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Lakshmi Iyer's new novel examines colorism, belonging
Pennsylvania-based writer's novel follow an Indian American girl navigating family and belonging. which is set for July 20 release.
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Ankita Baidya - Fri, 17, Jul 2026
- 05:06 EDT
- 22
Author Lakshmi Iyer's new middle-grade novel Why Is My Skin Brown? releases on July 20. / X/@lakshgiri
Indian American author Lakshmi Iyer's new middle-grade novel, Why Is My Skin Brown?, is set for release on July 20 under Red Panda, the children's imprint of Westland Books, according to a post by Iyer on X.
Ahead of the launch, digital platform SheThePeople published the book's first excerpt, featuring a chapter in which the protagonist, Sarayu, confronts comments about her complexion from her grandmother soon after arriving in Bengaluru.
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Sharing the excerpt, Iyer thanked the platform for giving the character "her first stage" and encouraged readers to support the book during its release week.
According to the excerpt published by SheThePeople, the novel follows Sarayu, an Indian American girl who travels to India with her mother for an extended stay and finds herself navigating family relationships, cultural expectations and questions surrounding identity and colorism.
The story also explores memories of racialized bullying she experienced while growing up in the United States, contrasting those experiences with the attitudes she encounters among relatives in India.
The excerpt introduces members of her extended family who respond differently to the grandmother's remarks, highlighting generational perspectives on skin tone and belonging.
The first excerpt is out in the world! Four days before Why Is My Skin Brown? publishes, @SheThePeopleTV has run the chapter where Sarayu's Nani ma arrives in Bengaluru, looks at her face, and says kaali. Sarayu catches only that much. "Not again," she thinks.
— Lakshmi (luck-shme) (@lakshgiri) July 16, 2026
Every brown girl…
The novel serves as a companion to Iyer's 2020 children's book, Why Is My Hair Curly?, also published by Red Panda under Westland Books, according to the author's website. That earlier title followed a young adopted girl exploring questions about her curly hair and identity and featured illustrations by Niloufer Wadia. Iyer has said readers do not need to have read the first book before picking up the new novel.
Writing on her Substack newsletter, Iyer described Why Is My Skin Brown? as her first middle-grade novel and the first work she has written beyond her own lived experience. Intended for readers aged 10 to 13, the book examines themes of family, race, self-acceptance and cultural identity through the perspective of a young protagonist navigating two worlds.
Iyer is a Tamil American essayist and children's author whose work frequently explores transracial adoption, identity and belonging, according to her publisher biography. She is also the author of the essay collection The Smudged Hyphen:
Essays on Family, Identity, and the Art of Belonging (2026), as well as the novels Hindsight (2024) and A Star Keeps Its Distance (2026). Her essays have appeared in publications including The Hindu, The Indian Express, Verve India, HuffPost and India Abroad, and she has been featured on NPR's The Takeaway and the BBC.
Born in Tamil Nadu, Iyer grew up in Coimbatore and Chennai before moving to the United States in 2001. She is also featured in the 2025 documentary Love Chaos Kin, directed by Chithra Jeyaram, which premiered at CAAMFest in May 2025.
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