Colin Kaepernick is set to release a children’s book.
The picture book, titled “I Color Myself Different,” is set to be released in April 2022 via the activist’s publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing, and a multi-book publishing deal with Scholastic, an announcement on Thursday said.
“I Color Myself Different” was inspired by Kaepernick, who was born to a white mother and Black father and adopted by a white family when he was an infant. The book was inspired by Kaepernick’s childhood memory of when he said he first documented he was different from his adopted white family.
“During a kindergarten exercise on drawing families, Kaepernick remembers putting down the yellow crayon he had been using to draw his family and picking up the brown crayon for himself,” the press release stated. “This moment crystallized for him the differences marked by his adoption, and how acknowledging those distinctions could encourage us all to be more accepting of ourselves and each other.”
The picture book, illustrated by Eric Wilkerson, is the second official title the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback announced since he founded his publishing company in 2019.
Kaepernick said in May that the company will release its first title, “Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons,” in October.
The activist said in Thursday’s announcement that “I Color Myself Different” is “deeply personal” to him and inspired by real events in his life.
“I hope that it honors the courage and bravery of young people everywhere by encouraging them to live with authenticity and purpose,” he continued.
Kaepernick has remained unsigned by any NFL team since he became a free agent after the 2016 season, when he notably kneeled during the playing of the national anthem at NFL games in protest of systemic racism and police brutality.
The NFL has been widely accused of blackballing Kaepernick for his peaceful protests. That criticism was reignited in May when reports circulated that the Jacksonville Jaguars were considering signing Tim Tebow, who hasn’t played a regular-season NFL game since 2012.