We Need More Representation in Young Adult Novels (Seriously.)

Hello everyone! Long time no bookish post! This is a little topic that I have been meaning to address, but I just haven't come around to doing it. A lot of bloggers have talked about it before, and it really means a lot to me, so I'll tackle the topic and perhaps get something out of it!

To find inspiration for this post, I took a trip to my bookshelf and glanced at my books, marking down every book that has a caucasian protagonist. The majority of books on my shelf fit this criteria. And don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that there are books out there with POC MCs, but the books that I looked at were among the most popular of their genre.

Let's look at the most popular children/young adult series:

Harry Potter? The only POC that I can think of off the top of my head were Dean Thomas, Angelina Johnson, Cho Chang, and the Patil twins, aka not enough. The three main characters however, were all caucasian.

Divergent? Again, off the top of my head, just Christina.

The Mortal Instruments? Does Isabelle count?

The Hunger Games? Rue. That's pretty much it.

Is it that difficult to write in some POC main characters? Our world is progressing, and especially with all the hatred going on and the extreme racism in the United States, it would do authors some good to represent other races and cultures. And perhaps educate their readers on sharing the love with everyone in the world.

In addition to that, young adult novels are obviously directed towards.. young adults. Shouldn't we be taught to be more open minded? Taught that not all heroes are caucasian girls? And it's sort of the reality as well, all of these amazing women POC scientists are left in the dust, even though they've done so much for our scientific world.

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Caucasian female should not be the norm for a main character.

How about we open it up even more and say women in general aren't being represented enough in Hollywood, or in comic books?

Why do all the female superheroes have to wear tight suits and put "girl" somewhere in their name? Why is Superman called "Man" but then we have this TV show called "Supergirl"? Lame.

And why can't we see more kickbutt female heroes in movies that girls can look up to?

There's so much we can fix, and it can start with the arts. So you, my little amazing writer friends out there, next time you start planning out your characters, see if you can fit a few different characters, and be the start of something new. I see you.

In short, the three biggest reasons why we should see more diversity are:

1. Everyone deserves to be represented
2. Our world is diverse and so our books should be too.
3. Why not?

What are your opinions on this slightly controversial topic? Ooo and just for fun, come up with your own kickbutt female superhero and tell me in the comments! 

Love you all <3

Thanks for reading,

Noor