Most importantly, I wanted black girl nerds. I wanted black characters who were actual characters that felt a wide range of emotions and lived different experiences.
I felt like my entire teenage experience would be defined by suffering because I never read about a black teen who was in a happy relationship or confident in themselves. Although I felt somewhat validated reading young adult books as a teen, they also gave me the impression I had nothing happy to look forward to. Yet I eventually noticed that some of the stories involving black characters only revolved around personal and socioeconomic issues.Īs I mentioned in my discussion of Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything, it was rare for me to find stories of black teenagers in romantic bliss. I liked seeing teenagers experiencing real-life issues that no one wants to talk about, like mental illness and feeling out of place. I liked reading about teenagers who save the world. I liked how there were subgenres like fantasy, contemporary, and verse novels (i.e., books written in poems that tell a story). From the moment I started reading young adult literature, I enjoyed many things about the genre.
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