Hephzibah said she had always loved going to her local library, but when she was about eight years old, she became disappointed she did not see enough “books that have characters of minorities; characters of different backgrounds”.
“Because inside, black, Asian or ethnic minority people are not any different to anyone else and it’s just annoying that we’re not seen as equals,” she said.
Luckily, she had always loved to write, scribbling ideas in notebooks, so she had a starting point for her first book.
“I decided that the [lead] should be a black girl, just to show others that anyone can be the main character, and I decided to name her Hephzibah because it’s not a very common name.”