Guest Blogs – Page 6

Actual Love

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:09-05:00February 17th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Aromantic, Representation|

Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week Series: Day 2 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week Series – The Excitement and Frustration of Being “Alone” by Ashley D. Wallis I thought I was broken. These are words I’ve heard time and time again in my inbox or on posts explaining aromanticism. For over a decade, I thought the same thing. Two years ago, I was twenty-nine years old and scrolling through tumblr when I came across a post describing aro people. I’d seen many posts about asexuality, and often thought that the description was how I felt – [...]

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The Excitement and Frustration of Being “Alone”

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:09-05:00February 16th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Aromantic|

Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week Series: Day 1 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week Series by Sacha My relationship with Young Adult fiction has been one of productive frustration. YA, specifically YA fantasy, is not only my favorite genre but actually the only genre of fiction that can ever hold my attention--I've always had trouble explaining why, but one reason is that in YA, the characters and their relationships are usually the most important element of the story. But right there, in the explanation for why I like this genre best, is the source of frustration: [...]

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Clearing Trans Paths in Middle Grade Fiction

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00November 20th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Middle Grade, Representation, Trans|

Now that my debut middle grade novel, George, has been released into the world (fly, baby, fly!!) I’ve been witnessing and engaging in conversations about “who this book is for”. In other words, “is this age-appropriate?” Now let me be clear. There is no age at which it is inappropriate to appreciate people for who they are. And there is no age before we know ourselves. We may not have fully formed those notions, but each of us is the only person we know inside and out, and each of our challenges includes finding, respecting, and celebrating that [...]

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Knights, Defenders and Double Edged Swords

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00November 18th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Representation, Trans|

by Sarah Benwell When I was a kid, I wanted to become a knight. To take on chivalry and honour and a bravery that was bigger than I’d ever felt in real life. I wanted to protect, defend, pick up a sword and fight for something good. I wanted to be Lancelot or Gawain or a knight of Gondor or Cair Paravel. And sometimes talking and writing about diversity feels a little bit like picking up that mantle. I’ve talked a lot lately – in schools and cons and AGMs and right across the internet – about how [...]

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Should I or Shouldn’t I? On Writing Trans Narratives Respectfully

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00November 17th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Trans|

by John Jacobson Writing about yourself is hard. Writing about something, or someone, that you understand is hard. Writing about something or someone that is oppressed, stereotyped, and dehumanized by society is hard - especially when you don't understand that struggle on a personal level. Trans narratives are vital to the young adult book community. Trans teenagers often seek resources that can be found online, in libraries, and through other relatively quiet methods. Our voices as people outside of the gender binary are quiet when we're young because we're often met with varying degrees of unsafe environments. The [...]

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Trans Representation in YA Is Only the Beginning

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00November 16th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Representation, Trans|

by Everett Maroon In the November 8, 2015 issue of The New York Times' Book Review, Malindo Lo opened a review of two novels with a note about diversity in contemporary YA fiction. It was an eloquent, simple summation regarding the ongoing conversations about representation: "[The] call for diversity has been accompanied by uncomfortable yet necessary debates about what constitutes quality representation, and few people agree on that." I'd like to focus on one very important word in her opening. Quality. Quality representation. Because while including transgender and gender nonconforming characters is an important shift in contemporary young [...]

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Superheroes Saved My Life

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00November 15th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Trans|

by Cheryl Morgan There are many things about the lives of trans kids today that leave me a bit misty-eyed. When I was at school hormone blockers were unheard of, and coming out as trans was liable to land you in an asylum getting electroshock treatment. YA wasn’t even a thing back then, so there was no point in asking for diverse characters. We did have books, though. Paper had been invented. Reading was pretty heavily gendered. I don’t think I could have got away with reading books like Little Women or Anne of Green Gables. I was [...]

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“Instant Attraction Can’t Be Real!” The Tale of an Angry Teenage Demisexual

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00November 1st, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day 7 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Asexuality in YA Series – Aces Out: Laying the Cards On the Table – Acing Romance: On Writing YA Love Stories as an Asexual – 5 Tips and Tricks To Writing Asexual Characters – Interview with Simon Tam – Reading While Asexual: Representation in Ace YA - Being Ace: Cultural Differences and Progress by Morgan York I’ve been experiencing demisexuality since I was old enough to develop sexual feelings. But I didn’t know the word “demisexual” until I was 21. If I’d known the term existed as a [...]

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Being Ace: Cultural Differences and Progress

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00October 31st, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day 6 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Asexuality in YA Series – Aces Out: Laying the Cards On the Table – Acing Romance: On Writing YA Love Stories as an Asexual – 5 Tips and Tricks To Writing Asexual Characters – Interview with Simon Tam - Reading While Asexual: Representation in Ace YA by Teresa Santos It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman must be in want of a husband. Except when they're in want of a wife. Or a partner. Everyone wants somebody, right? Mm, maybe not. If you have been paying [...]

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Reading While Asexual: Representation in Ace YA

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:10-05:00October 30th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual, Representation|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day 5 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Asexuality in YA Series – Aces Out: Laying the Cards On the Table – Acing Romance: On Writing YA Love Stories as an Asexual – 5 Tips and Tricks To Writing Asexual Characters - Interview with Simon Tam by Agent Aletha Hi, I'm Agent Aletha. I was kindly invited to write something for GayYA for Asexual Awareness Week! I read and review fiction with asexual spectrum characters on my tumblr Ace Reads and keep a database of all works with ace characters I can find on Tagpacker. The [...]

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