Colin Kaepernick Encourages Children to be ‘Different’ in Upcoming Picture Book

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By ShaCamree Gowdy Published: July 15, 2021

Colin Kaepernick Encourages Children to be ‘Different’ in Upcoming Picture Book

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2018, file photo, former NFL football quarterback Colin Kaepernick smiles on stage during W.E.B. Du Bois Medal ceremonies at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. Colin Kaepernick can add author and publisher to his resume. The former NFL quarterback who knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality announced Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, he's writing a memoir through his own publishing company. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

By: ShaCamree Gowdy

Colin Kaepernick is taking on a new form.

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback will release a series of books through Scholastic beginning with a picture book next year, per the Associated Press.

“I Color Myself Different” is slated to hit the market in April, and it’s an up close and personal look into Kaepernick’s background, who was adopted and raised in a white family.

“This story is deeply personal to me, and inspired by real events in my life,” Kaepernick said in a statement to AP. “I hope that it honors the courage and bravery of young people everywhere by encouraging them to live with authenticity and purpose.”

Kaepernick became a household name all across the country in 2016, when he began kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” to protest social injustice and police abuse of Black people. He was essentially ‘blackballed’ from the NFL and hasn’t played since.

In 2019, he started Kaepernick Publishing with the objective of “amplifying many ideas and opinions,” and has already produced an anthology of works on police abolition.