Representation – Page 7

Welcome to the Mainstream

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:24-05:00November 14th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Teen Voices|Tags: gay, Non Binary, Other Media, Representation, Trans|

by Karina Rose Twenty three million worldwide downloads. Hundreds of sold out shows. One hovering glow cloud that watches us all as we point and scream at it in praise. Welcome to Night Vale. It’s hard to even find a place to begin when talking about the cult hit podcast Welcome To Night Vale, as even from the beginning its listeners have been shocked, terrified, and confused, but above all else in love instantly. I can’t even describe Night Vale, and I talk about it literally every day. The only way I could imagine it would make sense [...]

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Liraz’s Asexual Armor: Second-Guessing AceAro Representation in YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:24-05:00November 3rd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Aromantic, asexual, Representation|

Asexual Awareness Week has ended, but Aromantic Awareness Week has just begun! We were not aware of it until a couple days ago so do not have a separate series (though many of the posts from last week touch on it). But we're thrilled to present this fabulous guest post from Sarah (who is also helping to run LauraLamFans)! Minor spoilers for Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor. by Sarah When I re-immersed myself in reading YA books freshman year of college, I knew I was asexual, but I was still content to turn to popular romance-heavy young [...]

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Let’s Save Some Lives, Shall We? Asexuality in Mainstream YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:27-05:00October 26th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual, Representation, Visibility|

We're thrilled to bring you our first guest post for Asexual Awareness Week! We reached out to bloggers who identify somewhere on the asexual spectrum to write posts related to asexuality and YA. Check back every day this week for more posts from other great guest bloggers! by Teresa Santos How many mainstream YA books have you read with canon openly asexual characters? None? Don't worry, you won't be the only one. After all, the number of such books is a shiny, round zero. But, you might say, what about Liraz in Daughter of Smoke and Bone? What of [...]

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How about NO?

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:27-05:00October 24th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: gay, Queer Guys, Representation|

Your fave is problematic; deal with it. Disclaimer: I’m not here to bash authors or to tell you not to pick these books up. I’m just being honest about what I believe is not good LGBTQIA+ representation at all. Spoilers for WINGER. When I say queer I mean LGBTQIA+. We have all been there. You hear about this AMAZING BOOK, everybody in the blogosphere/BookTube/Twitter is talking about it and giving it 5 stars left and right…so you decide you have to read it! And you do. You spend money on a book you feel is going to rock [...]

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Minor Queer Characters in YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:41-05:00September 5th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: Representation|

The unfortunate truth is that most mainstream YA centres around a boy-girl romance with maybe a bit of magic or tragedy or dystopian violence thrown in. That's it. There's very little room on the Teen Fiction shelves at Barnes & Noble for books about girls who kiss girls or boys that kiss boys simply because - apparently - the readership isn't quite "ready" for those themes yet. Now, obviously, I understand that Barnes & Noble (and other bookshops) can't physically make their shops any bigger just to please the fairly minuscule percentage of their readers that are a) [...]

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We Are Not Just a Diversity Checkbox Part 3

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:41-05:00September 5th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: asexual, Bisexual, Representation, Stereotypes|

There are people who partially fit the stereotypes of their sexuality (butch lesbians, effeminate gay men, sex-repulsed asexuals, etc.) but in media they are often presented as caricatures. These negative portrayals in media lead to real-life queer people who fit these stereotypes being attacked by other queer people, mostly due to the fear of exposing the MOGII community as a whole to the negativity attached to those stereotypes. In both fiction and in real life, all members of the MOGII community deserve to be respected and respectfully represented, regardless of how they express themselves. Instead of telling MOGII people [...]

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The Impact of Representation

By Vee|2016-05-24T14:52:10-05:00August 27th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Representation|

I had something else I was going to write on representation. But then I heard about Robin Williams, and I thought of other things. About feeling alone. About depression, that horrendous, hideous beast that traps you and makes you feel like there’s no reason to get out of bed. I thought about my depression, which I still struggle with. What I struggled with during high school, particularly (I hesitate to say because of) my struggles with my sexuality, with not feeling like I belonged anywhere, especially when I was still in the closet. It was lonely. God. I [...]

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We Are Not Just a Diversity Checkbox Part 2

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:41-05:00August 22nd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: Representation|

Editors note: Part One of the We Are Not Just a Diversity Checkbox mini-series addressed background MOGII characters in media, and why there is no good excuse to leave out queer characters. In Part Two, Emily K, one of our Teen Voices, goes further into this, looking specifically at speculative fiction. This series updates every Friday, and will be wrapping up the first week of September. It doesn’t stop at just a lack of queer characters. Many YA speculative fiction books take place in worlds where the existence of MOGII people isn’t even considered. The possibilities in world-building for [...]

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We Are Not Just a Diversity Checkbox Part 1

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:41-05:00August 8th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: Minor Queer Characters, Representation|

Editor's note: We are so excited to be hosting this mini-series We Are Not Just a Diversity Checkbox. It will be updated every Friday and wrap up the last week of August. Emily K, one of our Teen Voices will be talking about MOGII (Marginalized Orientation, Gender Identity, and Intersex) representation in YA, specifically minority characters, and others that are included more or less to check us off. When the hype for Disney’s animated feature “Frozen” was at its peak, many people were exuberant over the male store owner having a husband and children who were shown for two [...]

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Haircuts, the Media, and Free Electrons

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00April 14th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: LGBTQIA, Representation|

About a year ago today, I announced to my friends that I was going to be somewhat spur-of-the-moment and chop off my waist-length hair for charity. I wasn't expecting huge applause, or great concern, or really any kind of reaction that involved a lot of emotion. All I wanted was someone to come with me to get it cut, for moral support. Instead I got: "Are you sure, Georgie? I mean - won't you look a bit - lesbiany?" At the time, of course, I rolled my eyes, believing it made absolutely no difference what these girls thought. I told myself they [...]

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