Hello, and welcome back to my blog. If this is your first time visiting, my name is Rebekah Lion and I am the creator of Lion Weekly. If you haven’t already make sure you subscribe to my blog and check back weekly for updates. Also, don’t forget to like, comment, and share on all social platforms
Quote of the Blog
“Diversity is one step towards cultural knowledge, radical understanding, and the expression of unknown feelings“. - Rebekah A. Lion
Why do I Care?
As we previously discussed in my last post, for me, the lack of diversity caused me to lose interest in reading as a child. There were no black or brown teen mystery solvers, no Asian were-wolves, no Muslim teens with regular high school drama.
The lack of diverse characters, took the fun out of reading. I was never able to picture myself within the books. A problem many readers face. Although this is important, it is not the most important reason we need #diverseauthors.
Why Should You Care?
If you are unlike me and didn’t lose your love for reading due to a lack of diversity while younger you maybe wondering, and I should care why exactly? Well, just because you haven’t lost your love for reading, doesn’t mean the lack of diversity hasn’t impacted how you see the world around you.
1. Education about Different Cultures Have you ever wondered about something but had no one to ask? So you do your own ”research”, only to find out that what you found was only the partial turth or not ture at all? Well diverse authors can help solve that issue. With authors that are apart of different cultural backgrounds, they’ll be able to educate their readers in away that outsiders would not. In a way that is non-judgmental and without fear of backlash. 2. Tolerance of Difference Around the world today, there are people who are very tolerant of others simply because they do not understand or were never exposed to different ways of thinking.
However, if we have more authors that are Muslim, Jewish, Black, Asian, apart of the LGBTQ community, or have some form of a disability, writing about characters that reflect themselves, the #readingcommunity would not only have more exposure but also a better understanding of these topics. This would also give readers that are like them a way to see themselves in the stories they read. 3. Normalizing Different Identities
#Diverseauthors can also help to create an environment were different identities are not seen as weird or strange but as just a difference.
How You Can Help?
So, your next question maybe, what can I do? Well, I’m glade you asked. You can help by supporting these diverse author. Not only the authors you can relate to, but also the authors that challenge your way of thinking. Support these authors by buying their books, actually read them, recommend them to other people, donate some to the public library or even school library, maybe even write them a letter or email discussing questions you may have had.
If you’re a librarian, maybe you can invite a diverse author in to read part of their books to people. If you’re a parent, make sure that your children are not only reading books with characters that they can relate to but books that also has characters that have differences. Differences are not something you can ignore, they are something to acknowledge and embrace. No matter what you read always remember you’re the “Ruler of Your Thought”!
Here are a few links to some diverse books: