Taye Diggs wants kids to love who they are, even if they don't fit in with everyone else.

The "Private Practice" actor dropped by a Manhattan bookstore to share his new book, Chocolate Me, with a crowd of children and their parents. The New York Daily News reports that the actor read the book, which has, in a way, been years in the making.

"The book was based on a poem that I wrote in college," said Taye, who noted that the piece was inspired by a chat he had with his mom at the age of 5.

“I was living in a neighborhood where nobody else looked like me,” the Rochester, New York, native explained. “She basically sat me down and told me to embrace my differences—to take that which I was ashamed of and use it as a source of strength.”

Chocolate Me, which was illustrated by a childhood friend named Shane Evans, was released on Tuesday and couldn't have come at a better time. The actor has a 2-year-old son with his wife, actress Idina Menzel.

He hopes that book will get kids to love what's unique about them.
 

—Sonya Eskridge

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