Rebekah Bruesehoff, GenderCool champion and co-author of A Kids Book About Being Inclusive, talks about how we can create inclusive spaces for all which celebrate everyone’s uniqueness.
Rebekah Bruesehoff, GenderCool champion and co-author of A Kids Book About Being Inclusive, talks about how we can create inclusive spaces for all which celebrate everyone’s uniqueness.
A Kids Book About Being Inclusive (view book)
Full Book Description:
Being inclusive is a choice we can make every day! Being inclusive means reaching out to and welcoming all people and everything that makes them who they are. When we learn to see the beauty in our differences, we can embrace the rich, diverse, and amazing world we live in together!
About the Authors:
Ashton Mota is an Afro-Latino high school sophomore and powerful advocate for change, driven to achieve justice, equity, and equality for all. Rebekah Bruesehoff is a 14-year-old influencer and activist passionate about inclusion and authenticity. Their voices help fuel GenderCool, a positive storytelling campaign turned global movement led by more than a dozen Champions. These young leaders are evolving understanding by showing the world who they are.
*If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidsco.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
S2 EP13, Rebekah Talks About Being Inclusive
[INTRODUCTION]
Matthew: What does being inclusive mean?
Dane: When you're, when you've just visited somewhere and you've entered a new school and you've made a friend just now and other people, and the friend, you have other people on to play with it, but the other person won't let them play with them that can make the other person feel sad.
Krystyna: Being inclusive means including someone in a sort of event.
Rebekah: Being inclusive can be hard to understand at times, but for me, it comes down to being inclusive means celebrating everyone in all their uniqueness. And no matter how much you don't understand and, um, are curious about their identity, um, you respect that and you also uplift them in that identity.
Matthew: Welcome to A Kids Book About: The Podcast! I’m Matthew. I’m a teacher, a librarian, and I’m your host. The voices you heard just a moment ago were from Dane, Krystyna, and Rebekah.
Each week we talk about the big things going on in your world with a different author from our A Kids Book About series.
Rebekah: Hi, I'm Rebekah Bruesehoff.
My pronouns are she /her. I'm a transgender youth activist and author and the champion for the Gendercool Project. And I co authored A Kids Book About Being Inclusive with my fellow champion, Ashton Mota.
[TOPIC FOUNDATION]
Matthew: There are so many ways to be inclusive, to include others, to not cause others to feel left out.
Rebekah: So being inclusive can look like inviting someone to play with you on the playground when they're feeling lonely.
It can be as easy as giving someone a big smile when they enter the room, I know that makes me feel really nice.
I think also being inclusive can be something like sharing your pronouns when you meet someone for the first time, so that they have the opportunity to share theirs and, um, feel accepted. All that.
Matthew: Listeners, you’re going to hear Rebekah and I use the phrase “inclusive” over “including others” today, and that choice is deliberate. It’s on purpose.
Being inclusive of others is more deliberate than simply allowing others to be included in an activity you’re doing.
Rebekah: I think they're related, but I think the difference between being included [00:05:00] and being, um, inclusive is that being inclusive is a choice that you have to make every day. It's this conscious decision that you make to include everybody.
And, too, I think, just to make that decision, even though it may be hard, even though you may not know what that means for the day that you're making it. Um, just making it in the best light that you can possible so that you can go throughout your day with that sort of mindset.
Matthew: Where in your life do you feel most included? When in your day do you experience inclusive spaces?
Rebekah: Yeah. I know, I feel included in my school, especially in my school library where I can see, um, where I can see books that represent LGBTQ plus characters that can, um, show people that are just like me so that I know I'm not alone because it can be scary, can be lonely, but it's important to know that there are people out there who are just like you.
I think I also feel, um, Included when adults, especially when they give me a space to share all of my identity when they don't just want one part of my identity when they want me for my entire self. And when I'm able to bring my entire self to the table in a conversation, it makes it more engaging, it makes it more fun.
And I make better connections that way.
Matthew: Time for a quick quiz. We’ve spent our time so far talking about what it looks like to be inclusive or to be in an inclusive space. So, what is the opposite of being inclusive?
I’m asking you this because I think it’s helpful to carry an image of what an inclusive space is not. We call that a “counter example.”
Have you come up with a word or phrase for the opposite of being inclusive?
Here’s Rebekah with her thoughts.
Rebekah: I think, um, the easiest, like I don't know, antonym to being inclusive is probably being exclusive. But I think in its own way, it's also being closed off.
It's not being open to other people's ideas. It's being open to other people's identities.
But, um, when you're being closed off and when you're being in that sort of shielded place or mindset, you can't be inclusive. And I think that's what makes it hard sometimes because, um, you may not understand it and it can be hard to, um, really have to be inclusive every day, but we do need to be inclusive everyday because it makes people happy. And that's what we want to do.
Matthew: Listener Dane shared a reflection on feeling excluded.
Dane: It makes me feel sad because other people won't play with me. And when I visited here and I went into a new school, I only had one friend and then I just kept making more friends, but sometimes they want to let me play with them and that makes me feel sad.
[PERSONAL CONNECTION TO TOPIC]
Matthew: Folks don’t always mean to be closed off. In fact, some may not even be aware that their actions or attitudes are leaving others out.
Rebekah: I think my example for being excluded is going to be like not feeling included. It's going to be have to the same thing that I did feel included in.
It's my school. I, it, my old school specifically, I didn't really feel included. I didn't see myself in the same in the books that we are reading or especially in the displays, especially during pride month, we didn't have as many, so I think the best way that I helped to change this to help me feel like I was more included was educating. So I think that meant bringing books to the table, like, um, just like tangible things that teachers could read or even administrators could read so that they could learn. And then they could teach my peers and my friends and me, or even just make me feel included in lessons and stuff like that because there's always work to be done.
And I think that's a really important thing to realize in all of this work is to realize that we're always growing and you're going to be wrong. You're going to make mistakes. But part of being inclusive is realizing that you are wrong and, um, allowing these mistakes to happen because they're going to happen.
But when you apologize, you reflect and then you change. That's how we're going to make the change in the world that we want to.
Matthew: In many ways, these are universal feelings. We all, every one of us, want to feel included and welcomed and seen and valued in the spaces we step into, whether these spaces are new to us or ones we visit every day.
And when you’re in an inclusive space, you can feel it.
Krystyna: Being inclusive makes me feel good about myself since it makes others happy to know that they're being included.
Rebekah: Yeah, I think from the moment I think about being included or feeling like someone's being inclusive towards me, um, I always have a smile on my face because it's a good feeling. I feel happy, I feel bubbly. I'm excited to be in the space that I'm, um, welcomed in because, um, I'm welcome in it. It's that simple as that.
And I think everyone should be able to feel that feeling and that's part of what inspires the book to, um, go other places because it's, it's something that everyone should be able to feel. And it's not that hard to make someone feel included.
Matthew: We will be back in a minute with Rebekah Bruesehoff and a conversation about anticipating who may be left out before even creating a space, then working to break those barriers down. All of that, right after this quick break.
[BREAK]
Matthew: Welcome back to A Kids Book About: The Podcast. On today’s episode we’re talking about being inclusive with A Kids Book About author Rebekah Bruesehoff.
Rebekah comes to us from the GenderCool Project, a youth-led movement bringing positive change to the world.
We’ve created three books in partnership with the GenderCool Project and their champions: A Kids Book About Being Transgender. A Kids Book About Being Non-Binary. And A Kids Book About Being Inclusive.
Rebekah: I learned about the GenderCool Project way before I became a champion.
I think I, um, I knew of them. I heard of the work that they were doing and I thought it was amazing. Um, it aligned with a lot of the stuff that I had been doing about like, um, telling people that being transgender is one of the least exciting parts about me. I I'm a kid I'm thriving. I'm happy. I'm a young person too. And it's all of that.
But I think when they reached out to my mom, I think it was right before, um, the pandemic like hit. It was, uh, they reached out and they were like, uh, hey, we've seen some of the stuff that Rebekah's done. Um, we've um, heard some of the messages that she likes to send to people. And they asked if I wanted to like, do an interview and like talk to them just to see what they were about. And I did, and it was awesome.
I was, I was like inspired by their story and what they did, and it was just a really great fit. And then. Um, it was a few months later, I became a champion and it's been amazing ever since.
I think the most exciting thing about Gendercool is the group of champions that we have. I know you've talked to some of them, but they're just amazing. And when I get to connect with these group, this group of young people that is just like me, um, I, I feel included in a way that I don't in other spaces and I think that's a really funny full-circle moment.
Matthew: When you feel included, your whole outlook changes. You feel more energy. You have more confidence. You feel supported and connected.
In A Kids Book About Being Inclusive, Rebekah and Ashton write “Another big part of being inclusive is noting who isn’t there. Who’s being left out? You have to choose to see who’s left out, then choose to include them so they feel like they are a part of things.”
So I asked Rebekah, what does it look like to ask who’s being left out.
Rebekah: I think it can be really hard to ask the question of who's being left out. Um, It's definitely like a really complicated question because obviously, if you're asking a question, you're not the one being left out, but I think, um, part of that is, um, developing your understanding of empathy of, um, your connection with everybody, with the world.
Um, so that, um, you can realize that you can like walk into other people's shoes. And when you invite the other people to the table, um, asking questions like who isn't here, whose input would be valuable in this situation. And, um, that's really important because everyone's input is valuable. It's um, when we are, when we make diversive, whoa, I'm going to stop.
When we make diverse, um, workplaces or schools or communities, then we can build stronger connections. We can build better solutions, um, because we invite all voices to the table because we invite all people with different strengths and weaknesses, because if we all come from the same background, we don't have different perspectives on life and that's not how we grow.
[LISTENER QUESTION]
Matthew: Our listener Krystyna had a great follow-up question.
Krystyna: Why do some people don't want to include others in certain cases?
Rebekah: That is a really good question.
So I think some people don't want to include others because the biggest thing is that they don't understand. That, um, they don't understand who people are or why they are the way they are.
I think it's a level of curiosity that ends up being, um, hurtful. That ends up being, um, I don't know, just different that you don't want somebody to be like questioning your identity in a way, but you also want to be able to explain it to them so that they can understand.
And I think that's the biggest thing because sometimes we think of people as these labels, we think of like the label transgender. Um, when you hear that you don't think of the people behind that label. So when you get to know somebody as a human being, before you get to know them as this label, you can, you can love them as themselves before you, um, sort of hear the label as this, um, sort of different thing that, um, I don't know, you put a face to it.
Matthew: Listeners, I have so enjoyed my time with you today. I hope you have felt that this podcast is an inclusive space for you and your peers. And I hope you continue to feel that way. That is my job and it is a responsibility I do not take lightly.
Making inclusive spaces and protecting inclusive spaces takes work, but is always, always worth the effort.
We close today with these final thoughts from Rebekah.
Rebekah: I think the easiest way to create inclusive spaces or even preserve them is to learn about and, um, hear from, connect with the people that this space is geared towards. Um, because they're your audience. These are the people that are actually going to be, you know, in this space. And that's the most important part is that they feel included and that you fit their needs.
But, um, a part of that is listening to their story because you want to like understand them. You want to, you want to hear about them. You want to learn, um, And I think within that, we realized that a lot of these stories, they're not a one size fits all everyone's story is different. And when we learn about that, that's how we do create these inclusive spaces.
It's how we, um, variate spaces in a way that everyone can find their own place in the space so that they feel, they feel happy. They feel that bubbly feeling. Um, but they don't, um, they're not like a single thing that everyone has to do together. There's different variations. And I think that's what makes these inclusive spaces so amazing and impactful and empowering in a way.
[CLOSING]
Matthew: Thank you to Rebekah Bruesehoff, co-author of A Kids Book About Being Inclusive, for joining us today. To learn more about the GenderCool Project and how you can support their work, visit gendercool.org.
And special thanks to Dane and Krystyna for lending their voices to this episode.
Dane's Mom: What's your name?
Dane: My name's Dane.
Dane's Mom: How old are you?
Dane: Seven.
Dane's Mom: And where do you live?
Dane: Um, Barcelona, Spain.
Krystyna: My name is Krystyna. I am 12 years old and I live in New York. My favorite things are anime and Roblox.
Matthew: Want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast? Write to us or record a message and email us at listen@akidsco.com.
A Kids Book About: the Podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Matthew Winner, with help from Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever podcasts are found and check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.
Join us next week for a conversation about adventure with A Kids Book About author Ben Tertin.