What began as a Girl Scouts Gold Award project evolved into something much more meaningful for junior Tara Ghafouri, who wrote, illustrated, and published her first children’s book “What’s In Your Lunchbox?” in September.

The story follows a second-grader named Rana, who is met with teasing and bullying after she decides to bring Persian food to school and share her culture with her classmates. Yet with the help of a few close friends, Rana learns the importance of embracing her identity. 

Ghafouri’s own experiences throughout lower and middle school widely inspired “What’s In Your Lunchbox?” “I would bring my Persian food to school, and a lot of times kids would make comments. They didn’t really mean for it to be hurtful, but it would just happen,” Ghafouri shared. Reflecting on these experiences, Ghafouri began to research the reasoning behind such comments and prejudicial bullying.

“These microaggressions can lead towards biases and stereotypes,” Ghafouri explained. “I found that the best way to combat this is by teaching kids when they’re young to be proud of their culture and to be accepting of other people’s differences, and in my mind the best way to do this was to write a picture book because books are pretty accessible for students….And especially in their formative years like this, it’s very important to teach these kinds of lessons before harmful narratives about certain groups of people can be formed.”

Since publishing “What’s In Your Lunchbox?” on Amazon, Ghafouri has sold over 150 copies. Numerous libraries, schools, and organizations, such as St. Vincent DePaul and the CASA Academy, carry the book. 

Additionally, all of the proceeds are donated to the Arizona Persian Cultural Center, which aims to raise awareness of Iranian culture in Arizona. Ghafouri has done numerous readings for children at the center, allowing her to interact with readers and realize the true impact of her work.

“It’s just been a very fulfilling experience,” Ghafouri said. “I really want to get this out to as many people as possible just because the impact I’ve been getting from kids was a lot nicer than I thought it was going to be. Honestly, I didn’t really think that kids were going to enjoy it so much, but I’ve had parents tell me that their kids want to read the book every night.”