About DianeDeaderick

Once upon a time, almost twenty years ago is how it all began; when Diane wrote a book for her youngest daughter, Ava, that would change Diane's life forever.

As a young award-winning public relations account executive, Diane was enjoying a career she loved, but the hours were sometimes very long. And, married with children, she didn't always have the quantity of time she liked to spend with her children, however, Diane really enjoyed the quality time of reading to them at night.

One night, she was reading a fairy-tale story and her youngest daughter, Ava, asked her in the middle of the story, if she was beautiful. Diane assured her daughter that she was very beautiful, but asked Ava why she would ask such a question. Ava explained that all the princess stories Diane read had beautiful princesses with white skin and her skin was not white. Diane promised her daughter she would read her a story about a beautiful princess with skin like hers, thinking she could go to the library or book store and get one. Diane found there weren't any books like that available, so to keep her promise, she wrote the award winning book, Princess Ava and Prince Kali, which is said to be the first known fairy tale book of its kind to feature royal black characters. The book was beautifully illustrated by friend Bill Jackson.

Although she had only written the book to fulfill a promise to her youngest daughter, Diane learned why her book was so popular in the libraries, schools and with parents especially in the black community - the book helped black children to see themselves in a positive light and to have increased self-esteem. The writing of the book caused Diane to attend graduate school where she researched the impact and long-term effects of low self esteem in black children.

Diane left her public relations job to pursue a life that would especially help women and children to increase self esteem. Diane has been featured on numerous television and radio programs and other media including a feature article in The Chicago Tribune that said "Diane Deaderick wrote the book on self-esteem."

Diane has worked in higher education as an instructor; admissions counselor; and transfer coordinator where she assisted students making the transition from two to four year colleges and universities. Currently, Diane works for the Chicago Child Care Society where she is supervisor of Next Step, college readiness programs with mentoring support to help parenting teens stay focused on and achieve high school graduation and enrollment in higher education.

Recently, Diane founded a non-profit organization to honor her late brother, Dana Lee Williams, a Chicago police officer for 32 years. Diane's past and current service affiliations include: The Chicago Commission on Human Relations; Metropolitan Community Foundation (board member); National Hook-Up of Black Women (board member); Bottomless Closet (board member); Rainbow PUSH Coalition; Alpha Kappa Sorority; Urban League; and the Anti-Defamation League of Chicago.

Amazingly, almost twenty years later, people still ask for copies of Princess Ava and Prince Kali because there is still nothing like it for children of color in the book stores or libraries. So, Diane, along with friend and original artist, Bill Jackson, have completed a special 20th anniversary edition of the book with new rhymed verse and full color illustrations.

And, Diane lived happily ever after.

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