We Need Diverse Books: Here's Why

Have you ever felt the ping of recognition when you realize you share a trait with a character? The happiness as you realize that you and her both wear glasses, or you and him both stutter when you're nervous? The thrill as you realize you're the same height, and the two of you have frizzy, blonde hair?

Imagine never feeling that. Or imagine feeling that only once or twice, when you've read hundreds and hundreds of books about people who don't look, talk, or act like you. This is how it is for many people of color, people with disabilities, people of varying sexualities, people with unique genders, and many other people who aren't white, able-bodied, cisgender, and straight.

There are many kids and teens in the world who think that there's something wrong with them. Black girls who think their beautiful curls are ugly. Trans people who think they're freaks. People with disabilities who feel invisible to the rest of the world. I think one of the biggest reasons for that is a lack of representation in popular media. If our favorite books all had characters that represent us, we would feel a lot better about ourselves as a whole!

There's this wonderful initiative called We Need Diverse Books that advocates diversity in the literature community, mostly aimed towards children's books, as children are the ones that are most affected by representation (or lack of it) in their media. There are lots of ways you can get involved with WNDB, or you can just show your support by following them on Tumblr and the like! They even have a page geared towards writers here.I'm really glad there's an organization like them out there; there really should be more!

In a nutshell, this is why I work to try and include diversity of all sorts in my novels. One of my characters, Bambi, is a pansexual black girl, who is incredibly curvy. Another character is a hispanic lesbian. I work hard to ensure that these characters, and my other diverse characters, aren't just props of diversity, but real characters that people can relate to. As a white-passing person, I get the chance to relate to so many characters in literature. It's just unfair that so many other people don't get that chance! Let's make it happen, shall we?

Kekai