Wilkins was born in Grenada, where her father was a head teacher who was instrumental in introducing Caribbean History to a curriculum dominated by Britain's past.

"[5] Wilkins, a former further education teacher,[6][7] realised the powerful impact of early learning material after one of her two sons, soon after starting school as a five-year-old, came home with a "This is Me" booklet in which he had coloured himself pink.

I was aware of the discourse on race and cultural diversity as early as the 1960s, in response to the UK's growing population of immigrants from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with discussions abounding about 'multicultural education'.

"[11] As Tamarind Books found success, Wilkins decided that the imprint needed "growth, expansion and a committed team to take it to the next stage of development as an international publishing concern", and in 2007 it was acquired by Random House Group Ltd and became an imprint of Random House Children's Books (UK),[12] with Wilkins retained until she handed over to a new team in 2009.

[6] Tamarind also published biographies written by Wilkins for a series called Black Profiles, celebrating the lives of role models such as Malorie Blackman, Benjamin Zephaniah, Rudolph Walker, Baroness Scotland, Chinwe Roy, David Grant and Samantha Tross.

[21] Wilkins contributed an essay to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby) in which she explains that she began her work creating books in diverse classrooms in the belief that the process must start with children: "They should see themselves as the authors, editors, designers, illustrators and publishers of the future.