later, for his first children's book, I Color Myself Different.

In the book, a little boy named Colin reads on the floor, throws a football in the park, and in general thinks it's "supercool" that not many people look like him. "I have supercool skin, supercool hair, and a supercool family," Kaepernick writes. "Sometimes it's not easy, but being one of a kind sure is amazing."

When the kindergarten class gets the assignment, young Colin can't wait to show off his drawing. Until his classmates ask him: