ATLANTA — When Nury Castillo Crawford isn't busy working for Gwinnett County School District she is dedicating her time to writing and publishing books to expose people to different cultures and languages.
As CEO and founder of 1010 Publishing, she strives to bring communities together a book at a time.
"It's the cheapest way to take a vacation," she said. "It's the most non-threatening way that I have ever known to introduce our kids to other people's nations, cultures... the amazing world we live in."
By the end of this year, the publishing company will have a total of 18 books, some written by Castillo Crawford. Topics like immigration, fitting in and finding ones self identity are all explored.
Right now, books are available in five different languages - in addition to English - including Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean, so that people from different cultures learn from one another.
"It's such a powerful thing when people share their experiences and then share how powerful reading a book about a little immigrant girl and how that was their journey," she added.
The Gwinnett County School District, which has some of the most diverse schools in the state, already has some of these books handy.
Castillo Crawford has seen the impact the books have had on people of all ages, whether its at home or at school.
"Eighty-five percent of our teachers in this country are white, middle-class women through no fault of their own, that's just a statistic, but when teachers make an effort and look for the books that are diverse and help reflect the students we're teaching, you're letting the kids know 'I see you and you're special and you're important'," she explained.
Since March 1, the publishing company has been taking in manuscripts from anyone interested in writing a story. 1010 Publishing will then be in charge of translating everything and illustrating it.
If you're interested in bringing diversity to storytelling, click here.