Sensitive Topics

This is a sensitive topic but I am going to try to limit my opinions to explanations as to why I made certain choices in my story. That being said, I am entitled to my opinion just like you are entitled to yours. If you want to have a discussion about the differences, fine. If you broach the topic in any way that is not respectful, that discussion will never happen.

I want to talk about gender in stories.

Both my main characters are young women. They came into existence in my head being young women but that doesn't mean I did not choose to keep them that way. I did. I wanted them to be women. I wanted them to be smart and capable and determined but I also wanted them to be a little naive, a little uncertain and more than a little flawed. I wanted them to have meaningful relationships with their friends, their family, and their love interests. 

I wanted them to be characters that 14 and 15 year old girls could read and think, I want to be like them. Not because they were pretty or because they had the perfect relationship with some over-idealized person. Because they were smart but they worked hard at learning new things, they learned from their mistakes and learned about who they are. 

That was the story I searched for when I was that age. I wanted a story that yes, had romance in it, but the lead character had interests outside of it and the overarching plot dealt with much more complicated issues. I wanted characters who were smart but were shown to work at learning. I wanted them to be imperfect.

Now that I'm in my twenties, I also wanted at least one of them to be confident in who she is most of the time but to also show her uncertainty because I think that is so incredibly important to let teenage girls know and also because it is authentic. Confidence in women is something to admired and applauded, not mocked or put down--even by other women.

I also wanted the female characters to get along and lift each other up because every day I see women tear each other down, as if one woman's confidence or success somehow diminished another woman. We do it with each other's make up choices, fashion choices, lifestyle choices, parenting choices, career choices, education choices, hobby choices, and the list goes on.

I might be just an unpublished writer but one day, I will have a book published and do not ever doubt the power stories have. When that happens, I want that 15 year old girl who's worried about everything, just like I was, to read my book and think,

I want to be like her.