What We Found
Our Story
We believe that our exhibit reflects the reality of the YA genre: it is both female-dominated and genre diverse – something that is important if not fundamental to the representation of women and the (de)construction of femininity in media (See how we came to this understanding in "The conclusions"). This representation provides us with much-needed windows and mirrors of female characters, filtered and authenticated through the female perspective.
Sampling
The results of this project were obtained by cataloguing 13 young adult books. In order to illustrate and elaborate on our findings, we compiled and organized our data into four categories: gender, genre, sexuality, and ethnicity.
Female authors are dominating YA
Most of our authors (9 out of 13) are women/girls (female), whereas 3 out of 13 are men/boys (male), and 1 out of 13 are non-binary. Naturally, this reflects itself in our primary characters as well, with the majority, at 85% (11 out of 13), being women/girls. Contrastingly, 75% (12 out of 16) of our secondary characters are men/boys, most of which are love interests to women/girl protagonists.
An interactive bar graph illustrating the overall gender composition of our 13 books from Books on Beechwood that include comparaisons between primary characters, secondary characters, author and illustrator.
The conclusions? Our exhibit is clearly female-dominated.
Women today dominate the YA genre, but this was not always the case; just a generation ago (1980s-90s), the “debut novelist” shortlists in fiction were not only male-dominated, but exclusively male. Moreover, the VIDA Count archives reveal how the annual tally for adult literatures is consistently male-dominated, whereas the one-time 2013 Children’s and YA count was female-dominated.
So what does this mean?
The concentration of female authors and characters in the YA category is not only welcome but necessary to the larger agenda of gender diversity and representation in media; despite representing approximately 50% of the US (and Canadian) population, only 31% of films in 2021 feature female protagonists (Only 7% of Movies in 2021 Featured More Women than Men). The film industry itself – historically and today – is male-dominated, meaning that the woman character in media is often subject to the distortions of the male gaze.
Bottom line . . .
When we consider media as a larger whole, the woman's perspective is often absent or overshadowed. For this reason, the predominance of female authors is not only important but necessary where it is, in YA fiction.
Genre Diversity in YA
The YA category is expansive: YA fiction is an umbrella term used to denote a wide variety of subgenres. Our exhibit reflects this fact: 35% of the 13 books are contemporary, 28% romance, 28% fantasy, and 7% science-fiction. Because it is female-dominated, the YA category is often wrongly assumed to be a “girly” and/or “romance-filled” genre. However, our results from these 13 books suggest that the YA category is not only gender-neutral, but includes traditionally “masculine” subgenres.
Because YA is a woman-dominated category, genre diversity is essential; it works to deconstruct and reformulate preconceived notions of womanhood, “femininity”, and the spaces they can (and do) occupy. This is essential in order to diversify the meaning of “femininity” for boys and girls in terms of windows and mirrors; women are not just one thing, and they do not just exist in one space. Our small exhibit alone showcases how women-led narratives can exist in fantasy, romance, science fiction, and contemporary fiction – but it does not stop there.
The multiple subdivisions of the YA genre reveal how femininity can exist in a thousand different settings.
Sexuality of Authors and Characters
From our sample of 13 books, 39% of the authors in our exhibit identify as LGBTQ+ while 46% identify as straight, and the other 15% do not specify their sexuality. Curiously, this sexual diversity is not reflected in the primary characters of the books we catalogued, with 39% being straight, 15% LGBTQ+, and the majority, 46% being unspecified.
An interactive donut chart illustrating the sexuality of authors in our sample of 13 books from Books on Beechwood.
An interactive donut chart illustrating the sexuality of primary characters from our sample of 13 books from Books on Beechwood.
Ethnicity
When combined, the number of people of color (POC) as primary characters is greater than the amount of white primary characters (53% to 47%). However, when observing our authors, more than 50% of them are white, which suggests that although there is diversity amongst the characters of our selected novels, most are not written from a POC’s perspective. Our results further suggest that, whether it be characters or creators, white people dominate in all fields. Nevertheless, there are still a number of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous authors, but the relatively low numbers reveal that there are still steps to be taken in order to reach a level of diversity that truly reflects our society.
Disability
Unfortunately, our sample only captured one book (What About Will by Ellen Hopkins) out of the 13 that includes a disabled character. The lack of representation of disabled characters in our small sample reflects the current, broader reality of disabled characters in YA literature. A survey conducted by the Toronto Star discovered that less than 1% of children’s and young adult books published in 2018 contain disabled characters, even though 22% of the Canadian population is disabled.
Why is the lack of disability representation concerning?
It is important for young readers to be exposed to a representation of disability in literature. Non-disabled readers need to be provided with realistic images of disabled characters in order to properly acknowledge their presence, as well as to learn to understand and empathize with them. On the other hand, representation of disability also allows disabled readers to feel seen and to recognize themselves in the books they read. By being exposed to mirrors of themselves, young disabled readers will be encouraged to broaden their worldview and reimagine the limits of possibility.
To Summarize . . .
Our exhibit is dominated by white, cis-gendered, able-bodied women, and as our data reveals, diversity in creators also creates diversity in content. The concept of windows and mirrors teaches us that the presence of marginalized creators is necessary in order to authentically portray the marginalized experience. Therefore, it is essential to publish minority authors in order to introduce new perspectives in fiction and in literature. Our 13-book sample is dominated by only one kind of woman, with the authority to not only represent herself, but to represent others as well. The danger of presenting a single, dominating narrative in YA fiction is that it not only risks creating a limited perspective and image of our society, but of the woman’s voice as well.
Sources
Bransford, Nathan. “Why Do Women Dominate Ya?” Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing, 6 Apr. 2018, https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2012/08/why-do-women-dominate-ya. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
Chelangat, Valerie. “Disability Representation Needs to Be Nuanced, Realistic and Respectful.” The Uniter, 14 Jan. 2021, https://uniter.ca/view/reading-in-colour-75-14. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
Dundas, Deborah. “Children with Disabilities Aren't Seeing Themselves in the Books They Read, Exclusive Star Survey Finds.” Thestar.com, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2020/02/12/disabled-children-arent-seeing-themselves-in-the-books-they-read-survey-finds.html. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
King, Amy. “‘Best of 2009’ and ‘Historical Count’ • Vida: Women in Literary Arts.” VIDA, 10 Sept. 2019, https://www.vidaweb.org/vida-count/best-of-2009/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
Pepper, Amber. “Why I Don't Care About the Female to Male Ratio in Ya.” Books of Amber, 9 Mar. 2014, https://booksofamber.com/2014/02/why-i-dont-care-about-the-female-to-male-ratio-in-ya.html. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
Saperstein, Pat. “Only 7% of Movies in 2021 Featured More Women than Men, Study Finds.” Variety, Variety, 15 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/womens-roles-2021-films-men-outnumber-lauzen-study-1235204838/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
Thomas-Corr, Johanna. “How Women Conquered the World of Fiction.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 16 May 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/16/how-women-conquered-the-world-of-fiction. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.