The P.O.C Character of Popular YA fiction (Or Lack There Of)*

Now I'm Not ashamed to admit it, I've read a lot of YA and a good amount of Children's Fiction in the past 6 or 7 years. All the popular ones like Twilight,City of Bones, Wicked Lovely etc. I particularly love a good Fantasy. The stories are captivating and a great escape for a young child especially one who has a lot of responsibilities of those thrice her age.

As other children played outside until the street lights came on . I would sit at my window, their laughter the soundtrack as I escaped into a magical land such as THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE or A WRINKLE IN TIME. Books I had been introduced to by my favorite Language Arts teachers who encouraged my love of reading and story telling.

Those characters of my beloved books were usually Caucasian. As a child absorbing everything as quickly as possible, devouring these stories in large gulps at a time I hardly even noticed. Now at the age of 23 reality has finally set it. After deciding that there is nothing else I would rather do than to tell magical stories to a younger generation I finally see the cold hard truth. There are very few POCs in children's/YA literature and when there are they are very minor, poorly done, card board stereotypes( More about the types of stereotypes in later posts).

How frustrating. How frustrating.

As a children's writer I face the challenge of trying to feel that gap and build more diverse and well rounded characters. I want, No I need to tell a story that children of all races and religions can see themselves in.
But...

As a Black writer I feel lost at times because if I make my main character a P.O.C is it going to be likeable? is it going to be sell-able? And I think the most embarrassing thing to admit is that I have no idea how to do it.

* Originally posted at whitneychakara.livejournal.com