“Putting pretty white girls on all your book covers is the book equivalent of what all our fashion magazines do. An idealization of beauty that is unrealistic and dangerous to our youth. And it isn't the right thing to do. Seeing a minority grace the cover of a YA book is like spotting the Lochness monster, you wonder if you've truly seen it and if you'll ever see it again. How sad is that? To say that only pretty white girls can sell YA books is not a business model that publishers should approve of. And it's not true. We need look no further than the gender neutral and iconic covers for the Hunger Games and Twilight series to see the truth.”
—Ellen Oh
It Matters If You’re Black or White: The Racism of YA Book Covers
yalsa.ala.org“Book covers — not to mention the books being published — need to represent the diversity of people actually reading books.”
This infuriates me! I love YA books, especially because they have the power to teach us empathy. And yet, publishers manipulate book covers, marginalizing the people of colors and the very characters who readers find so empowering!
