America Ferrera recently gave birth to her first child, a baby boy with husband Ryan Piers Williams and it seems she’s already working on a fun new project. The Superstore actress will be editing a book called American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures. It’s an anthology of cultural essays that will be released this fall from Simon & Schuster imprint Gallery Books and the list of writers and activists who will be contributing essays for this book is amazing!
The book will contain feature essays from very well known known and prominent folks like Roxane Gay, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Uzo Aduba, Issa Rae, Jenny Zhang, Padma Lakshmi, Michelle Kwan and more. The short stories will touch on topics like immigration, identity, navigating cultures, and being part of a minority group that’s often underrepresented.
It makes sense that Ferrera would take on this new role. Not only does she currently produce and star in NBC’s Superstore but she’s also become very involved in political activism in recent years. This year, Ferrera alongside celebrities like Eva Longoria got involved in putting together the #TimesUp movement, which was a movement against sexual harassment that was released early this year in response to the Harvey Weinstein’s sexual allegations and the #MeToo movement. The organization, which was started with a group of over 300 women in Hollywood, was created to protect women from sexual assault and harassment in the work place.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdbJVzGDjzR/?taken-by=americaferrera
Ferrera has also been very involved in immigration rights and is a huge supporter of immigration reform. In 2013 she got involved with Voto Latino to encourage more Latinos to exercise their right to vote. Ferrera who is the daughter of Honduran-American immigrants has some interesting identity stories herself, so it makes sense that she would take on a project like this that addresses a theme she’s so passionate about. And of course, she’s using the proceeds of the book to do even more good. Ferrera plans on donating a portion of the book’s proceeds to the non-profit organization, Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition, which was launched in 2017 by the Hispanic Federation. It provides everything from legal representation, advocacy and social services to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers who have entered the United States.
American Like Me will be available this September on Amazon but you can pre-order here.
