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So, this is my first official website post!
Very exciting because I never would have imagined being a blogger (ooh-don’t like that word for some reason-how about poster?) Yup, so here I am posting my thoughts and feelings as Tracy Bryan Author.
There are so many exciting things currently going on in my little area of the writing world …where to start? “So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you.”(been dying to use that somewhere!) First off- posting! Amazing how things just seem to always work out. If it wasn’t for a letter that I submitted to Writeforkids.org asking how I could contribute to their efforts in the “Diversity Movement”, I never would have even considered that one week later I would be writing a post for them and another one on my web page.
Here’s how it went down…When I received an email asking to write a guest post on their web page, I was humbled, honored and excited. They wanted me to write something on the topic of diversity in children’s books and how writers can include more diversity in their work. Immediately I thought, that’s so cool. Then it struck me that it was time to put my money where my mouth is…I polled my Facebook writing groups to get an honest opinion about what my writing peers thought diversity actually was. Astounding how many comments I received back and answers that reflected such genuine support of the idea of diversity. This inspired me and although my post was mostly written at this point, I saw this as a sign of hope for future advocacy on this subject with my peers.
Then I started to receive some- let’s call them inklings of fear- about my goals with regards to this subject. What did I really want to accomplish here? Why was I so attracted to this diversity movement within the children’s lit world? How come I felt and continue to feel this passion to write books for kids that make most people feel uncomfortable reading them. (By most people I mean adults- we are the ones who place stigmas on these topics, not kids.) So why do I want to upset the anthill? Someone has to. No, I really mean that- it’s about time!
I’ve mentioned this more than once in the last couple days…as kid’s lives become more diverse, so does their need to have more books on diversity. A need because this is our chance, through diverse books, to teach them that everyone and everything that is important in their life-however different from the rest- is awesome and they should celebrate their diversity!
My mission has only began, but two posts later I feel like I have achieved a little success towards my goal and despite a few odd glances (when I mention that I am a children’s book author and I write about diverse topics) I think my pursuit of finding an answer to why I am doing this is simply…for the kids.