Getting Diverse Books into the Hands of Teen Readers: How Do We Do It?

One statement I've often heard in the conversation about diversity in teen literature is that people don't want to shove books featuring characters of color (or other marginalized characters) at young readers with the idea that those books are "good" for them. In fact, I recently presented at a conference where one librarian said that most teens come into her library not looking for books about diverse experiences. She said most teens want books like Twilight, Gossip Girl, or whatever the latest big hit may be, and she asked how she could get more diverse books into the hands of these teens--often teens who might benefit most from such books. I mulled over her words for weeks after the conference because she was right. No one wants to be told, "here, read this--it's good for you," like, "eat your spinach, it'll make you healthy. " Reading books featuring people of color, LGBTQ protagonists, differently abled or sized main characters, or other marginalized voices should not be something anyone should be made to feel they bare to do--whether out of a sense of obligation, duty, or guilt. Books about marginalized teens are not medicine or antidotes, and I don't blame young people, or adults, for that matter, for having an aversion to books presented in this way. So I thought back to the young reader that I was in my teen years. Yes, I wanted all the hyped books--the ones everyone was reading (which, at the time, were books such as Judy Blume's Forever and Paul Zindel's My Darling, My Hamburger). And although those books showed me a lot about the culture I was then immersed in and taught me more about "real life" than the adults around me were willing to talk about, there was more I needed to know. There were gaping chasms in the information available to me and no one was coveting them. Even I did not know what was missing until it was placed in my hands. It may be tempting to take the requests of young people at face value and simply "give them what they want. " But statements like that remind me of slogans such as "give the consumer what they want" and "the customer is always right"--retail catchphrases that are more about making sales and moving quantity. As educators and youth advocates, I see our role as a different one than meeting the demands of a market, particularly when that market is young readers. I don't mean to belittle teens today. Every single young adult I've met has been amazingly astute, aware, and savvy, and some are far wiser than many adults. Yet we, the adults who serve and advocate on behalf of teens, have the benefit of experience and hindsight. If all of my teachers and counselors and youth service providers when I was a teen had done what was easy and given me only what I wanted, I most likely would not be here right now. Because what I wanted then was to be with young men who were prone to violence and addiction. What I thought I wanted was to be skinny like the models in magazines and films and on television. What I wanted was to find some sort of product, abrasive, or surgery that would lighten my skin so I could pass for white. My teenage years were a crossroad. They were the point where I learned the contradictions between what I had been told and what was. My eyes were beginning to open to the various levels of power and privilege in the world, and I was trying to make sense out of it all. There was a clanging rage inside that wanted expression, but there were no words to give it form, no possibilities or options created for me to choose from besides what the mainstream depictions had to offer. And that was not enough. But I was lucky. I found caring teachers, librarians, and youth counselors who were able to steer me toward new paths--toward depictions of girls like me--lonely, isolated, silent--who were able to find their way, and who were able to learn to love themselves despite everything around them telling them they were not valuable or wanted. …