Link Post

Empowering Books For Little Black Girls

From the moment they come into the world, little black girls works just a little bit harder than their peers to construct a healthy sense of self in a society that prizes values and attributes that don't mirror those they possess. We as their caregivers must help them find the way by offering them as many affirming messages as possible. We can do this with our words and by our example; however, books can also prove to be important points of contact into the souls and spirits of black girls. Here, we've compiled a list of books to promote a positive self-image in younger, black girls.

LGBT YA by the Numbers

In 2013, it looks like that gender equality has disappeared, and we’ve gone back to a majority of books about cisgender male characters. Among the mainstream and Big 5 publishers, approximately 59% of LGBT YA books were about cisgender male characters, with 34% about cisgender females. Additionally, this year saw one novel about an intersex character (Pantomime by Laura Lam) and one novel about a transgender character (Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark).

The Blog Post That Lost Me Half my Audience

to watch women and their opinions removed from the dialogue entirely was really bizarre, and a testament to how difficult it is to change the narrative of how we talk about things that are important. How wonderful it is that sexism is now deemed important to talk about… but why are we only recommending male “experts”? Why are all the women who championed and participated in these very public conversations (some of them for many, many years) ... very rarely quoted? Why aren’t they the first folks that come to mind (to women and men!)? Are people scared of them? Do they forget them?

 The Gender Coverup

And the simple fact of the matter is, if you are a female author, you are much more likely to get the package that suggests the book is of a lower perceived quality. Because it's "girly," which is somehow inherently different and easier on the palate. A man and a woman can write books about the same subject matter, at the same level of quality, and that woman is simple more likely to get the soft-sell cover with the warm glow and the feeling of smooth jazz blowing off of it. ... We're the high fructose corn syrup of literature, even when our products are the same. It's okay to sell the girls as long as we have some men to provide protein.