May I have your attention please? I just want the world to know that I want more ugly people in YA(young adult) novels. What is your opinion on the matter?
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| We've all started out as tiny buds, as a young adult one is on a journey towards full blossoming. Photo by kaktuslampan via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. |
By ugly people I mean normal people, if ugly is the correct term for those of us who doesn't look like stunning beauties? It sure is easy to interpret it that way these days. For the supernatural creatures beauty might be the norm, but honestly I’m tired of the perfect YA characters. I mean come on come up with something else and let young adults feel that they way they look are fine, perfectly normal! Girls don't have to have perfect, shiny, blond/red/brown/black/blue (whatever!) hair falling in lush waves down their straight back. Boys don't have to have muscles that give of so much reflection from the sun the girls nearly go blind from it.
Diversity = true
I want to have some real people in my books. Teens quite often do have zits for one(!), some are chubby, some are overweight, some are very long, some are very skinny, some are short, some have a crocked nose, some have scars and so on. Of course some are picture perfect but that doesn't necessarily mean that life is any easier for them! What I want to say with this little rant is that I want diversity, a good blend.
And yeah, I feel the same way about all the pretty girls that is overrepresented on book covers these days as well.
Do you have any opinions on the matter? Is it ok that YA seem to be overflowing with ideals that might not be all that healthy for young adults' perception of self?
An author that I love for setting the spotlight on this beautification of our society is Scott Westerfeld and for that I love him.
Remember that to the world you are someone, but to someone you are the world.
With love from your average girl, Mari!
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