One of things I pay attention to as a writer is the diversity of the characters in novels I read. I write young adult and children, so I mostly ready young adult and children. But even branching out to the adult literature I've read, I've noticed a stunning thing. There isn't much diversity in the main/leading characters. And that astonishes me at the same time that it doesn't.
One thing, as a writer, I have always tried to do is make sure all my characters are diverse. I never thought about it as a requirement, but more that I wanted my characters to be as different, yet similar, as humanly possible. I grew up in a poorer, diverse rural area and I just wrote that into my story. As an adult I see now how it is really needed to have some diversity in each book.
I started a goal a few years ago to pick up diverse books for my hopefully future family. I wanted to make sure there was a set number of books containing diverse characters that were in the lead role in the book. And I was incredibly disappointed by what I could find. There are children with white skin tone all over the place in children's picture books, but I have a handful of books with children of other ethnicity. The most diverse book I have is actually a Norwegian children's book! This still, to this day, astonishes me. I went out to find the most diverse books I could, and I was thoroughly disappointed in the results.
As a writer, I want to help fix this problem. I want to make sure that children of all colors, nationalities, genders, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ethnicity have the ability to find books about themselves out on the shelves. All kids deserve to see themselves in a character who solves a mystery, becomes a doctor, challenges the leaders and wins, and in general gets to do all the amazing things you see happen in novels. As a writer, I am always aware that I can't fix the world, not even one novel at a time.
So what can I do? Make sure everyone out there knows that there is a market for diversity in literature, especially children's literature. Have you ever wanted to write a story? Do it! Not only can you do it, you can make sure that your diversity is written into the words on every page. Children, especially, need to know that there are people like them out in the world. They need to be able to pick up a book and know that it will apply to them, that they will see themselves in every character. My goal, with the children's series I am working on, is to make sure each book has as many diverse characters as possible. To make sure that they appeal across the board to a broad number of children. In hopes that they can see themselves solving the mysteries and learning the lessons. This is our future people, embrace them and let them learn!
So what are your favorite books for kids? Have you had success with diverse literature for children?
Until Next Time!
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