CLEVELAND — Four-year-old Stella Njoku enjoys doing a lot of different things. She likes to dance, plant flowers, play outside and on any given Sunday, she likes to watch her dad in action. But when the daughter of Browns' tight end David Njoku isn't cheering for Cleveland, she's dreaming of the things she might be when she grows up.
"We can be everything. We can be doctors. We can be music players, we can be firefighters, we can be an astronaut," Stella said.
Channeling Stella's many dreams and ambitions, she and her mom, Veronica Arthur-Mensah, worked together to write a book. It's called "I Am So I Can."
"I want her to be educated. I want her to feel like she can do anything that she wants to do," Arthur-Mensah said. "And I want kids to know that the thoughts they think and the words they say shape their whole lives, and that's exactly what I put in this book."
The book is full of words of affirmation, not just for Stella, but for young children everywhere.
"I'm fast."
"I'm strong."
"I'm confident."
"I passed it out at [David Njoku's] football camps...Stella was passing out the books and Stella was getting the kids together, and asking 'Do you want to play with me? Do you want to do this?' Arthur-Mensah said. "Just making every child feel capable and worthy and confident."
From women's shelters to bookstores and everything in between, Arthur-Mensah hopes that the book she wrote with and for her daughter, "I Am So I Can," will reach as many children as possible with one goal in mind: For kids of all backgrounds "to feel like they have a place that they can actually be whatever they want to be."
While her dad chases his dreams on the football field, Stella's dreams continue to change with affirmation and support, just like in her book.
"I'm going to be an artist...a dancer. I think I want to be all of the stuff in my book," Stella said.
In the meantime, Stella and Arthur-Mensah plan to deliver books around Northeast Ohio and leave them with children in need.
"I Am So I Can" is also now available on Amazon.
