Journi Prewitt, a University of Memphis student, encourages black children to read books through her business, Black Butterfly Beautiful.
Black fourth graders read at a less proficient level than any other ethnicity in the United States, as only 14 percent read proficiently compared to 48 percent of Asian fourth graders, 42 percent of white fourth graders and 18 percent of all fourth graders, according to a study from Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center.
Black Butterfly Beautiful (BBB) is a subscription box business that offers selected books to black children and young adults. Prewitt, founder of BBB and a U of M student studying teaching, started her business at 17 years old to celebrate youth and inspire black youth to read more.
Prewitt said there were very few outlets for kids who loved to read, like herself, as a child.
“I have always loved reading, and I’ve always loved kids,” Prewitt said. “I wanted to create something that’s for them.”
Subscriptions boxes from BBB are monthly themed packages that contain books and other goodies that reflect the theme of the month and the age and gender of the subscriber.
Prewitt said she struggled at first with balancing her new business and school, but she now has help running her business.
“I think it (running a business) is pretty easy, only because I’ve been doing it for a year and a half now,” Prewitt said. “Even when I was in high school, I still had to focus on my school work, my job and managing my own business. But now, I have help, so it’s not like I’m doing it all alone.”
When she started her business, Prewitt said she only served young girls because her younger cousins looked up to her as their role model, and she wanted to encourage them to read regularly. However, her younger brother asked her to create a boys’ box.
“When I first started, it was just for girls,” Prewitt said. “Then my little brother saw all of the cool things that were in their boxes, and he was like, ‘I want a box too.’ Instead of just doing it for him, why not add that aspect onto my business?”
Shaun Prewitt, Journi’s mother, said her daughter works hard to get boxes shipped out to subscribers.
“When it comes to sacrifices and discipline during box week, which normally occurs the second week of the month, she really can’t plan any extracurricular things to do,” Shaun Prewitt said. “She may pull a whole 20-hour day because she has to go to class. Then she has to go to her job, and she has to come work on boxes.”
Shaun said she helps with her daughter’s business in any way she can.
“I do a lot of the day-to-day things with boxes that she tells me to do,” Shaun said. “It’s kind of hard working for your child, but we make it work. I just try to encourage her to have balance now, still do what she needs to do, but also have fun and not get all wrapped up into being an entrepreneur and work.”
Journi Prewitt said she aims to get youth invested in other opportunities to have a successful life.
“I think it’s important for them to receive the boxes so that they can see that they don’t have to go into sports or be into the music industry,” Prewitt said. “They can go into something else and still be successful.”
Prewitt has sent about 700 boxes to subscribers across the U.S. to places such as Memphis, Houston, New York and Los Angeles as well as overseas to U.S. army bases.
Journi Prewitt shows off boxes to be sent to young black boys and girls to encourage them to read. Black Butterfly Beautiful offers subscription boxes to young black children from ages 4 to 19 and boxes for college students.
Journi Prewitt prepares bottles for packaging in boxes. Prewitt started Black Butterfly Beautiful when she was in high school in an effort to get young black girls to read more.
