Designer Rachel Roy Teams Up With Her Daughter to Retell an Indian Myth
*By Samantha Errico*
Fashion designer Rachel Roy and daughter Ava Dash noticed that very few young adult novels featured Indian narratives. So they decided to write one themselves.
"We realized there have been so many retellings of Greek myths, so we decided that we wanted to be the first," Dash told Cheddar. "So we went through and found a story that really spoke to us."
"I asked her if she knew any Indian myths," Roy said of a telling interaction she had with her daughter, "and she said 'no, you haven't taught me any.'"
According to Roy, who is half-Indian, the book was also inspired by her father, who was born in Bangalore, India.
Eventually, the mother-daughter pair settled on "96 Words for Love," a story about young love and self-discovery. The coming-of-age myth follows a 17-year-old girl who "falls in love and forgets who she is," Dash said. The title, she added, refers to all 96 ways one can say the word "love" in Sanskrit.
Roy said that while she was developing the story, her then-teenage daughter was facing some of the same challenges as her fictional protagonist.
"What do I do next? Is it what my parents want me to do? Is it social media and what I see reflected in entertainment wants me to do?"
Above all, Roy said, she wants to empower her daughter to celebrate "what makes us beautiful both on the inside and on the outside."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/fashion-designer-rachel-roy-writes-young-adult-novel-with-daughter).
Every few years, the Olympics roll around to prove that, yes, the world’s best athletes can jump farther, swim faster, and generally crush records that would’ve been impossible just a few decades ago. Take ski jumping - the world record has increased by well over 200 meters in fewer than 100 years. Responsible for this is a lot of intentional engineering of equipment and hills, but perhaps the biggest change is thanks to one act of human daring. Watch to find out how!
YouTube creator platform Spotter recently announced $200 million in Series D financing at a valuation of $1.7 billion, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Spotter allows YouTubers to license the rights to their video catalogs in exchange for large sums of cash paid upfront. The company's clients include some of YouTube's most popular personalities, with a combined total of more than 1.2 billion subscribers. Aaron Debevoise, founder and CEO of Spotter, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
What if we added the equivalent of over 1300 football fields to the tip of Manhattan? This was the proposal of a recent op-ed in The New York Times - increasing the size of the borough by about 12% in order to mitigate two of its most pressing problems. There’s evidence from all over the world that doing this can be a useful technique for crowded ocean-side cities. But the process to do so - reclaiming land from the ocean - is rife with potential downsides. So is this a proportional response to gigantic problems? Or a zany harebrained scheme that’ll do more harm than good?
Marti Bledsoe Post, executive director of On Our Sleeves, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest study finding the impact children's mental health can have on working parents.
Jamie Hemmings and Jilea Hemmings, owners and founders of Nourish + Bloom Market, join Cheddar News to talk about the inspiration behind creating their cashierless grocery store.
Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson, co-owners of Cxffeeblack, join Cheddar News to discuss how they are merging Black culture with coffee in Memphis.
Dr. Daniel Bober, psychiatrist and certified addiction medicine physician, joins Cheddar News to offer tips on how parents and guardians can talk to their children about what's happening in Ukraine.
Abigail Pringle serves as president, international and chief development officer at Wendy’s. She joins Cheddar News to discuss the company's Q4 earnings and its diversity initiative for franchise owners.
Brad Pitt’s production company “Plan B” wants to bring “Beetlejuice” back to the big screen. The sequel concept is in its earliest stages as there is no word of a script yet. The production company is also set to produce “Parasite” director Bon Joon-ho’s newest film as well.
