When I first started looking at the YA books I had on my shelves featuring mental illness and researching others I could read for this event, I realised that pretty much every one featured white, cishet, otherwise non-disabled, Christian/athiest (or no religion specified) characters. Apart from a few, most of the books I were coming across featured no intersectionality whatsoever. So I did more research and asked for recommendations, wanting the event to feature as many books with protagonists with intersecting identities as possible, and made a list. It featured 15 books in total, with 11 of them featuring protagonists of colour. Fortunately, since making that, I have discovered a few more books to add to the list, but there are still too few.
But during my search, on The Beauty That Remains' release day, YA debut author Ashley Woodfolk wrote an absolutely brilliant Twitter thread about intersectionality. Today, I'm really excited to have Ashley visiting the blog to expand on her Twitter thread, and the importance of intersectionality in YA.
Universal empathy is the key to making the world a better place. That might sound like an oversimplification, but all the greatest crimes against humanity were perpetuated by lies that dehumanized a group of people. Empathy is essential to imagine people complexly--it’s seeing someone as being as real, as human, as you are. But empathy isn’t something that is easily obtained.
The Beauty that Remains by Ashley Woodfolk (Bought) - Music brought Autumn, Shay, and Logan together. Death wants to tear them apart.
