A Book About Four Little White Girls Changed My Life

Lisa Beasley with Chris Kenny and WBEZ’s Tony Sarabia

White women have been falling in love and having adventures in literature for centuries proves Alcott in 1860something.

I was asked to present on A Book That Changed Your Life and I instantly accepted the challenge. I talked about how Little Women changed my life. To summarize – I didn’t write anything to present and I pretty much just riffed from the heart for 7 minutes so I don’t remember much of what I said – but basically, I read Little Women by Louise May Alcott when I was 9 and related so much to 4 little white girls Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. The book was written during the 19th century. Set in the Civil War but mostly covers basic white women problems as they go through regular life filled with possibility, dreams, disappointment, death, frills, shrills, and at some point, I’m sure they rolled down hills.

When I was older, I realized that a fictionalized African-American novel written during the same time period about 4 little black girls wouldn’t exist because, well, this book was written during slavery. Welp.

Once upon a time in history, black people were not allowed to read or write. Ain’t that crazy?

Literacy Works is an awesome organization fueled by the passion to equip adults struggling with literacy with resources.All the money raised during the event goes towards adult literacy programming.

What book changed your life?

LB