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Today we have another lovely guest post from a librarian from California named Faythe we had the honor of meeting at kidlitcon(we had so much fun there, met so many people!)
There are some topics we readers just blatantly ignore and rather, don't think about. Size diversity is one of them but one thing that rarely gets discussed is the lack of socio-economic diversity. When Faythe spoke about this our ears were open!
My sister and I came from very meager beginnings, so nearly ever word she spoke about being a poor kid living what we'd refer to as normal lives(many think that being poor some how victimizes you or worse that you come a broken home, which is certainly NOT the case!)rang true.
You might ask yourself why the lack of social status in YA is or should be an issue, but we think it's important to also represent characters who live below poverty levels because lots of people have this idea that everyone poor is "suffering". We need more representation in all fields, and socio-ecomonic diversity is definitely a place to start!
The Invisible Poor
Guest Post by Faythe
I have always been aware of
money.
I grew up in a struggling household
where hand–me-downs is how I got most of my clothes. I mainly received my toys
at Christmas or my birthday (a mere 19 days apart).
I remember having one birthday
party. Our family vacations were camping. I remember staying in a hotel only
twice before my parents got divorced. And then things really got interesting.
I moved seven times in 10 years. My
mom and I were always looking for a better place to live – a cheaper place to
live. I had baloney sandwiches and a drink for lunch. My shoes were purchased
at Payless for which I got teased about in junior high.
That was life growing up. We
struggled. Everything had to be worked for; nothing was just given. How many of
you recognize a little of yourself in the few memories I’ve shared? Probably
more than one. Now, how many of you recognize my type of situation in a young
adult book?
Statistics show the middle class is
shrinking: 41% of adolescents (ages 12-17) live in a low-income family. This
number is higher than it has been and will probably continue to increase.
This is the real world; factual
information and yet not reflected in the young adult literature we read. It
certainly seems that all teens are able to have a cell phone, a computer, and
Internet access at home.
This is simply not true.
I work in a public library with my
main focus: working with teens. Three teens of the teens I work with regularly
don't have a computer or Internet at home. One teen writes out her papers and
her mom types it at work. Two others come to the library everyday to do
homework because their teachers put it online. These are kids that have to plan
ahead and make a conscious effort to succeed, but we don't see anyone like them
in literature.
Several of the teens are applying
for colleges and taking standardized tests and each and every one costs. In
addition to the stress of applying for college, they have an added ‘bonus’ of
having to start earlier in the process than most, because they need a fee
waiver. For the SAT you can only use it twice. One of the teens found out late
in the game that he had to take two additional SAT subject tests but only had a
fee waiver for one.
These are real life issues I know a
lot of teens are going through. Yet it's not touched upon in books. It seems
(through my reading at least) that when teens are poor they are also in an
abusive home or a parent is an addict. Like it's impossible for an author to
imagine a teen being just poor as a fact of their life. It's not any child’s
fault that they’re victims of circumstance so why is it being left out? Is it
because it's easier to imagine teens facing werewolves than it is to think of
them going hungry? Is it easier to believe that teens rising up over government
oppression than it is to imagine them without a cell phone?
WHY is it so hard to write
realistic contemporary fiction where teens struggle with life’s real issues?
What are authors and/or readers afraid of? For those of us who have lived on
the lower end of socio-economic status or seen it first hand, it’s on us to
call attention to the lack of these books. We are the ones who have to advocate
for these types of books.
Without them, readers will continue to ignore this
growing group of teens.
About the Librarian:
Faythe works as a librarian in the Sunny State of California and blogs part-time for YALSA. Chat with her on twitter @farre
Really good post. Thank you for this reminder of the need for books that represent diverse class and socioeconomic status, not only in realistic contemporary fiction, but speculative fiction as well. I think of both of Alaya Dawn Johnson's YA books, for example. Both Love is the Drug and The Summer Prince deal with issues of class, one in a contemporary story with a speculative twist (pandemic) and the other in a futuristic dystopian-type story.
ReplyDelete@Sheila Ruth It was an eye opener I think for everyone at KidLitCon.
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