congress what they're reading the summer. >> i just read this book called the simpl sympathizer. it's the perfect book to talk about for world refuge day. i'm now reading the second book called the refugees. they are remarkable. remarkable books who captured the complexity of a refugees left those are the two books that are front and center for me right now. >> book tv wants to know what you're reading. send us your reading list on instagram or facebook. this is television for serious readers.

>> good evening everyone. welcome to the bookstore. my name is nancy, i am the owner of the strands. for a little bit a history this is located right around the corner from us from union square to astor place along fourth avenue. it had 48 bookstores. in the 91 year since then, about one of the stores has shuddered leaving strands to be passed on to my father who just died in

january, meant to me, always to be kept independent. tonight is a special night. we are excited to have you here with us. . . >> as a young woman, ibtihaj sought out sports as a means to fund college, and fencing was one of the only sports in which he could participate in modest dress. she was fast, hard working and devoted to her faith. but in a sport popular with privileged young white people, she often felt out of place. ibtihaj rose above bigotry and other struggles on the path to historical success. named one of time magazine's 100

most influential people in the world, she serves as a sports ambassador for the u.s. state department, co-founded athlete ares for impact -- athletes for impact and inspired the first hijab barbie in her likeness. she is here to share her story in her brand new memoir, "proud." it's worth noting that the book has an adult edition and a young readers' edition, and both versions are officially out today and for sale here. she will be joined in conversation by jacqueline wolfson, award-winning author of several books including "miracle boys," "brown girl dreaming," "after tupac." she was named the national ambassador for young people's hitture by the library of

congress -- literature by the library of congress, 2018 and 2019. please join me in giving a warm welcome to jacqueline and ibtihaj. thank you all. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> oh, i'm starting. hi. my name is ibtihaj muhammad. thank you so much for congresswoman coming. i -- thank you so much for coming. very appreciative of this moment, and i'm happy to share it with everyone today. i'm going to read a few paragraphs from my book.

muhammad? her voice trail off. the substitute teacher, ms. winter, squinted and brought the list of names on the attendance sheet closer to her face. she was stuck, and i could guess why. she was looking at the seven letters in my first name and wondering how to pronounce it. is your last name muhammad, she asked. her eyes fixed on me, the only fourth grader in the classroom wearing a hijab who happened to be sitting in the front row. yes, i nodded. my eyes stayed glued in front of me. and how do you pronounce your first name, young lady, she asked? be it's ibtihaj, i said, pronouncing each syllable as slowly as possible. it's pronounced just as it's written, i added. that usually helped people understand how to say my name. but it didn't help ms. winter. she made another face.

oh, that's too hard, she said, shaking her head no and scribbling something down on the attendance sheet. we're going to call you ibti. [applause] thank you. >> thanks so much for that reading. i'm so excited about this book in the world. i mean, i was really excited about you being in the world when i first started following you as an athlete, and then when i found out you had written "proud," which is a phenomenal book -- >> thank you. >> thank you. i was excited that your story was going to get into the world. and just looking around this room is so beautiful to me, and being able to see this diverse room, to see so many people in hijabs, so many people who i think you have changed the narrative for as an athlete, as a, as an academic, as an

activist. and so i wanted to start by talking to you about your activism. welcome, everybody. welcome, i'm jacqueline woodson, and i'm glad you're here, and back to my question. [laughter] so in terms of being an athlete and being an activist, what came first? and how? >> well, in some ways i feel as an african-american i was born an activist. there's so many parts of my childhood that i feel like my parents reminded us to be conscious of where we came from, our lineage and always to be proud of that. and then you also have the, on the other hand, i mean, i grew up with, you know, a ball in my hand in a sense where we weren't really given the option of whether or not to play sport, it was more so which sport do you want to play. and we were always really

encouraged to be active. when i was a kid, we stayed outside til the streetlights came on. so there was this importance put on not just being active, but also, you know, being healthy in a sense. >> and so in that, how did you find fencing? >> i, again, we were playing all these different sports as a kid, and we had a really hard time finding long-sleeved tops and spandex to go underneath team uniforms. and i remember from a really early age spending a lot of time in, like, modell's with my mom. no, that doesn't match, no, that doesn't fit. and we happened to be at a stoplight in my hometown in maplewood, new jersey, and we saw fencing in the local high school. and at that time, we weren't familiar with the sport, but we saw that the athletes had on long jackets and long pants. so my mom's like i don't know what it is, but i want you to

try it out. >> so great. [laughter] >> yeah, that's how i started fencing. my mom signed me up for a lesson. she, you know, was so resourceful, she found this fencing club which really turned out not to be a club. it was this guy's garage. [laughter] and he was like, you know, the maestro or like the premier coach in our town. and my dad took me to my first lesson, and we came home, my dad was like, no, we're not doing this. because it was just far, and it was weird, there was this random guy in a garage teaching me how to fence. my dad was like, absolutely not. [laughter] but i, you know, also being resourceful like my mom, went online and i googled, like, the top ten schools in the country, and they all had fencing teams. i'm from a really large family, i'm one of five kids. my -- as you'll read in the book. my dad's a retired drug detective, my mom's a retired teacher. i had to be resourceful for how

to pay for school. i was like, oh, yeah, i'm doing this. so it was just really a means to an end in the beginning. >> wow. and did you come to love it? >> i'm not sure if i've ever loved fencing. i don't know. i get that question a lot, and i can't say that i've ever loved it. there are parts about the sport that i've grown an affinity for. for me, i've always been really drawn to the people. i was, you know, head over heels for my high school fencing team. it was the space where -- i mean, we were winning all the time. and it's easy to be happy when you're winning. i mean, it was -- we had ups the entire time i was on the team. i i mean, we won almost every state championship. it was this really good energy. everyone was really supportive whether you were on the strip, actually providing tangible wins for the team or you were a cheerleader, you were on the sidelines. my first few years i was

cheering my teammates on. but it was this really supportive, inclusive environment. then after high school or at some point in high school i discovered a nonprofit in new york city, the rustberg foundation, which really has become more family than it has anything. and a lot of that has to do with just the nurturing environment it has created. >> i discovered the foundation at 16. someone told me that there were black people who fenced here in new york city, and i was like, that's offensive, but i googled it and found them. and that's how i joined the foundation. it was really out of necessity. i feel like i needed to be around people who look like me in order to grow in the sport. it's hard to feel, to have that sensation of being ostracized and being labeled as different day in and day out. >> so -- [applause] thank you. so as you know, both my kids are

fencers. my son's 10 and my daughter, who's here, is 16. and it's very rare in their fencing clubs to see kids of color fencing. and i know one thing you talk about in the book is when you get to the u.s. team and people think you kind of slid in. and anyone who knows about fencing knows it's a very intellectual sport as well as physical sport. but i'd like you to talk a little bit about that experience and about making the team, your feelings about making the olympic team and what you went in with and what you came away with. >> so i qualified for my first team in 2010, i believe. i, when i graduated from college, i graduated from duke

in 2007. i had a hard time finding a job, and at the same time i was still part of the westburg foundation. so i was, i was training. and i somehow or another convinced, like, my parents to help me pay for a world cup. and i remember taking, like, a good look at team usa, the usa fencing team, and to me, it wasn't diverse enough in that i didn't see someone who looked like me. even with the women's saber team, there had never been a woman of color on the team before. i was going against what everyone around me was telling me, you know? i was 23 when i went to my first international competition. i had no world ranking. i had no national ranking. i had never had a senior competition before i graduated from college. so there were a lot of naysayers around me telling me what wasn't possible, that, you know, an olympic team wasn't in my future because i had never been on a

cadet or junior team that, you know, i don't have the tactical training or skills to ever make a national team or qualify for an olympic team. so a lot of i feel like my journey as an athlete is kind of about challenging what the people around me think about me. i feel like society tries to put you in a box. even within the fencing community there's this idea that people who excel as kids are are thought of as, you know, olympic hopefuls, and people who don't have a spot on these cadet and junior teams they're the ones that won't make it. they'll fall off. they don't have the skill set to make it. and there's also that layer of -- i don't know if i would, i don't know exactly what to call it. but to be different in a sport that is predominantly white is very difficult. there's a lot of pushback in even wanting you to occupy that

space. so on the national team, there was a lot of commentary around the team that never included me even while i was on the team. i was seen more as a placeholder than i was anything else. and there was almost this, like, hopeful rhetoric that somehow i would not qualify the next year. so imagine having to carry that baggage every single competition, every single year and compete. and i think that a lot of athletes of color who are in similar situations as i was experience that where you feel that pressure to be exceptional in order to be accepted. >> so, and similar stuff happened at duke in terms of trying to occupy that space and getting the pushback. so what would you say to young people who are athletes now, especially young girls who maybe

are feeling lesser than or that they're getting pigeon holed in some sort of way? >> yeah. i think there's something to be said to be strong and to be confident in yourself and not rely on people around you to, to encourage you and motivate you. i know for a really long time i, i felt like i needed my sister, and i needed my mom in every single moment that i was sad or i felt, i felt, you know, these struggles especially while on team usa. and and at some point i started to rely on myself. i know -- i didn't allow these negative words that were coming from the national coach or coming from teammates, some of my training partners to affect how i felt about myself. and that was a conscious effort. i had to consciously tell myself -- which i call it muhammad ali mantra ares, that like i'm amazing, i'm great, i can do this, you got it.

and it was on the strip, it was off the strip, it was in competition, out of competition. and this isn't something that i said out loud, i was just feeding myself this kind of energy all the time because i felt like i constantly had to contradict the things that i was hearing around me. and i didn't want it to -- even subconsciously -- affect how i felt about myself. >> so smart. i don't know if anyone has gone online are -- online and seen you fence, but if you haven't, you must. because you're magic. you completely defy gravity. you're beautiful. it's just -- >> why are you so nice? >> am i lying? i would make my poor daughter watching these videos, and i'd be screaming. oh, you're going to have to -- >> you are the best fencing mom. [laughter] you know, it's really funny, when i came home in the olympics, i had people who i didn't know, who knew nothing about fencing, who watched the games and asked me about the commentary that they heard at

the olympic games. what was that guy's problem? what didn't he like about your fencing? what didn't he like about you? and i know the guy who commentated the olympic games, and i've never got good vibes for him, but it's so funny that you say you love to watch me fence. i feel like throughout my career i've combated this notion that as a black athlete all i can bring to the table is strength, i don't know how to fence tactically. one of my strongest things is my sense of timing, and i've been told, oh, all your -- your points are lucky. that's something that i heard throughout my career, is that somehow i've been riding this wave of luck. and i tell you, to be black in fencing, to be a woman in a hijab and to not only go to the olympics for team usa, but to medal, there's nothing lucky about that. >> oh, my god. [applause] it is so true. [laughter]

do you want to talk about writing? [laughter] >> yeah. >> let's talk about the writing process. at what point did you decide you were going to write "proud," and what was it like? >> so, i mean, to be honest, i never thought about writing a book. when the idea kind of came about to tell my story, i was like, wait a second, this has to happen, right? because i think that if i was a kid and i had read a story of, like, struggle and triumph and all these obstacles and saw that it's possible to come out on top with hard work, i think that it would have changed the way that i saw myself and perceived my future. so i felt like it was necessary especially now, in this moment. but i also didn't realize it was going to be so is hard. [laughter] like, i wish someone had told me how difficult it would have been. i felt like lori, who helped me write book, she's awesome.

and it felt so therapeutic to talk to her and to talk through my story and to unpack all these moments throughout my career that i think they've happened, and they feel like kind of blips on radar. so there are these speed bumps and hurdles and mountains that you have to climb. and, you know, through having a strong faith and believing in my purpose and having faith in god, i know that i've been able to overcome things that i've seen a lot of people not make it out of, especially in this sport as people of color and as religious minorities. but i didn't -- to be honest, i didn't know it would be so hard to write a book. [laughter] i don't know why i thought writing 300 pages would be easy, but it's definitely really difficult. i felt -- to me, it felt so timely. like everything about my journey felt timely. even from the time i qualified for the team. this was all around this discussion of, like, zero tolerance, muslim ban, these

videos being released of, like, police brutality, like black people losing their lives. and to just challenge all of these things with -- existing as myself, right? to challenge these misconceptions that people have about people who look like me and to dispel these different stereotypes and change the narrative, it just felt very timely to write it. >> ah, it is so timely. i think i'm going to ask three more questions before we open it up for the audience, because i feel like i'm hogging you. i think about the black community and mental health a lot and the kind of stigma that we have around it. you know, i think also working class, poor white communities have it as well. i remember being in college, and my sport was track. we would get to our competitions, and we'd be throwing up, and everyone's sick and, you know, losing their --

literally losing it. and when i read about you and the team and actually getting someone who you could talk to, i thought about what a difference that would have made for me as a young person. because therapy was just not even on the radar. it was like you go to the track meet, you get sick, you win or you lose, right? and you repeat it again the next day or the next week. but let's talk about mental health and the fatigue you felt. because it sounded like the fatigue was a reaction and also a reaction to being so tired of having to do so much more work than the other athletes not only around the sport, but around race and identity and all of that. >> yeah. so i was experiencing this paralyzing fatigue that i didn't even know exactly what that meant. all i knew is when it was go time, i had spent hours and

hours, you know, almost 24 hours trying to get to this world cup after training for the last few months and preparing for this world cup. i would get there, and the morning of i would wake up after going to sleep relatively early, having a great, you know -- eating well, getting a good night's sleep, i would wake up really tired. and i would get to the fencing hall, to the venue, and i would be so tired. and i couldn't explain this fatigue. i couldn't understand why when i got on the strip, my feet felt like lead, and i couldn't move. i couldn't lunge, i couldn't do anything, and i was losing in the first round. and this isn't like, you know, baby ipti trying to make the national team, this is like number six, seven in the world, and i couldn't figure out why i'm going out in the first round of competition. and it just so happened that -- i don't remember why we had a team psychologist all of a sudden. i know that i personally was just dealing with a lot.

we had just won world championships, and that felt like a lot of pressure. it says, oh, world champions on the strip, you know, all of a sudden. and our team was having issues. and whenever we lost, it was always my fault, believe it or not. according to the coach anyway. he was like, ipti, why did we lose? i felt the pressure, and i was being, you know, i was suck coming to the pressure -- succumbing to the pressure mentally. i met with this psychologist, and she talked me off the ledge. i remember having conversations with no one else other than my sister and my mom about the sadness i was feeling. i was feeling this overwhelming sadness, and i couldn't explain it. and, like, i love my parents so much, but my parents were trying to say, like, you've just got to pray more. you've got to pray -- and i know a lot of muslims in the room can attest to this. if you pray on time, this won't happen to you. [laughter] and for me, it wasn't as simple

as, you know, just praying more. there's something to be said for, like you said, addressing sadness and depression and anxiety within not just the muslim community, the black community. there's stigma around these mental issues that, you know, for whatever reason we don't discuss them. and for me, i didn't even know that i needed to ask for help. my asking for help was like, mom, what do i do? because everybody's mom is a doctor, right? [laughter] it's like, mom, what do i do? mom was like, you've got to pray. i'm like, that's not it, mom. thankfully, the sports psychologist helped me figure out -- and it's trial and error. imagine having to, you know, go to local competitions to fence with kids to try to work your way and iron out these creases of, you know, anxiety. i literally had to figure it out. and so much of my life changed when not just i started to go through these muhammad ali

mantras on the strip the. i was always reciting verses from the quran that i felt immediately slowed down this heavy breathing i was experiencing i. almost felt like a panic attack the. but then also i would, i kind of chose happiness. i decided i was no longer going to allow my teammates and my coaches to dictate how i felt about myself. and that was something that i did not get from the sports psychologist. i feel like i just, like, thank god arrived at this, like, you know, i had this epiphany, and i arrived at this moment in my life where i feel like i took control of my emotions. i was like, you know what? i'm not going to give you that power to make me feel inadequate as an athlete, as a person. i'm not going to give you that power over me. i just made this conscious decision. i was like, you know what? i'm happy. and that kills people who don't like you. they, like, hate that. [laughter] >> i know it is still the best ammunition for haters.

so two last questions. talk about visiting the border in california. i know that was early july? >> yeah. so a few weeks ago i went with revolve impact and a nonprofit that i cotowned called athletes -- cofounded called athletes for impact, and we went to the border. it was, you know, this mission to try to understand what's going on. and like all of us, we're confused. we're, like, horrified and then you're also, like, okay, what can i do to help. and for me, the best way to understand what was going on was to see it, like, firsthand. and that came in the form of visiting the u.s./mexico border. which i'd been to before. it's kind of bizarre to see, right? because there's two fences. there's the mexican, there's the mexican fence, there's the u.s. fence, and there's a space in between that's federal property. and in this federal property you

have i think it's called friendship park where 10 or 20 people, something like that, from either side, u.s. or mexico side, they can go visit their family members for a few minutes. and it's just kind of interesting to see this huge, these huge, massive like walls, right? that are there. and i've seen them years ago. so when i hear about we immediate to build a wall, i'm like, how high is it going if it's already there? but then to also learn about who is being detained, who's being, you know, separated. and i think that there are a lot of misconceptions about what's going on. i think that most of us when we think about the families that are being separated, we think of latinos in particular. and there are so many caribbeans, there's so many black people who are also experiencing the same thing. there are a lot of nonprofits that i met with when i was there. this was a nonprofit finish there was a nonprofit pre.com

gnatly -- predominantly somali immigrants. to hear about the way haitians get to the united states is to take a boat from haiti to brazil and to walk four to five months from brazil all the way up to the mexico border. >> wow. >> so it's heart-wrenching to understand the lengths that people go to, to risk their lives to flee, you know, domestic violence, state violence, to flee wars, to seek a better life. and for us to turn people away or to, you know, rip people's children from their arms for them to never see them again is heartbreaking. i think what each of us can do is try to learn more and see what we can do and also vote. that's something simple that everybody can do. [applause] >> yes. thank you. i was going to ask what we can do, and you answered it, so i think now we can ask the audience if they have any questions. but you're phenomenal. thank you. >> thanks, jacqueline.

>> thank you, thank you. so here's a microphone coming around. we have a question right here up front. and if you could just tell us your name. >> good -- i'm sorry, good evening. a little nervous. my name is gayle davis carter, and we are u.n. partners, and i had to tell you i just love you. >> oh, thank you. >> because you're so straightforward, and i'm a fellow december baby too. >> oh, nice. >> yeah. so, we are straightforward. [laughter] what i love about what you shared is the differences of people that are still the same. and i have two questions. when you went to the border, okay? what -- because i noticed that there were people who, two people who flew the entire wall of the border in mexico, and there are some places where there's no wall and broken fences, and you could just kind of walk through the pond over across from each other. did you experience any of that? and did you experience what people are dealing with right there on site as you were

watching it unfold? and then the second thing is being a woman of color and fencing and doing the work that you're doing, what has been your biggest challenge to overcome stereotypically? >> i'm just -- can everyone hear the questions in the back? okay. >> the biggest challenge to overcome, like a -- >> [inaudible] what has been one that you've had to overcome, like your biggest challenge in overcoming that. >> i'm not sure what stereotypical challenge would be, but i know that, like, there was some point in my career where i just made this decision that i'm not going to continue to explain myself or feel the pressure to do that. i think that that's in place on a lot of minorities, to somehow or other try to make yourself

more acceptable in some way. to say like, hey, we're the same, you know? we're so much alike. i feel like when i was younger, my earlier moments on team usa, i kind of felt that. like, there's a sensation or there's this feeling that my teammates feel that i'm different from them. so let me try to help, you know, ease them into dealing with a muslim or show them that, like, black women aren't super aggressive, you know? all these stereotypes that people have about us, i'm like let me, you know, try to help them interact with people who look like me in a more meaningful and normal way as opposed to them thinking of me as other. and like i can't even tell you the things that people have said to me. and these are people who i've been on teams with for years. not one team, not two teams, but eight teams. to ask me, hey, what country are your parents from? it's like we've known each other forever, and we fence together

on team usa. like where would they be from? [laughter] you know, to ask someone, you know, in the middle of a team dinner, do you have your magic carpet to go pray? like things like that, to me, are the crazy experiences that i've add. and at some point, you know, i went through phases where i feel like i tried to -- it was like i want, i want to be accept by them because they're teammates. for me, when you make the team it's going to be like this we're in this together, we're going to win together, and you're looking for that inclusive space. but as you know, fencing is individual first. and then it's a team. so there are very few spots to qualify for team usa, and when i tell you it's a dog eat dog environment to get there, there are people when literally hope that you have broken your foot to get there, you know what i mean? so that they can pass you. and that's the energy that i felt for eight years straight. >> [inaudible]

>> yeah. so i went to the border. i don't even remember the name of the city. but it literally is where the ocean, like you see the ocean, you see the fence kind of trail off for like a quarter mile into the ocean. so i didn't, i didn't come across any part of the fence that was broken or there's like an interruption in the fence, yeah. >> [inaudible] >> [speaking in native tongue] >> good to see you, good to be here. i have a question about interactions you may have had with other muslim athletes from around world or in the states in the course of your journey and, you know, what takeaways you got from that, or was there any comfort or positive energy that came from that? was there still competition? just curious how that might have been for you. >> i think that i fenced other

muslim fencers like only at world championships when people from maybe the smaller countries or countries that don't have the larger delegations, like maybe egypt or uh-uh tunisia show up. there's a sense of sistered hood or brotherhood or unity when there's a muslim athlete or a black athlete, i can tell you that. all of the black team usa fencers are friends with the black french fencers. we're kind of related. we hope that we are but we're not energy that you feel when it comes to black athletes in fencing. i'm not, i mean, just aside from us all being, you know, like one team, there's that sense of friendship. one french fencer that i'm really close to is half algerian, and he's also black. she's also black. i mean, we've been friends -- when i first met her, she doesn't speak any english. now she speaks three words --

[laughter] we've been friends for years, and it literally is just because we have this sense of friendship but also this kind of family sister sisterhood that stems from both having, you know, arabic last names, both having, you know, muslim family and also being the only two black girls fencing in a 200-person tournament. >> [inaudible] >> i mean, i don't know about other sports. i don't -- i mean, a lot of -- i have friends who, like, run track or play in the nfl or nba. that's different because, you know, the disparity isn't there like disease in fencing. -- like it is in fencing. >> hi. my name is edith richards. i'm a single parent, and i believe my children attended the westburg foundation with you. so i just wanted to say that peter west burg was, like, the surrogate father that i needed and all the olympic teachers,

and it helped me to raise my children. i like that you mentioned mental health. i'm a social worker. have you ever thought about starting programs in schools, fencing programs and then having maybe a mental health piece? >> yeah. i think that that's a great question. i do, i agree with you that peter does become like a father figure for a lot of kids at the foundation. and it's really nice to hear that that helped you as a single parent. i know what it was like for me to see, like, olympic athletes and olympic medalists who were of the same skin complexion for the first time at the westburg foundation and how transformative that was for my mind. i do have -- one of my sisters who's actuallying sitting directly behind you -- [laughter] she's actually, she and her husband have talked about this. hopefully in the future we hope to start some type of sports programming.

not necessarily specifically around fencing, but to help serve the communities in ways that include, you know, outlets for, you know, speaking with social workers even. i think that's really important. >> hi. my question speaks to the idea of being a muslim woman in an area that you don't see a lot of muslim women in. i'm not an athlete, but i'm going into academia and specifically, like, the world of politics, and that can be a scary place under this administration for a muslim woman. so what would be your biggest takeaway or, like, nugget of advice for someonesome -- for someone? is. >> not to be afraid of existing as you are. i think there's something to be said for those of us who have courage in the moments like this and not peel, you -- and not fe, you know, fear and feel like we have to change parts of ourself to conform to an administration

like this that is bigoted and racist and doesn't want people like us to exist in these spaces. so i think the best form of resistance is to be unapologetic about who you are and not feel pressure to change parts of yourself. [applause] >> my name is nora. you're my biggest inspiration, and i want to know what inspires you. >> you do. [laughter] [applause] >> [speaking in native tongue] >> my question is, do you have advice more youngsters that want to go to the olympics in the future? >> yes. advice in the future, i would say continue to work hard. there are -- i actually fence

with -- he's right here, one of my training partners. there are so many hours in the gym that, you know, i'm the only one there. i have, my sister, my teammates can attest to that where you're the first one in the gym and the last one to leave. and people don't get it. they're not meant to understand your journey. but i think if you have a goal in mind and you work hard and you believe you can accomplish it, you can make it happen, yeah. [applause] >> another young person. [speaking in native tongue] my name is daisy, and how did you feel when barbie asked you to be the first muslim barbie? [laughter] [applause] >> the most important question of the night. [laughter] i played with barbies for the longest like in a very

uncomfortably hong time. [laughter] i was, like, 15 when i stopped playing with barbie. i had a three-story dollhouse. we had a pool on the roof. we had a corvette, a jeep. do you guys have a corvette or a jeep? no, but my barbie did. [laughter] my parents only bought us black and brown dolls, so if we went down the toy aisle and we already had, you know, i don't even remember their names . we already had those two brown dolls, we didn't get a doll that day. and that was their effort for us to see ourselves represented even in something as simple as doll play. but for me to become barbie or to have a barbie made in my likeness, i feel like my life has come full circle. [laughter] i can't even tell you how much i loved barbie. it's coming out really soon. i feel like i get that question all the time. sooner than you think, so that's all i can say. but the packaging, amazing. [laughter] >> there was one in the way, way

back. yeah. >> hi -- [inaudible] so happy to be here. we're -- oh, sorry. we're here from los angeles. i'm here with my two daughters, and my question is two the fold, and it kind of piggybacks on one of the other young ladies' questions. who were the most influential people in your life when you were growing up, and who do you consider to be the most influential now that you're a young woman? >> you know, i feel like i have so many different people in my life who helped me believe that i could arrive at this moment in time that have planted the seed but that also watered it to help it grow to what it is today. when i think of athletes like kareem abdul-jabbar or hakim to ladies and gentlemen wan, i remember as a kid saying how are they playing and fasting?

that doesn't make sense. [laughter] i could barely make it to lunchtime, right? i thought i was dying. but to see these athletes, right, and to see how they could compete at the highest level of sport and fast, to see athletes like serene that and venus williams, right? to be unapologetic about who they were as black athletes in the tennis world, for me there were so many parallels to my career as a fencer. and i feel like it wasn't something i could necessarily directly relate to because i was, you know, not even a blip on a map in penceing when -- if innocencing when they were really as far as starting to ascend within the sport of tennis. i think watching them allowed know unconsciously grasp my aspirations as an athlete. and i always wanted to -- i want this generation to see a muslim athlete be successful. i want our generation to continue to see black athletes do really well and transcend sport many a way that -- in a

way that allows them to to be inspired, allows them to see themselves in spaces where even now in 2018 we're being, like, pushed out and told we're not welcome. this isn't a place for you. there's that idea that it's just like i'm not waiting for a seat at the table. i'm not waiting for someone else to say, hey, come on, we want this space to be inclusive. i'm pulling up a chair and i'm taking a seat, and i'm saying, hi, i'm ibtihaj, you know? [laughter] [applause] >> [speaking in native tongue] my name is -- [inaudible] my question for you is during your fencing career did your fencing or just doing sports ever impact or inspire you to come closer to your faith? >> yeah. i feel like when i didn't qualify for the olympic team in

2012 -- which a lot of people don't know. didn't qualify in 2012. i feel like no one really wanted to talk with me about it, especially in my family. it was like, yikeses, she didn't make it, you know? and for me i felt like i didn't make it because it wasn't meant for me to make. right? i always feel like things that are meant for me, like the way god has it written is the way it's supposed to happen. so if it wasn't meant for me, it would miss me. i didn't qualify, that's okay. but i think what helped me continue in the sport and not to be truly affected by not qualifying for such a, you know, this huge sporting event, the olympic games -- arguably, the most important sporting tournament -- is my faith. i have teammates who, in my opinion, weren't as lucky who still to this day have a really hard time accepting defeat and not making teams and feeling really affected by that. and i believe that my faith, my faith has allowed me to become a

greater athlete because i don't hang on a loss the same way my teammates do. and i don't think that makes me any less competitive than any of the world's top athletes. i think that my understanding of defeat is, in a sense, is that it's temporary. our life is fleeting, so i can't get so caught up in something as simple as a loss, you know? because i know that as an athlete i can go back to the gym, i can continue to train in hopes of, you know, performing better the next competition. but there are people out there who, you know, things are way more important than sport in a sense where people are fighting for their lives. they don't know where their next meal is coming from, they don't have access to clean drinking water. to me, those are things that would be, would be more hurtful, you know? and dire than losing a match or not qualifying for an olympic team. >> so funny, because we're

trying to teach our children about -- >> >> >> [inaudible] i have a question. what do you say to people who try to put you down in your career? >> i have a game plan. everybody should take out a pen. this is my plan, right? so i don't listen to haters in any capacity. i have so many trolls on social media, and i'm such a big fan of, like, blocking and deleting. so i've had, i have, you know, like reporters and people say, man, you have like the most positive social channels. everyone's so supportive. and i know it's because i've deleted everybody. i've blocked everybody. [laughter] so my trolls are constantly making new accounts because i am really -- me and my sister, we go through my comments so fast where i don't even see the hater comments. and not necessarily for me, but also for the young kids that read them. i don't think anyone needs to read those comments that are

meant to be hurtful and spiteful. >> do we have time for one more question? >> my name is -- [inaudible] and i have a question. well, more like a statement also. i have experience where, like, people judge me based on me being outspoken and, you know, friendly and stuff that i don't behave or act like a muslim. and i was wondering how to you recommend i respond to that? because i don't want to like sometimes, you know, react in a badly manner but also it's quite offensive, you know? it's like telling someone how is a muslim woman expected to behave, you know? >> so are you getting these comments from fellow muslims or people who are saying you're not representing muslims in a positive light? >> well, mostly, yes, i would

say sometimes but not most of the time from muslims. basically, like, people from work or school or, you know, just out in the street, you know? people would hear me speak in a way, and they will make the comment, you know? i just wanted to know how should i react to it, you know? >> you know, the thing i always think about is the ted talk, "the single story," how people think there's a single story for, you know, the mexican dishwasher, the black domestic or the, you know, different people. we're many stories,ing right? there are many layers to us. and there's not a single way. i mean, you're different from you, from me, and i don't think there's a single way to be. i don't. but at the same time, of course, i think people have an expectation based sometimes on stereotype and refuse to see people as their individual

selves. so i think what we've been talking about most of the night is the importance of being who you are and respecting -- having a deep respect for that, right? i always tell my kids, you know, when you go outside, you're ambassadors for, you know, you're ambassadors for thed woodson family, you're ambassadors for the black community. there are all these ways in which who you walk out into the world is going to be judged by many, so what does that look like. so i think it's a complicated narrative, and at the same time it's one people do have an idea of who we're supposed to be that we might not necessarily be. did that make sense? >> no, i think that that makes a lot of sense. and i -- that's something that i carry with me every day. i always feel like an ambassador for the black community in everything that i do. i feel like an ambassador for the muslim community especially because i wear a hijab. i feel that pressure all the

time. and not just because i'm a public figure, but because with i feel like my faith reminds me of the way that, in my mind, i would like to behave and also i feel like i have a long legacy of people that i need to, that i would like to live up to. and at the same time, like jacqueline said, i think it's most important that you feel comfortable with yourself. >> thank you. >> what an inspirational evening. thank you all. jacqueline, we have copies of her books for sale. [applause] and we'll have, and you'll stick around to sign copies of your "proud" both for young adults and for adults. thank you all for being here. thank you, c-span. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> we ask you remain in your seats for the time being. we're going to call you up row by row -- [inaudible] if you're taking off for the evening, the store's open til 10:30 des p.m. you can exit through the elevators here or head all the way to the back, turn right, and there's some elevators there. thanks for your patience, we'll be with you in just one sec. [inaudible conversations] >> there are lots of people who feel like i don't want my kid to read stories that are sad, disturbing, downbeat, whatever, right? and so that's, like, not a totally illegitimate thing to say, i want to choose as a parent when my kid understands stuff that might bring them

grief. but there's also a certain point beyond which it's like, well, they're 14 now. like, when are you going to introduce them to the idea that not everything is perfect outside of your all-white suburb, right? and so all of those factors, i think, swirled together to create the perfect dumpster fire of mass cell phone sorship of -- censorship of books by marginalized people. >> cory doctorow will be our guest hive sunday at noon eastern discussing his latest book, "walk away." his other books include down and out in the magic kingdom, little brother, plus 14 other novels. interact with cory doctorow by phone, twitter or facebook. our special series "in depth" fiction edition sunday, live from noon to 3 p.m. eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> before being dropped oning that sake in 1942 -- nagasaki, th