Different Differenter: An Activity Book About Skin Color

Different Differenter is an activity book for children, that thoughtfully addresses everyday skin color consciousness and bias in a way that's easy to understand.

Children's rich observations and questions about color, caste, and race elicit accurate yet straightforward responses. Jyoti's art-and-craft-based book takes you on a playful and creative discovery to find answers that work for you and your family — while creatively introducing facts of history and 15-plus new words. Make art. Perform a play for the nanas when they're in town. Eat a yummy homemade dessert. Ooh! and aah! about how each member of the family has a different skin color.

It's really a beautifully-illustrated, educational tool that sets the context for hard conversations about self-awareness, color, and identity. Subjects in the book include biology of skin (e.g. melanin); culturally-related aspects (e.g. food); colorism's social impact (e.g. bullying) and solutions (e.g. bystander intervention).

Illustrated by Tarannum Pasricha, Different Differenter reflects the world of the child, in all its diverse exuberance. The book's creators have worked hard to spawn a visual culture that centers cultures and children of color. Do away with the rhetoric, the baggage of what's taboo or political correct! Lead the dialogue with your children and help them embrace the values of social justice and equity.

"...designed to help parents talk candidly about colorism by providing them a skillfully written beautifully illustrated culturally relevant discussion guide." Kristi Rangel, Chief, My Brother's Keeper, A City of Houston Health Department Initiative

"...language is warm and nourishing, and reading feels like being spoken to gently by a person with infinite patience and time for all of our questions. Soak up the beautiful, evocative illustrations of children..." Anasthasia Higginbotham, Author/Illustrator, Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness

"Books like Different Differenter one are key to celebrating diversity and difference." Sailaja N. Joshi, CEO and Founder of Bharat Babies

Jyoti is a media-literacy educator and the founder and creative director of The Colo(u)rism Project, an independent initiative that aims to shift media’s skin-color narratives from profitable to equitable. Her independent work on the subject of colorism, which spans more than a decade, has engaged community organizations, nonprofits, NGOs, academia, elementary schools, and institutions of higher education in Houston, New York, and New Delhi. Jyoti has represented her work at Jaipur Literature Festival and TEDxWomen. She has been awarded a grant supported by the City of Houston for “Putting the U in Color,” a collaborative exhibit that challenges biases targeting “dark-skinned” girls and women (and men) in South Asian communities and the media.

Her first media project was launched in 2008, when, as a young master’s student, she produced video interviews with luminaries such as Shovana Narayan, the classical Indian dancer and Padma Shri awardee; Parul D. Mukherji, an academic and the dean of the School of Arts and Aesthetics at JNU Delhi; and Nandita Das, the celebrated art-house actress and director. Jyoti’s first book, Different Differenter: An Activity Book About Skin Color, was crowdfunded by her community and self-published in the spring of 2019.

Jyoti holds a Master in Media Studies from The New School University, New York, NY, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (visual communication) from College of Art, New Delhi, India. She is pursuing her second master’s degree at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, where she is developing a participatory research study with 6-8-year-olds, educators, and parents. She has a certificate in Leadership for Nonprofit Excellence, awarded by University of Houston and Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce. Before entering the social justice and nonprofit media world, Jyoti worked as a print designer in broadsheet at The Economic Times and in advertising at McCann Erickson. She currently lives in Manhattan with her spouse and 5-year-old son, Abir.