Mario Jackson is a Cincinnati firefighter, a paramedic and now also a children’s book author.
Jackson says “Nya the Great and Her Visit to the Fire House” is aimed at inspiring young girls.
“I realized that there isn’t a lot of representation for women, especially women of color, in jobs that are usually male-dominated,” he told us on Thursday.
A father to daughters aged 7 and 13, Jackson says he had the idea to write a children’s book a couple of years ago.
He started writing it in 2019, then took a few breaks before picking it up against during the pandemic. He hopes to turn it into a series.
“This first book is about a young girl [and] her and her dad’s visit the firehouse, where her aunt is a captain of the firehouse,” Jackson explained. “She has just been waiting on this visit. She gets there, she meets some of the firefighters, and her aunt takes her on a tour.”
The book gives kids and idea of what it’s like to be a firefighter. But the bigger picture, Jackson says, is to show young girls that women can be successful.