KINOTA BRAITHWAITE
Creating Classrooms That Care
School Assembly Program®
How It Began
Hi my name is Kinota Braithwaite. I work and live in Tokyo, Japan. My journey as an Author and Youth Speaker began when my daughter was bullied at her elementary school in Japan because of the color of her skin.
Action by her school was taken to stop the bullying, but I knew that restoring my daughter’s self confidence would take more effort.
So... I decided to write a book for her, hoping it might help her regain her self-confidence.
I never expected anyone outside my family to read it.
Turning Point
Then, I shared my self published book on Facebook, and everything changed. Someone from the US Embassy in Tokyo saw the post and invited me to the Embassy Compound to present the book.
From that moment, my book Mio The Beautiful began to spread far and wide. International school librarians nominated Mio The Beautiful for the Sakura Medal Book Award. It reached the bestseller list on Amazon Japan and soon, media outlets started to take notice.
I received a call from an NHK Japan television reporter, representing the country’s largest TV network, asking if I would share my story to promote respect for diversity. I immediately agreed, knowing that if sharing my daughter’s story could help other children, I wanted to be a part of it.
This opportunity led to my anti-bullying work being featured on NHK's popular morning show Ohayo Nippon, which reaches an incredible 15 million viewers across Japan. As a result, I was also invited to appear on NHK Direct Talk, an international broadcast that airs in 160 countries and reaches 380 million households worldwide.
Additionally, my work has been featured on NHK World Japan TV, NHK World Radio, the Asahi Newspaper for elementary school students, and Deutsche Welle (DW) International News.
Global Exposure
