Our Story

Young Lit Stars (a BlackJAC Media company) is a British publishing house founded by Juliet Coley-Bremmer and her children Yazmin, Bailey and Romeo.

Following his mother's heart attack in 2015, when Romeo was just 7 years old, he attended Play Therapy and was encouraged to keep a journal documenting his thoughts and feelings. He shared this journal with his older siblings who were so moved by it that his sister, Yazmin, suggested turning it into a book so that it could help other children coping with family illness, and brother Bailey and mum Juliet conducted research on how to officially publish and distribute the book.

Seven years, four awards and 8 self-published books later, Romeo had become a multi-award-winning author, his confidence had skyrocketed and his English grades had seen a marked improvement. With the help of their mother, former Senior Deputy Head Teacher Juliet Coley-Bremmer, the family decided it was time to branch out, share their expertise and provide other young Black children with the opportunity to become authors and write the stories they want to see on bookstore shelves.

And so, Young Lit Stars was born.

Currently, Young Lit Stars has published original works from 60 Black authors aged 16-and-under in 26 books. 30% of the children’s titles published in 2022 featured ethnically diverse characters, up from 4% since records began in 2017 (CLPE, 2023), and we at Young Lit Stars are working hard to ensure these figures increase to reflect the reality of the world we live in today. Our goal is to ensure that young Black children not only see themselves reflected in the stories they read, but have an active hand in telling these stories too.