Remember last year at BEA when things got pretty heated as people realized the panels held authors of all the same race? The hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks was born and the discussion on why diversity in literature, not just the authors of the books, but the characters in them as well, is important. I was so excited this was being discussed and taken seriously. It felt like a giant leap forwards for the publishing industry.
A few weeks ago I was reading a YA contemporary novel and was metaphorically slapped by an ugly reality. I quickly scrolled through my goodreads read shelf to see if I could debunk my theory. Surely it couldn't be true.
I tried to find any books where the main character wasn't either:
1. specifically mentioned to be stick thin
2. portrayed as stick thin on the front cover.
(Disclaimer: I'm nervous it will sound like I'm skinny shaming in this post, but I don't know how else to put this. There is nothing wrong with being skinny. I'm technically skinny myself so I clearly don't have an issue with it. I do have an issue with society viewing skinny as the only acceptable body type though. That's what this post is about.)
