Latoya Nicole, a graduate of Winston-Salem State University, is on a mission to represent black women in all of their vibrancy. She has published multiple coloring books, including “Alma Mater,” a book representing successful HBCU students and alumni. Now, she is literally making sure they can be represented in every shade with new brown color pencils! Read the colorful story from Andrea Blackstone at Black Enterprise below.
Entrepreneurs like Latoya Nicole are working to fill gaps where African Americans are underrepresented from product lines.
Nicole—CEO and founder of Entrepreneurs Color Too— came up with an idea to create coloring books and even coloring pencils which would appeal to Black and brown women. Nicole’s latest endeavor is launching the colored pencils representing an array of skin tones, per BlackNews.com.
The “Shades of Brown” colored pencils were requested additions to the Entrepreneurs Color Too line, according to the article. Packs of 12 limited edition colored pencils are sold exclusively on Nicole’s business website.
“We’re excited to finally launch the new colored pencils that our customers have been asking for! Representation is more important than ever, and we are proud to expand our body of work by offering skin tone colors that further represent families of color and allows for another opportunity for our customers to see themselves in arts & crafts and supplies,” Nicole remarked in the article.
According to a previous MadameNoire feature, the entrepreneur who observed that women of color “weren’t adequately represented in the book industry” opted to found her company brand in 2018. Inspirational colored pencils and coloring books, such as an HBCU-inspired coloring book, coloring books for mothers and daughters, and a Christmas coloring book to celebrate Black and brown women.
“I want women and the young girls that look up to them to them to feel empowered. I want them to know that they are included, celebrated and represented, because representation matters,” Nicole’s said in a statement, per MadameNoire. “The idea to manufacture pencils came when I couldn’t find any Black Owned Colored pencils to recommend to my community to use with my adult coloring books. I took that as a sign that I needed to find a way to produce them. But, I knew I wanted the pencils to be encouraging and to be used as a reminder to put you first because you matter.”
BlackNews.com also reported that Nicole sold more than 25,000 coloring books, before launching the new line of skin toned colored pencils which are geared toward women of color.
“Shades of Brown” includes colors such as “Diamond, Keisha, Toya, and Ebony,” according to the product description provided on Entrepreneurs Color Too’s website. Please visit this link to find the packs of pre-sharpened colored pencils.
