Malavika Kannan is Using Storytelling to Change the World
When Malavika Kannan, 19, was in middle school in Orlando, Florida, she wrote the first draft of a book. "It was obviously a terrible book because it was written by a prepubescent child," she told Seventeen. Flash forward to 2020 and that book (with, yes, some revisions) has become The Bookweaver's Daughter, a female friendship-forward take on the classic young adult fantasy novel that allows young South Asian women to finally see themselves in a leading role. As impressive as being a published author is, storytelling is only part of Malavika's activism journey. In 2018, she founded Homegirl Project, an organization which started off as an online magazine and has now grown into a place that empowers girls and non-binary youth of color to become the next generation of political leaders. Recently, Malavika stepped down from the Project to focus on her book release, but that doesn't mean she's done making a difference. In fact, it seems like that work will never end. Malavika believes in constantly paying it forward, and she enlisted a Toni Morrison quote to prove her point. "When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."
What inspired you to start Homegirl Project?
Homegirl Project was founded in 2018. It was originally a magazine where we interviewed inspiring women of color from our communities. We had a team of about 30 writers from across the world interview women from their communities and we were able to talk to some really impactful people from CEOs to authors to activists. I think there's a lot of power in storytelling and allowing women to see themselves represented in positions of power, not just positions of power in the traditional male sense, but in positions of disruption and inclusion. Like what it means when women of color don't just ask for a seat on the table, but make their own spaces.
So, that was our original goal, but after working in the progressive organizing sphere, I noticed that a lot of my fellow young girls of color were politically awake and active and wanted to get involved but weren't necessarily being invested in to do so. There is no training manual on how to get involved—especially if you grew up in a more conservative or rural town—and that's not something we learn in school, I think intentionally. We wanted to fill in that gap by starting some more mentorship oriented programming and, in 2019, we started a digital mentorship program where we trained 11 girls. We designed a curriculum and put them through it and after that, our fellows were able to do some really cool projects in their communities. One fellow was able to lead a campaign to get menstrual products added to her school bathrooms. So, we've kind of been trying pay it forward in that respect.
What else are you working on right now?
Right now is kind of an interesting period in my life. I'm taking the fall off to just recover from 2020, but I'm currently working on doing mutual aid work, particularly for LGBTQ people of color. I think something I've learned, especially in this pandemic, is the idea that electoral processes can come and go and we can work really hard on policies, but it's also up to us as community members to care for each other directly. So, that's the kind of work that I really hope to pour a lot more energy into in the future.
Why did you decide to write your book?
Writing has always been the love of my life and my passion. I love organizing and I think we need to do it no matter who we are in order to make this world a better place. I often tell people, though, if the world wasn't burning, I would very happily live in a castle by the ocean and just write fiction the whole time.
Growing up, I was a huge reader. I absolutely loved the big fantasy novels and when I was in elementary school I had the idea for my own book, which would later become The Bookweaver's Daughter. I didn't revisit it until high school because that was a really transformative time for me. For one, I got involved in organizing. It was really cool to see how the same generation of women who had grown up reading the big dystopian book series—the novels about teenagers rising up against oppressive governments and protecting their friends—were now doing that in real life. At the same time, I was really invested in the idea of a narrative centering women of color. So, I came back to this book and was able to write a young adult fantasy novel with really strong themes of female friendship and rising up against oppression.
What has the reception to the book been like?
It has been really good. I've been feeling really lucky and honored to have people—especially, a lot of South Asian women who I really admire—coming behind and supporting me. I think this is just a hard time to be a debut writer, in COVID and with everything going on in the world, especially seeing what my community has been going through during this pandemic. Sometimes it has been hard to feel excited or focus on fiction, but being able to hear from people that these kind of fantasy novels give them joy, give them escape, and give them something to look forward to, has been a really nice feeling given how much suffering is going on right now.
What do you think your biggest victory has been so far?
I think that there are specific moments that I have been really proud of. For example, being able to publish a book or being able to help co-run an organization, Homegirl Project, that's doing really incredible work. But I think for me, what makes me feel like I have done something is getting messages from other South Asian teenage women, specifically. Being able to occupy those spaces is something that means a lot to me.
Answers have been edited and shortened for clarity.
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