The publishing world is disproportionately white and male, something that’s been a problem for decades. Publishers have historically pushed away more diverse stories, categorizing all books written by women as “women’s literature” and discriminating against authors belonging to marginalized groups. In 2015, the Young Adult (YA) and Children’s Literature (Kidlit) world confronted this problem head-on when author Corinne Duyvis tweeted, “#Ownvoices, to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group,” for the first time. Since this tweet, the hashtag has grown and become a driving force in changing and diversifying the publishing industry. In 2020, you can walk into most libraries (including Tompkins County Public Library) and find a pamphlet or bookcase exclusively dedicated to #Ownvoices books.
So what is #Ownvoices? You might be surprised about how many #Ownvoices books you know. The basis of the movement is to amplify books in which the main character shares a marginalized identity or experience with the author. For example, a book written about a deaf girl in high school is written by a deaf author. A book written about a queer Puerto Rican woman who grew up in the Bronx is written by a queer Puerto Rican woman who grew up in the Bronx. The original author who suggested the hashtag, when asked about who it applied to, replied, “Remember what I said about not wanting to moderate or regulate the hashtag? Use it for whatever marginalized/diverse identity you want (I personally like the WNDB [weneeddiversebooks.org] definition), as long as the protagonist and the author share a marginalized identity.” #Ownvoices has been one of the biggest reasons why the YA genre has become so much more diverse, and arguably more popular. Here are my favorite #Ownvoices books. Note: These are limited to books that I’ve personally read; I don’t want to give anyone secondhand information.
The Hate U Give is a salient one; it’s incredibly famous, incredibly moving and if you don’t want to read the book, at least watch the movie. The book is written by an African-American woman, Angie Thomas, who writes about the experience of a teenage Black girl named Starr after being pulled over by the police and seeing them shoot her friend. The story is heart-wrenching, and sheds so much light on the systemic racism and police brutality that plagues Black Americans. Angie Thomas has written plenty of incredible books about young Black girls, On the Come Up being another one of my favorites and a must-read.
This author is controversial, and it is completely up to you if you don’t want to separate his actions from his experience. Personally, I’ve been able to come to the conclusion (you can come to your own) that Sherman Alexie’s experience is so strikingly underrepresented in American literature, especially told from the eyes of a comical teenage boy’s “diary”. The book is easy to read and offers a rare glimpse into the oppressive and terrible conditions of American Indians living in reservations today as Alexie grew up in the Spokane Indian reservation in the 1970s. Native Americans are often called “the invisible minority,” because their modern day experience and oppression is so overlooked by popular American culture. That is why books that represent this experience are so important. If you do not want to support the author, I suggest checking it out from the library. If you don’t feel comfortable reading anything from the author at all, I’d suggest reading other books such as An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz or There, There by Tommy Orange, also #Ownvoices books (though not YA).
The Poet X is absolutely beautiful; it’s one of those books where you feel inclined to bookmark every other page. It’s a story about a teenage Dominican girl growing up in Harlem, written by author and poet Elizabeth Acevedo, a Dominican immigrant who also grew up in the U.S. as a teenager. The book follows 15 year old Xiomara as she grows into a woman and discovers her love of poetry, a way for her to vent about everything and anything in her life, including her strict religious household, sexual harassment and misogyny she experiences, romances, and her debate about whether she should go to the Slam Poetry night. If you haven’t read it already, don’t let the prose scare you away—this book is award winning, incredibly insightful and altogether just gorgeous. Elizabeth Acevedo has written a number of other amazing books, so check out any and all of them after you read The Poet X.
I am obsessed with this book. While I was reading it, I was providing updates on what was happening in it to everyone in my life whether they wanted it or not. No spoilers, but the ending was so shocking! This book deserves the entire world—I love you, Tanaz Bhathena (yes, I’m a fangirl, sue me). Anyway, the novel circles around orphan Zarin Wadia, a troublemaker with no female friends. Only boys who find her pretty talk to her, and she’s most commonly referred to as “girl like that”. She keeps to herself but is the subject of endless gossip at her school in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Then she shows up dead in a car on the side of the road with Porus, a boy who only had eyes for her. The book reconstructs her life through her view, her enemies’, Porus’s, and her attempted rapist’s, until her life as the girl like that, heartbreak, pain, loss and all the rest weaves itself into a beautiful and intelligent story. It’s not a mystery in a traditional sense but a story about a girl that no one ever bothered to get to know besides through mindless gossip. With the setting of Saudi Arabia, where Bhathena grew up, I also found myself interested in the cultural similarities and differences between her country and the U.S. Another detail that is loosely explored in the novel is the fact that Zarin identifies as Zoroastrian, a rarer religion which only 100,000 to 200,000 people worldwide practice but with which the author, Tanaz Bhathena also identifies. The book is amazing and really makes you think; go read it and you can talk to me if you have any complaints.
This book made me so unbelievably sad, and then so terrified I couldn’t sleep, and then sad again. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson is the haunting and gritty story of Maya B. Addison, a 15-year-old Black girl who allegedly killed a white baby when she was 9 years old. She now lives in a group home where she is practically barred from the outdoor world, fearing for her life because of her roommates, and has a mother who visits rarely and only for show. Finally, she meets Ted, a helper at a local hospital, with whom she finds sanctuary and a hope for her future. One way I like to describe this story is as starting out grayish and then slowly becoming more and more black and white, and in the end, you’re thrust back into gray. It’ll make sense when you read it. Allegedly is a story about a statistic from our criminal justice system, and how deep and dark the world can get. The hardest part about reading this book is accepting that this is someone’s reality. I never quite understood what it meant for a book to stay with you past the last page until I read this. I read Allegedly 2 years ago and I still find myself thinking about it all the time. It’s one of the most haunting books I’ve ever read—and it’s fantastic.
This is random, but I just realized John Green from the Crash Course videos is the same John Green as the author. I needed to announce that. Anyway, I wanted to include this book because firstly, I liked it a lot, and secondly, it shows the diversity of the #Ownvoices movement. John Green struggles with severe anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder(OCD) and he uses this book and its protagonist to shed light on his own experience. As a teenager, even in 2020, I have experienced so much misrepresentation of what OCD is. It’s a diagnosable mental illness, and Turtles All the Way Down gives it the representation it so rarely receives. The main character, Aza Holmes, struggles from OCD, and we get to see the many situations in which the illness affects her everyday life and controls her mind. She meets a very rich boy from her past, did I mention he’s rich? The book follows the romance of those two but also the journey of Aza as a person and her control over her OCD. And as it’s a John Green book, of course there will be random philosophical moments and plenty of deep metaphors in random and unexpected spots that will suddenly make you think really hard about life. Overall, it’s been critically acclaimed for being such a good representation of OCD, probably because it’s written by a person with OCD (#Ownvoices books are the best books). Go read it.
Here are some more books that I can’t officially recommend because I haven’t read them, but that you should definitely read and are on my must-read list. They are #Ownvoices books, because #Ownvoices books are the best books!
I’m Not Dying With You Tonight, by Gilly Segal
Queens of Geek, by Jen Wilde
When Dimple Met Rishi, by Sandhya Menon
All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson
The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henriquez
The Upside of Unrequited, by Becky Albertalli
History is All You Left Me, by Adam Silvera
Juliet Takes A Breath, by Gabby Rivera