13 Going on 30: Books for Coming of Age

I have several nieces and nephews. The eldest of my nieces is thirteen and will turn fourteen next month. An 8th grader full of spunk and sass. She is gorgeous inside and out. She and I, along with some other girls her age, were in a full blown conversation about anime, Afro Samurai, and a bunch of other ridiculously nerdy things the other day. My heart was on swole as I thumbed through one of the girl’s sketch books looking at her characters and “how to draw manga” practice pages. The thirteen-year old inside of me was laughing, dancing, and crying at the same time. My GOD! Is this real? Everything that I got picked on for loving is freakin’ cool now?! In the late 80s and 90s having these interests in my neighborhood meant that you’d be called worse than just a nerd (which is cool now), but you’d be called “white.” Living in the ‘hood this was one of the worst insults ever. White was associated with stuck up and hurtful, lame, racist. White was not what you wanted to be. No. No Black kid on my block wanted to hang with the Oreo (Black on the outside. White in the middle). Times have changed a little bit and I’m glad to see it. I didn’t have many friends who were admittedly into the things that I cared about. Mainly, I just kept it to myself and stuffed my nose in as many books as I could — looking for that girl like me. My niece is thirteen. She is coming of age. Many of us remember thirteen. We remember the tides turning, the hormones raging, the one million and one questi…