Written by Gabriella Gamez
Over the last couple of years, the Young Adult Contemporary genre has become an inclusive place for authors across all backgrounds. Names like Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas, Jenny Han, Mary H. K. Choi, Sandhya Menon, Tahereh Mafi, Nina LaCour, Adam Silvera, and many more line the Young Adult shelves in bookstores like Barnes & Noble. Young people of all races, ethnicities, disabilities, and sexualities are being represented like never before. From cute, quirky romances to gripping, hard-hitting works of fiction, YA Contemporary continues to range in a variety of topics while introducing readers to new and diverse authors.
Diversity is finally here. But how did it happen?
What began as a passing trend in 2014 has quickly become a revolution to change to face of YA Contemporary entirely. An outcry for more diversity from book bloggers and vloggers began in 2014 and is a continuing fight today. Where other genres are still lacking (though not without some monumental strides), Young Adult Contemporary in particular has opened up the door to tons of debut authors writing fresh, memorable characters representing a wide range of minority groups.
It’s crazy to see how much the genre has changed in the past five years alone. In 2014, John Green’s The Fault in our Stars was taking over the readership and all anyone could talk about ahead of its movie release, and we were still riding the high of YA Dystopian with Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. Neither book had an ounce of racial or sexual diversity. Little did we know the small strides made that year by own-voice authors would soon take over the YA genre.
Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before brought us an adorable, rom-com-y romance featuring a Korean-American protagonist in 2014. This sweet story came three years after Han wrapped up her first trilogy, The Summer I Turned Pretty series, which did not feature any POC main characters. Nina LaCour brought us a stunning novel about film featuring a female-female romance with Everything Leads to You in 2014 as well. The following year Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything brought us a SickLit romance featuring a black protagonist to rival The Fault in our Stars, but with a twist instead of a death at the end. But what really blew everything out of the water was Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, a book inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement released in 2017 and of which still remains high on the New York Times best seller list. For reviewers in the book community, these novels were great strides in spreading diversity. But as per usual in YA literature, the rest of the world wouldn’t hear about them until their movie trailers dropped.
It’s possible the publishing industry took note and decided diversity can sell. It’s also possible that reviewers were finally heard in their cry for representation. Maybe the industry simply thought it was finally time that minority voices were finally heard. But whatever the reason, one fact must remain clear: diversity is not a trend or a genre. It’s a presence. It’s what we should’ve seen in the genre years ago, and what other genres are only now beginning to catch up to.
Progress has been made, but how has this changed reader-opinions? For starters, book bloggers and book vloggers have changed the way they review books. Many reviewers include trigger warnings in their reviews for anyone who might be sensitive to certain topics. Trigger warnings were often considered as spoilers to many readers, but the tide has begun to change and the need to protect readers has taken priority over potentially ruining the book for interested readers.
When promoting books, reviewers may also mention if/what ways a title is diverse as an interest point. Authors who have written minimal or nonexistent diversity in their books are being called out on social media, and discussion about progress and the importance of readers seeing themselves in the books they read has been talked about during book conferences and panels. Casual readers have shared their excitement of being represented over social media platforms.
The world around us is changing and it’s important that the media we consume reflects that. Most especially the books we read. While we might read for pleasure, books are meant to enrich our lives and teach us important lessons about the world around us. Diversity is not the end-all be-all, but it is an essential aspect that must be present in the literature we create and consume in order to reflect the world around us. Now that YA Contemporary has seemed to catch up on this fact, it’s time for other genres to follow suit.
