Rainbow Boxes

Contributed to CBC Diversity by Sara Farizan

When I write a story, I often don’t think about diversity. I don’t think about how many characters I should have of a certain ethnic or cultural background, or about whether I meet a quota on how many different types of people I have on the page. I don’t think about if what I am doing is unique or perhaps not as mainstream. If I thought about all of those things, I probably wouldn’t have written the books that I have, or will hopefully, continue to write.

When I do write a story, I think about people I know in real life. I think about issues I would like to explore or think need more attention. I think about books that I wish I had as a teenager and think about the books I appreciated from that period of my life. I think about how I still have so much to learn, not just about writing, but about the world, and people that make the world complex, interesting and beautiful.

Yesterday, a prominent blog posted an opinion/rant/something about queer people who only date the opposite gender. I won’t link to the article, but essentially the author argues that because her bisexual friend hasn’t come out to many people and doesn’t date other women, the friend isn’t truly queer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the whole thing quickly devolved into biphobia. As I’m not bi or pansexual, I can’t speak on that particular issue, so I’d direct you to some awesome people like Tristina Wright and Leah Raeder for more. Rather, what has kept me thinking about the article is the identity policing within it—the idea that there are special qualifications a person must meet in order to be considered queer, and that the author’s friend doesn’t meet these qualifications because she hasn’t been public about her identity.

This, to me, is ridiculous and scary. Are there privileges associated with being bisexual and dating or marrying the opposite gender? Absolutely. Are there also privileges associated with being gay and not having to see your identity systematically erased on screen and in books the way bi and pan people do? For sure. With every sexuality and gender comes its own set of privileges.

But here’s the thing: as queer people, all of us—no matter of who we date or who we’ve come out to—are constantly treated as less than. Those of us who are in the U.S. live in a country where fully half of the population still believes that homosexuality—that who we are—is a sin, and I’m sure those numbers are even worse for trans folks. According to the FBI, in 2013, the most recent reported year, over 20% of all hate crimes targeted LGBTQ+ people. That amounts to over 1,200 hate crimes committed against LGBTQ+ annually—and those are only the ones that get reported. To give some context, that’s several percentage points more than crimes motivated by religious hatred, a truly scary fact considering queer people make up such a small portion (about 4%) of the population. And although the statistics I linked to are slowly decreasing (though not for trans people), they are still unbelievably—and horrifyingly—high.

My point is this: no queer person is truly safe. The idea that someone is “not really queer” just because of who they date and who they’ve come out to is nonsense. Simply by asserting their own sexuality or gender, in whatever context that might be, queer people open themselves up to constant abuse and rejection. They lose friends. They’re shunned by family members. In many states, they can be fired. That says nothing of the violence they could be subjected to, or the suicides that over 30% of queer youth attempt. All queer people have to live with this, no matter who they decide to date.

Being queer in this world is, for lack of a better phrase, really freaking hard. That’s not to say we all experience the same amount of oppression. I’m a white gay boy from Connecticut—compared to many, I have it easy. I can’t even fathom what trans women of color, for instance, must struggle through on a daily basis. But although some of us are much more privileged than others, we’re all, in some way, bound by these insecurities. By these shared fears. 

And.

And.

Out of that fear, we’ve built something great. We have queer support networks, queer blogs, queer activists. We have people who raise awareness about their gender, who talk about intersectionality, who do everything they can to make younger queer folks like myself feel more comfortable in their own skin. We have community. And in this great big community of rainbow stripes and purple unicorns and queerness, all of us—all of us—need to belong. The gender we date or marry? Meaningless. How many people we’ve come out to? Doesn’t change anything. If a queer person wants to be a part of this community, they are a part of this community.

***

On June 26th, the day marriage equality finally came to the U.S., I cried. I lay in bed and I read through my Twitter feed, and I teared up right there at my computer. It was all so amazing, to see my little corner of the internet let out a communal whoop, to watch all of the years of struggle melt into a moment of celebration. I wish I could’ve jumped through the screen right then and hugged all of my queer Twitter friends. These are the people who helped me understand my own sexuality, after all—the people who gave me the courage to come out to my friends and parents and to the whole online world, and the people who offered me nothing but support when I did. And now here they all were, joking and celebrating and virtually hugging, savoring this amazing day.

As queer people, we are no different than everyone else. We are simply human beings who want to love and to be ourselves. But off and on for thousands of years we’ve been told that we’re vile, that we’re less than, that something about who we are is wrong. We’ve forged this bond—this community—out of that oppression. We’re all different: we’re rich and poor, black and white, book nerds and physics geeks. We’re dating the same gender and the opposite gender and others who don’t identify with any particular gender at all. But no matter who we are, we’re bound by this communal identity, this struggle, this… hope. Neither how many people we’ve come out to nor who we decide to date will change that.

We could spend all day pointing out each of our various privileges, and I honestly don’t think that’d be a bad idea. But something we can’t do is police how other queer people decide to carry themselves, because the moment we start on that road is the moment the community we’ve built falls apart.

We’re in this together.

You know what I’m sorta tired of? Girls getting labeled as a badass because they…well, kick literal ass. Okay, let me rephrase. Girls only getting labeled as a badass because they kick literal ass. Of course, I love me some Buffy. And Katniss and girls with swords and a nice right hook. So let me be clear: I’m not saying we shouldn’t have these sorts of female characters. I love them. We need them. We need to see girls with physical agency and ability and who save the floundering hero or kiss their girl while riding into the sunset. My beef is when these traditionally masculine characteristics are prized above traditionally female characteristics. Now, I would love to live in a world in which fighting and physical strength and ability are not seen first as masculine, and traits like vulnerability and dealing with emotional trauma and shedding tears are not seen first as feminine. Where behaviors aren’t gendered. But we don’t live in that world. Not yet. I hope we do someday and we should keep fighting to change these mindsets.

So here’s the thing: Being vulnerable. Dealing with complicated emotions. Nurturing those we love. Exhibiting emotional agency. If a female character shows all of these traits in a book, she’s not likely to be called a badass. She might be beloved. She might be heralded as well-developed and deep, but rarely as a badass. Now, if you add some snark and sarcasm and a few cuss words, maybe she’ll be a badass. And, hey, I love my snarky girls, but again, it seems like there must be some wall up between the world and her heart in order to be considered a badass. And yeah, Buffy was totally vulnerable with Angel and with her friends and faced some serious emotional shit. But if you take all of her vanquishing of vampires out of the equation, I’m not sure she’d be seen as such a bold and brave heroine. Now, you may say, “Well, if she’s not a slayer, her context changes, so inevitably we’ll see her differently.” True. She’d be a totally different person, one with fewer traditionally masculine traits and, most likely, much less “badass” in our estimation.

And I think this can be really damaging. Because it takes a shit ton of bravery to be vulnerable. To risk getting hurt. To tell someone you love them. To come out. To report abuse. I remember several months ago, author Melissa Grey talked about how she hated when people said loving tales like Cinderella was distinctly unfeminist, because it takes a great deal of bravery to love and trust someone after a history of abuse and neglect. Cinderella wasn’t rescued by a prince. She rescued herself when she decided she wanted a different life and was willing risk her hear to get it. Now that is badass. 

Please don’t misunderstand. I love girls who kick all the literal ass. They are truly badass. But I want to see girls who take emotional risks, face emotional trauma, deal with those love triangles with agency and vulnerability, to also be seen as heros. Brave. Fierce. Strong. Badass. Because there’s nothing closer to us than our own hearts. And nothing braver when we place them in another’s hands.

Some of my favorite BADASS female characters:

Remy from Courtney Summers’ All The Rage

Reena from Katie Cotugno’s How To Love

Alexi from Courtney C. Stevens’ Faking Normal

Tabitha from Corey Ann Haydu’s Life By Committee

Skylar from Heather Demetrios’ I’ll Meet You There

Madeline from Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything 

Maggie from Marci Lyn Curtis’ The One Thing

Naila from Aisha Saeed’s Written In The Stars 

Sephora from Elana K. Arnold’s Infandous

Vanessa from Dahlia Adler’s Under The Lights

Sophie from Tess Sharpe’s Far From You

Emi from Nina LaCour’s Everything Leads To You

Lennie from Jandy Nelson’s The Sky Is Everywhere

Lexi from Jessica Verdi’s The Summer I Wasn’t Me

Alex from Francesca Zappia’s Made You Up

The Rainbow Boxes Indiegogo campaign to connect LGBTQIA books to readers went live this morning! Our ultimate goal is to send one Rainbow Box (15 titles with LGBTQIA protagonists) to a community library and a GSA or LGBTQIA homeless shelter in every state in the country. 

We were inspired by the great work of the We Need Diverse Books team! Check out more at the link below. 

#TakeActionTuesday: Pat Mora

Join CBC Diversity every Tuesday to discuss ways of increasing access to diverse literature for all children.

This year, the Children’s Book Council and the Association for Library Service to Children teamed up to host a  Day of Diversity: Dialogue and Action in Children’s Literature and Library Programming at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting.

This beautiful YA queer fantasy novel with a fierce-as-hell cover – the first commercial YA novel with two! girls! kissing! – is out today. 

New Releases » June 30

Here’s a selection of new YA novels hitting shelves this week! For lists of weekly releases and all things YA lit, visit our website, follow us here and on Twitter, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

U.S.

Between Us and the Moon by Rebecca Maizel Publisher: HarperTeen Release date: June 30th Ever since Sarah was born, she has lived in the shadow of her beautiful older sister, Scarlett. But this summer on Cape Cod, Sarah is determined to finally grow up.

Faking Perfect by Rebecca Philips Publisher: Kensington Teen Release date: June 30th When Lexi seduced Tyler Flynn, he seemed okay with her rules. But with Tyler suddenly breaking the rules, Ben asking her out, and her dad back in the picture, how long can she go on faking perfect?

Pixelated by L.S. Murphy Publisher: Bloomsbury Spark Release date: June 30th Piper Marks is determined to have her photography rock the cover of National Geographic someday, and moving to Clarkton, Iowa for her last year of high school is not going to stop her.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books Release date: June 30th Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season.

So I Shall Reap (The Unseen #1) by Kathy Lynn Cross Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing Release date: June 30th Las Vegas, Nevada can’t contain Alexcia Crystalline Stasis, who is living the ideal teenager’s dream as the school’s elite socialite. That is, until a fatal car accident changes everything.

Songs of Seraphina by Jude Houghton Publisher: Tenebris Books Release date: June 30th Three sisters become so wrapped up in a conflict they barely understand, they don’t notice that the two demigod assassins who took their mother are now coming for them.

Storm (Paper Gods #3) by Amanda Sun Publisher: Harlequin Teen Release date: June 30th Katie has finally unearthed the terrible secret behind Tomohiro’s deadly ability to bring drawings to life—he is the heir to a tragedy that occurred long ago, a tragedy that is about to repeat.

Under the Lights (Daylight Falls #2) by Dahlia Adler Publisher: Spencer Hill Press Release date: June 30th As her feelings for her new career handler, Brianna, evolve beyond friendship, actress Vanessa has to choose between the one thing she’s always loved… and the person she never imagined she could.

Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle #1) by Rachel A. Marks Publisher: Skyscape Release date: July 1st Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her.

Mistaken (Tor Maddox #3) by Liz Coley Publisher: LC Teen Release date: July 1st Eight leotards and a ball gown—that’s what Tor Maddox packed for her summer in New York. Pity she never arrived. Kidnapped, Tor finds herself involved in a high seas adventure.

Everything You and I Could Have Been If We Weren’t You and I by Albert Espinosa Publisher: Penguin Random House Release date: July 2nd What if I could reveal your secrets with just a glance? And what if I could feel with your heart just by looking at you? And what if –in a single moment– I could know that we were made for each other?

AUSTRALIA

Freedom Ride by Sue Lawson Publisher: Black Dog Books Release date: July 1st In the summer of 1965 racial tensions in the town are at boiling point, and something headed Walgaree’s way will blow things apart. It’s time for Robbie to take a stand.

Risk by Fleur Ferris Publisher: Random House Australia Release date: July 1st Taylor and Sierra have been best friends for their whole lives. When Sierra goes missing, Taylor and her friends are thrown into a dark world they never even knew existed.

U.K.

Deep Water by Lu Hersey Publisher: Usbourne Release date: July 1st When Danni and her dad move to a tiny Cornish fishing village where the locals treat her like a monster, Danni discovers that she’s not who – or what – she thought she was.

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle Publisher: Random House Children’s Release date: July 2nd The accident season has been part of seventeen-year-old Cara’s life for as long as she can remember. Towards the end of October, Cara’s family becomes inexplicably accident-prone.

Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine Publisher: HarperCollins Release date: July 2nd Iris’s father Ernest is at the end of his life. Iris’ mother has declared war. She means to get her hands on Ernest’s priceless art collection. But Ernest has other ideas.

Ghosts of Shanghai (Ghosts of Shanghai #1) by Julian Sedgwick Publisher: Hodder Release date: July 2nd Faced with a series of local hauntings in the dangerous streets of Shanghai in the late 1920s, Ruby and her friends form the Shanghai Ghost Club to hunt down restless spirits.

House of Windows by Alexia Casale Publisher: Faber & Faber Release date: July 2nd Nick hates it when people call him a genius. Sure, he’s going to Cambridge University aged 15, but he says that’s just because he works hard to get some kind of attention from his workaholic father.

The Kiss by Lucy Courtenay Publisher: Hachette Release date: July 2nd Imagine the perfect kiss. A legendary kiss that makes people crazy with love. Imagine a summer’s night, on a moonlit beach in the South of France, as French boy Laurent kisses 16-year-old Delilah.

The Potion Diaries (The Potion Trilogy #1) by Amy Alward Publisher: Simon & Schuster Release date: July 2nd When the Princess of Nova accidentally poisons herself with a love potion which was meant for her crush, she falls crown-over-heels in love with her own reflection. Oops.

Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten Publisher: Electric Monkey Release date: July 2nd When June met Delia, she was a lifeline. But then something went wrong, and Delia and June haven’t spoken for a year when an announcement is made at their school that Delia is dead.

Thirteen Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt Publisher: Orchard Books Release date: July 2nd When Luke Manchett’s estranged father dies unexpectedly, he leaves his son a dark inheritance: a collection of eight restless spirits, known as his Host, who want revenge for their long enslavement.

Happy early book birthday to three books coming out this week! I’m definitely looking forward to reading Shadowshaper, which looks like ten kinds of amazing. What’s on your to-read list?

Storm (Paper Gods #3) by Amanda Sun

After almost a year in Japan, Katie Greene has finally unearthed the terrible secret behind her boyfriend Tomohiro’s deadly ability to bring drawings to life—not only is he descended from Kami, the ancient Japanese gods, but he is the heir to a tragedy that occurred long ago, a tragedy that is about to repeat.

Even as the blood of a vengeful god rages inside Tomo, Katie is determined to put his dark powers to sleep. In order to do so, she and Tomo must journey to find the three Imperial Treasures of Japan. Gifts from the goddess Amaterasu herself, these treasures could unlock all of the secrets about Tomo’s volatile ancestry and quell the ink’s lust for destruction. But in order to complete their quest, Tomo and Katie must confront out-of-control Kami and former friend Jun, who has begun his own quest of revenge against those he believes have wronged him. To save the world, and themselves, Katie and Tomo will be up against one of the darkest Kami creations they’ve ever encountered—and they may not make it out alive. [Image and summary via Goodreads]

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “No importa” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick’s supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family’s past, present, and future. [Image and summary via Goodreads]

Frail Mortal Heart by Zoë Marriott

In the thrilling final installment of Zoë Marriott’s epic, Japanese-inspired urban fantasy trilogy, Mio has succeeded in banishing the Goddess of Death’s plague-spreading monsters – by making the most terrible sacrifice. Now Mio’s love Shinobu is lost forever, the Goddess is rising from the underworld, and hell is literally breaking loose in London.