Growing Up X: A Memoir by the Daughter of Malcolm X is a 2002 book by Ilyasah Shabazz

Ilyasah Shabazz

Ilyasah Shabazz is the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. She is the author of a memoir, Growing Up X, and a motivational speaker.-Early life:Shabazz was born in Queens, New York, on July 22, 1962...

, the third daughter of Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

 and Betty Shabazz

Betty Shabazz

Betty Shabazz , born Betty Dean Sanders and also known as Betty X, was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She was the wife of Malcolm X....

. Shabazz wrote the book with Kim McLarin

Kim McLarin

Kim McLarin is an African American novelist. Kim Mclarin is a former staff writer for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Greensboro News & Record and the Associated Press...

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In Growing Up X, Shabazz writes about what it was like to grow up in the shadow of her father, a human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

activist who was assassinated when she was two years old. She also writes about her mother and sisters, and her early life growing up, along with her personal memories and feelings about Malcolm X. Shabazz has commented that she was nervous about releasing the book, because she did not want to ruin people's expectations about her, but has received unexpectedly great praise for her writing.