Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You

Las Vegas Aces star Wilson, two-time winner of the WNBA’s MVP award, debuts with a down-to-earth meditation on the complexities of Black girlhood. Avoiding prescriptive advice in favor of diaristic reflections, Wilson recalls such formative experiences as wrestling with dyslexia in a majority-white private school while dreaming of becoming an author; slowly rising to basketball success with the help of father, who coached her travel team and “told me what I needed to hear and not what I wanted to hear,” even when that meant calling her play “trash” (she encourages readers to find their own “gardeners” willing to show them tough love so they can grow); and enduring crushing grief after her grandmother’s death. Pushed by the latter experience to start therapy, Wilson calls for greater openness about mental health in the Black community. She strikes a voluble, friendly tone without pandering to her audience, and avoids sugarcoating the realities facing Black women while making clear that they need not resort to cynicism: “You have a body. You are Black. You are a woman. Whether you like it or not, that’s the first thing people see... but you can accept this reality without letting it steal your joy.” Readers will feel seen and heard. Agent: Byrd Leavell, UTA. (Feb.)