yainterrobang:
Many Voices, Many Stories: Sandhya Menon talks why we need diverse YA romance
When I was a kid growing up in India, I read constantly—when I was
sick, when I was healthy, when I was supposed to be sleeping, when I was
hungry or tired or bored or moody. Reading was like eating in my
family; it was understood that you would need to do it regularly and
often.
Most writers are readers, so this isn’t too much of a
surprising thing. What was interesting, looking back, is that I read
books exclusively about white people. While I was surrounded by a billion other Indians.
Even
though race or ethnicity were hardly ever part of the discussion when I
was growing up (except for obligatory lessons about the British Raj and
Gandhi around Independence Day), it now seems pretty crazy to me that I
never questioned why everyone I knew was reading books about white
Britons or Americans when we, clearly, were neither.
When I turned
fifteen, my family and I moved to the US, the melting pot of the world.
People here seemed to enjoy talking about race and ethnicity. I was
excited that my mind was being opened up to so many different aspects of
culture and privilege that I had never considered before. And yet, at
the bookstore, books about white teenagers and adults dominated. I
bought them because my thirst for fiction would not be quenched, but I
remember feeling restless, twitchy, and dissatisfied without really
knowing why I was dissatisfied. My friends—of various nationalities and
cultures—were also reading books about people who looked nothing like
them, and more importantly, whose experience in this world was nothing
like theirs.
Read more about why we need diverse YA romance on YA Interrobang.
(Source: yainterrobang.com, via yainterrobang)
sandhya menon
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