Latinx Representation on Young Adult Book Covers

History of Young Adult

Young adult is a relatively new category of literature, the term “young adult” in reference to literature for teenagers being coined in 1944 by librarian Margaret Scoggin [1]. The category was slowly popularized throughout the rest of the twentieth century by other librarians, and only began to strongly receive mainstream attention and grow as an industry at the turn of the century. 

It was popularized through books like Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, especially with the movies adapted from the books. However, from its inception to even now, young adult and all of children’s literature remains highly homogeneous, both in the industry producing the works [2] as well as the identities represented in the stories [3].

The establishment of the grassroots campaign We Need Diverse Books in 2014 was a turning point, of sorts, for the industry [4]. From there, a push for diverse novels was present and pressing on the industry. Although small, progress has been made, and many publishers and readers have actively taken action to fight the systemic biases within the industry. 
We Need Diverse Books Logo

More recent initiatives, although smaller, have stemmed in literature circles, such as Las Musas, a group of female-identifying Latinx young adult and middle grade novelists [5], or the Latinx Book Club, a book club dedicated to reading and boosting Latinx voices [6]. 

However, one could argue that much of the progress is performative. The dearth of #OwnVoices stories is one telling factor, as non-marginalized writers continue to write marginalized stories, perhaps even more than before, now that diversity has been prioritized and popularized. 

Hopefully the analysis of book covers and #OwnVoices stories will provide more context to the intricacies of the budding diversity movement within the young adult book community, and whether the changes have reached such a niche area of the industry’s operations. Having #OwnVoices writers may not be enough, but rather #OwnVoices artists may help better represent these stories to readers, as we will potentially see.
 

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