now @ prongslily

bonus;

good skin

$$$$$

that won’t change your character but will change how your readers feel about themselves:

acne/acne scars/scarring in general-

so a lot of people love to write YA Fiction (us included!) but I think sometimes our teenage characters are given such huge tasks and embark on such wild missions that we forget that they are just that– teenagers! and one of the big things about being a teenager is all the hormonal changes that are going on (books love to focus on the sex/romance stuff), but we forget to mention things such as acne. even having a brief description of a character like “they scooped back their curls and I could see the acne that dotted their jaw” can make a world of a difference to a young teen who’s reading that book and struggling with having cystic acne. imagine if one of your favorite, most other-worldly beautiful characters had acne and they were still considered beautiful? you know how much it would rock people’s worlds to see that imperfect skin isn’t only found in villains?

gapped teeth/crooked teeth-

now I’ve seen this one more often, but never too much. all i have to say is that braces are expensive (i know from personal experience jfc) and getting your smile straightened isn’t something that’s readily available to everyone. let one of your characters reflect that, a whole backstory you don’t even have to come up with. 

beauty marks/moles/birth marks: