AAYP 2018 Youth Ambassadors Scholarship
Alexandria Ang
Blonde radiant hair. Eyes as blue as a cerulean sea. Fair skin with a pretty face.
These were the words I grew up with. They were ingrained in my vocabulary through the Young Adult books I frequented. I would know, of course. As a young adult book blogger and reviewer, I read about 80 books a year. I’m sent advanced readers copies of books before they are published to review and promote. However, before embarking on this book reviewing journey, I never knew that I could pick up a book at Barnes & Noble and find myself reflected on its pages. Especially me, a first-generation Taiwanese-Filipino American. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, I learned how to hide my identity so that my classmates would think I was a “normal American teenager”. I learned not to challenge the stereotypes that were assigned to me because of my ethnicity, even if they were far from true. Now after four years of being a book blogger, I have realized something that I would have never discovered if I wasn’t so deeply immersed in the book community: the publishing industry lacks diversity.
Katniss Everdeen, Tris Prior, Harry Potter, Celaena Sardothien, and Augustus Waters. What do all these characters have in common? Not only are they all of the most popular and most well-known Young Adult series in literature, but they are also white. As I graze my bookshelves with a collection of over 300 Young Adult titles, I can see the scarcity of authors of color reflected on my own shelves. A little less than 10% of the books I own are authored by Asian American authors. Believe it or not, this percentage used to be even smaller before I started book blogging. As an Asian American myself, this is incredibly frustrating. How was I reading so many books, yet so little were about people like me? When I looked into it, I realized that this discrepancy was apart of a larger problem.
Aside from the publishing industry, the media and film industry also suffers from an underrepresentation of Asian Americans. A study was done by California professors and scholars that examined Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in 242 TV shows and 2,052 series regulars from broadcast, cable, and streaming television scripted shows airing between September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016. The results showed that 4.3% makeup mono-racial AAPI and 2.6% makeup multiracial AAPI. For decades, Asian Americans have been screaming for more representation, but to no avail. Sure, numbers of AAPI in the media have risen but not enough to move the needle. As you can imagine, I was outraged by the lack of Asian representation in every outlet.
To this day, I have amassed thousands of followers on my review platforms under the moniker “The Book’s Buzz.” I have been invited to book conventions across New York to speak on panels as a featured blogger and introduced to many publishers and authors in the industry. I immediately realized that with this platform, I had a voice.
I have since chosen to promote the voices of diverse authors and creators on my social media platforms. In 2016, my friend Belinda and I are started an Instagram book club called Diversify the Verse. With over 700 readers a month, our mission is to introduce the community to diverse authors and characters by reading a new diverse book every month and hosting a live show at the end of the month to discuss what we read. As Asian Americans ourselves, we also strive to bring the voices of many AAPI’s out into the world. For example, we most recently featured Gloria Chao’s book American Panda for February in celebration of Lunar New Year.
Asian Americans are present in literature, though in very small numbers. Book blogging has introduced me to literary geniuses like Renee Ahdieh, Cindy Pon, Riley Redgate, Sabaa Tahir, Grace Lin and so many others I wouldn’t have discovered if not for my book blog. My goal is to introduce more AAIP stories to educate non-AAIPs and most importantly, make everyone feel represented in the very books that they read. When my viewers tell me that they are glad I recommended a book because it was the first time they felt represented in literature, I know I have successfully worked towards my mission. However, there is still so much work that needs to be done.