Sometimes there are some things that are just so obvious but for whatever reason, you don't see them. It takes an external source of light to illuminate your murky understanding of issues.

In our short time since launching (two months as of this writing), Little Heroes has been fortunate enough to sell our products worldwide. Customers from across the world have personalized books for their kids and enjoyed the feeling of owning something truly unique. And that's exactly what we had hoped for. But we received some feedback from a customer in South Africa, which changed the way we looked at our personalized books.

Before I get to the feedback, a bit of a history lesson. South Africa was ground zero for poor race relations and tension. During the Apartheid era, racial violence was a common occurrence. The country was ostracized from the international community, including being banned from participating in major sporting events. In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, a new era of racial equality began, which was cemented in the first open elections in 1994.

One would expect with such a momentous change, that the new ruling majority, embodied by the ANC, would make all aspects of the South African culture representative of its population.  And indeed, in many respects it has.  However, as we come back to the customer's comment, not this is not so easily achieved.  And its not only applicable to South Africa alone.

According to our customer, most children's books and cartoons are still illustrated with white children as the main character. (I say "most" anecdotaly based on the feedback of our customer, not on hard statistics at hand.) Our customer told us that finally, his child could have books where the main character looked like him! And what a huge difference it had made to his son, who wanted to read these books again and again.

We forget how we easily identify with those who are similar to us in looks and character.  And that children are particulary influenced by what they see in their family, books and on TV.  Now it would be very easy to dismiss the significance of this customer's remarks if it wasn't for the fact that many of the cartoons shown and children's books sold in South Africa, actually come from other countries, such as North America, United Kingdom and China. Which means the bias that South Africans are sensitive too, probably exists throughout the world.

Technology has opened up many processes that were once walled gardens. Anybody can write an newspaper (except it's called a "blog" now), be a movie critic, or become the next big celebrity. Creating children's books is no longer the sole privilege of a handful of publishers or writers. Rather, with services like Little Heroes, anybody can create a kids book unique to their child's needs.

By allowing people to create their own book, you remove the inherit bias that otherwise seeps through when an author or illustrator create a book. I am not suggesting that it is in any way malicious, but it's a bias nonetheless. And thankfully, now there are ways to combat it.

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