25 November 2023 , 13:00
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Danielle Brown took measures into her own hands to make sure her daughter, who is of mixed heritage, felt included
The actress, who is now a mum of three has opened up about her childhood in Hyde Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire, and growing up in a predominantly white area. But Danielle and her sister, Melanie Brown MBE, were of mixed heritage, with their dad Martin hailing from Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean and their mum, Andrea, coming from Leeds.
While her older sister has previously opened up about the racial hatred she endured as a child, Danielle admits she didn't see it as a "major issue" and stated that other people had an issue.
Opening up to the Mirror following the launch of her Roots & Wings, Raising Teens podcast about teaching her children about their mixed heritage, she said: "My kids go to a predominantly white school just because that's the area and then they get a lot of it at home, their roots and who they're around family-wise. I think it's major, me and Melanie grew up in an all-white school but it's changing.
Danielle Brown says when her eldest daughter was a child, she would colour in fairies to make her feel included (@missdaniellebrown/Instagram)
Danielle credits her mum Andrea for raising her in a mixed heritage family and instilling her roots in her (Dave Benett/Getty Images)"My daughter who is four comes home with books and the girls in the books look like her, and I never had that, Mimi, my eldest, she's 15, I remember having to buy paintings and things to decorate her bedroom and colouring them in brown because you couldn't get a fairy picture with a brown girl with curly hair." But Danielle says she now sees the "major differences" and acknowledges that "diversity is coming" but says there is "a lot of work to do".
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"It's just so different, the upbringing they have," she commented before adding: "What they see in books, in society and on TV – The Little Mermaid is a black girl now, it's a fantastic change!" But this spurred Danielle and her friend Amy Wilson on to launch their podcast.
She said: "We thought it would be good to come together, she's a quarter Chinese, her eldest is ginger so we've got a real mix between our six kids. The things we've gone through with them all are interesting and it needs to be spoken about." Nowadays, Danielle revealed that children are more confident to call out racism and prejudices in society but says she feels sorry for teenagers who "get it in the neck".
Danielle is hoping to break the stigma around talking about teenagers with her Roots & Wings Raising Teens podcast (@missdaniellebrown/Instagram)Discussing their podcast, the Yorkshire native explained that she and Amy came up with the idea after noticing people "go silent" when teenagers are brought up. "No-one talks about puberty, 'Has yours started their period?', they're feeling crap today or their mental health," she said, before continuing: "Our WhatsApp group was like 'Why don't we just do a podcast and get people chatting?' and making light of it, teenagers have got such a bad reputation. They're going through a lot of crap, it's a crap stage for them."
Although she was keen to explain that the podcast is far from the glitz and glamour of celebrity podcasts, explaining that it's recorded in Amy's kitchen in Yorkshire over a cup of coffee. "We've got professional guests that we have on there that are experts in certain topics," she said before adding: "We're not experts, we're just parents sharing our experiences and personal opinions."
Danielle and Amy were keen to avoid having celebrity guests appear in the first season and instead wanted qualified people in the industry to share their expertise. "We did that purposely because we didn't just want to get my sister or a few celebrity favours to come on," she said.
She continued: "In the second series, we will get some celebrities on that are parents or have an opinion on raising teens but I didn't want to be like 'Oh it's Mel B's sister on, of course, she's going to get Mel B on', I didn't want to be that cliche thing. Of course, we'll get celebrities on because the way that they raise teens is probably completely different to a mate of mine at a state school in Leeds."