Shadows shine light
A FATHER AND SON’S JOURNEY TOWARDS SELF ACCEPTANCE IS THE SUBJECT OF A MOVING NEW BOOK, WRITES KIM WILSON
WHEN Colin Stuart was three, he had an Elsa doll that he loved. He would take it everywhere he went and show it off to everyone he saw, until the day he came home from childcare crying because someone had told him Elsa was for girls.
That night, his father Scott sat down and wrote a story about a boy who loved princesses and fairies and dressing up.
It was one of the hardest things he’d done.
But the resulting book,
is having a profound impact not only on Colin, who is now 7, but everyone who reads it.
The beautifully written rhyming story, aimed at children aged 3-9, touches on the subjects of gender identity, self acceptance, equality and diversity. It’s a story about daring to be different and having the courage to be yourself.
“It would be easy and comfortable to say that I was always the 100 per cent accepting father of a son who loves Elsa and things that are ‘not for boys’,” Scott says.
“But the truth is that, while I never expressed any of this to Colin, and we let him fully lean into the things he loves, it challenged everything that I grew up with.
“I grew up with clear guidelines of masculinity and this doesn’t fit into that, so it was a journey for me to become fully comfortable with him being himself.
“That journey is reflected in the book, with not just the boy learning to accept himself, but also the father needing to overcome his own discomfort and fully embrace his son.”
In a family where everyone has blue shadows, the book is about a young boy born with a pink shadow who, more than anything else, loves to wear dresses and dance.
Scott says the night Colin came home from childcare upset at being teased for playing with “girl toys”, he and wife Melina had looked for age-appropriate books that would help their son.
“I tried to find some books or shows for his age group that represented Colin in a positive way, that is a boy who likes dresses,” Scott says. “I could find barely any, and most of them weren’t particularly empowering. So, that night I sat down and wrote the first draft of my book. It has really been resonating with an enormous amount of people in ways that
I never imagined. I think everyone can relate to having a shadow that sometimes we try to hide, and having the courage to show who we truly are.” My Shadow is Pink (Larrikin House) by Scott Stuart is released Aug 1.