Idk who needs to hear this but poc and tall people read fanfiction too. I read a lot of fics where reader is what I call the default: A short, white, smooth haired woman.
I'm a tall, black, curly haired woman and it's a turnoff when I read stuff like,
"Y/n stood on her tip toes to kiss him"
"Character smoothed his hand through y/n's hair"
"Y/n flushed pink in embarrassment"
"Y/n brushed her hair up into a ponytail"
- I don't need to stand on my tip toes to kiss anyone unless they're 6'5+
- No one is smoothing their hand through my hair, it's getting STUCK.
- When I blush, you can't see it. A red flush doesn't show on my skin.
- If I brush my hair, DRY, it's becoming a frizzy MESS.
Reading fics through the eyes of a short white woman with smooth hair immediately makes me not want to read it. Hard pass.
They're easy enough fixes:
"Character leaned closer to look y/n in the eye" doesnt show a specific direction
"Y/n leaned IN to kiss him" not up.
"Y/n felt her skin flush hot" doesn't describe a color, just the embarrassment.
"Y/n pulled her hair back into a (messy) ponytail" no brushing or frizzyness involved.
"Character stroked over/touched a few of y/n's strands" no going into the locks to potentially get stuck.
Please include poc and heights in your works. We love you, and we want to read what you write, but it's so easy to disassociate when it doesn't feel like us as part of the story.