Coloring with your typical box of crayons can be limiting. That's why a parent in Cortland is working to get crayons of all colors for kids.

“Tiny little me there, and I grew up not having any crayons that look like me. I had to just shade very lightly with dirt coloring," said Cortland parent Amanda Sharpsteen.

What You Need To Know


  • Cortland parent fundraising more than $1,000 for skin tone crayons

  • It's enough so every K-2 student can get a box

  • Even if school isn't open in person this fall, they have a plan to get the boxes to kids

Growing up as a person of color, Amanda wants all kids to see themselves reflected in their art.

“So to me, being able to have crayons that represent my skin tone as well as my nephews, my daughters, everyone in my family, is really important because representation matters," said Sharpsteen. “I never really realized this until I saw the movie 'Moana,' and when her hair gets wet, and it acts like that, that was me growing up, and I never realized it until then, that I have never actually seen representation of myself.”

So she contacted Barry Primary school.

“It was probably about three weeks ago that Amanda emailed me," said Barry Primary Principal Lisa Kaup.

The goal? A box of these crayola colors of the world crayons for every kindergartener through second grader. That’s more than 400 students. So Amanda turned to GoFundMe.

“It's been really inspiring to see how many people have been donating, but we still have a long way to go to be able to provide crayons for every student," said Sharpsteen.

Adding more representation and diversity is something Kaup says is overdue.

“Not just our school, but schools in general tend to be neutral regarding the category of racism, and we cannot stay neutral any longer. And something as seemingly as small as skin tone color crayons can be extremely big when it comes to kindergartners, first, and second graders," said Kaup.

Sharpsteen hopes to raise more than $1,000.