To think all female children’s authors should write books with girls in

[Bigmango]

I find it so depressing how many children’s books feature only boys or at least boys in the main role. I recently read a book about pirates to my daughter where every one of the four main characters was a boy (for absolutely no reason - it would have made no difference to the storyline if one or more were girls). I was then shocked to realise the author was a woman. As a female children’s author, wouldn’t you see it as your job to try and redress the balance a bit?

No and of course I don’t believe female authors should have to write only female characters. I just think if you’ve got an opportunity to change the dominant theories just a little (eg pirates are boys) why not do it?

Then you agree its ridiculous to say that woman should have to?

No idea why they dont. Maybe some people write with their children or grandchildren in mind. Maybe they do it because it makes more money. And that's why they write, in the first place.

And unfortunately it does. I was in Disney florida, years a go and they were advertising Rapunzel. There were a few posters dotted about.

Anyway when it came out it was called tangled. So I googled it to see why they changed it. The Princess and the frog hadnt done that well, apparently down to the fact that the title put boys and parents off boys seeing it. So they made more of Flynn Ryder (the male character) and called it tangled. It seemed to work. So I am guessing the same applies to books.

It's an odd one. Because both me and my daughter love reading. My son isnt that fussed. We would have read Harry Potter whether it was a boy or girl as the title character. There definitely lots of teen/young adult books with female leads. My daughter spends a fortune on them, she is obsessed with reading.

But it does appear that society is still such a way, that main characters that are male sell better.

Maybe we can encourage it by doing what pp does. If we see a book with a girl as the main character, buy a few (if you can afford it) as gifts and tell all your friends who are looking for gifts for their kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids etc.

I think you’re seeing a problem that nowadays just isn’t there.

YANBU and there are many books where the character is essentially gender neutral and I change it to "she" when reading aloud to my DDs. However I don't think only women authors should do it but men as well.

Just realised you meant picture books, sorry!!! Yanbu, going through ours now and can't find many girls. Next step up though the buff and chip books have a nice equal mix. Btw on Tangled-one of the best Disney films, and the kids see her as the main character and Flynn as a side character ( I know cos we were talking about Disney favourites and she was near the top)

@PaulHollywoodsSexGut

I'm really not
www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/13/highly-concerning-picture-books-bias-worsens-as-female-characters-stay-silent

I do think the situation improves dramatically at YA. That was when I really started reading a much wider range. But there definitely is still an issue in younger children’s books.

I'm a children's book illustrator. I'm not Axel Schleifler but I'm not unknown either.

I think you're a bit out of touch OP. Just coming back from the Bath Childrens Lit Festival and Cheltenham, there is huge amount of female protagonists out there and not just in YA either.

7-10 - Amelia Fang, Dork Diaries.
8-12 - StarFell, A Pinch of Magic, Goth Girl, Neverwhere,

All with strong female leads, literally off the top of my head.

Personally, I've just brought a big picture featuring a BAME main female character, not an 'issues' book either - just normal fun and magic.

I also have illustrated 3 young fiction novels featuring a female BAME main character. Please pm me if you'd like the name of the series as I don't want to put myself.

*brought out a picture book.

I do think the situation improves dramatically at YA.

I'm a librarian, public not school. Like all library services we are struggling with budget cuts. One saving we are considering is cutting Young Adult fiction buying to zero.

Shoehorning 'wokeness' into YA diction is killing it. Teenagers are a hard to reach demographic at the best of times. They want to read rounded characters and interesting plots and they aren't getting those.

Authors should write whatever characters they please, not try to fill diversity quotas.

I find it very concerning how many people here don't even realise the problem. Watch this video below. Then ask any boys you know if they could name a female lead character in a book they have read. Because while girls do get to read books with female characters because the people buying books seek them out (in the same way I'm sure BAME children have e.g. more Malorie Blackman in their libraries than white children do) but boys can go their entire life without reading a book with a female lead. It helps lead to the othering of girls and women. It is vitally important for our children to read books about boys and girls, black and white, able and disabled, NT and not NT, the more diversity the better because reading books teaches empathy.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZ1Jbd4-fPOE&ved=2ahUKEwj6tM-x45PlAhVirHEKHScSDTMQwqsBMAB6BAgFEAQ&usg=AOvVaw17HtM-ncmOaO5KV48_S0FF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">If you have a daughters you need to see this

find it very concerning how many people here don't even realise the problem.

well, the issue is that you can't tell authors what they MUST write about, we are not in North Korea.

I write for fun - it's been my hobby for 20 years but I've never published anything. I only write male leads and if I add a female it's because one is required to balance something out. As a female, I have absolutely no interest in writing a female character - I live female, so I want my fictional world to be male. I find male characters more relatable and likable to me. I find it hard to get into female leads.

I don't think there should be any big push to have set genders as lead characters. That's not how people write. There are tons of books for kids/teens/young adults now that have female leads.

For those mentioning the fact that characters seem to be predominantly middle class, I have a book rec: Finding Home by Garrett Leigh. It's about a boy and his little sister who find themselves in the foster system after a brutal family event. It's aimed at a YA audience, but it is a great read even as an adult. I think the author wrote this book for her daughters because they wanted to read her stuff but are too young for the content of her main books so this was an 'on their level' book.

I honestly think one of the reasons that lots of authors are saying they find it easier to write male leads is because that is what they have been exposed to more in literature. It’s a self perpetuating cycle!

@CountFosco ah yeah - we watched this during literacy training. And it’s true of our school library (and I suspect most).

Yeah, the 'male characters being more relatable and likable...' or 'hard to get into female leads...' is really odd to me and I wonder what's behind it.

I would find it easier to write about boys because you actually don't want a female lead, you want a certain kind of female lead!

can't be a shy girl
can't be a "girly" girl
can't be an introvert girl
can't be a quiet girl

anyone daring to write about a girl who likes glitter and rainbow would be accused of pushing the stereotypes and people would still moan.

@Helmetbymidnight I actually find that pretty heartbreaking. Are women really that awful?

@CountFosco it not that I don't see the problem it's that I don't see forcing women to only write women as a solution to the problem. Will they be allowed to write non-gendered (like Little Nut Brown Hare in Guess how much I Love You)? Can they write non boyish boys - surely writing about boys in traditionally "female" does something to address gender stereotypes that writing books about ballet dancing, pony loving, pink wearing girls doesn't. Do we give hall passes for those wanting to write about real people/events that necessitate boys in certain roles or do we pretend that Henry VIII wasn't a man or do we have to pass those story ideas to men so they can do it for us? Let see more girls in books, especially in books "for boys" but they have to fit they can't be shoehorned in or written to order.

anyone daring to write about a girl who likes glitter and rainbow would be accused of pushing the stereotypes and people would still moan.

I have this problem with one theoretical series, because I really, REALLY want to write a feminine, pretty, shoes-shopping-lipstick-gossip girl who is unashamedly so, as well as being clear-headed, intelligent, brave and emotional.

(problem is, as I've said, I've created her - I haven't imagined her)

I honestly think one of the reasons that lots of authors are saying they find it easier to write male leads is because that is what they have been exposed to more in literature. It’s a self perpetuating cycle!

For me, it tends to go that I have days where I feel like writing F1, days like writing M1. Then I hit my stride with M2's plotline, so pursue that for a few days. Sometimes their voices speak more clearly to me than others. Sometimes their personalities aren't speaking very distinctly at all, but the plot is really flowing, so you write loads, then have to correct it for their personality later. Sometimes the opposite - the dialogue is zinging around the page, but there's no actual plot contribution, so if it's good, you find a place to put it.

(writers really do sound nuts, don't they?)

Then ask any boys you know if they could name a female lead character in a book they have read.
Other than Alex Rider, Beast Quest, Jennings, "I am David" and Antonia Forest's historical set, I can't think of any ds has really enjoyed that doesn't have girl characters as equal or main leads in the last 7 or 8 years, and he reads around a book a week.
Otoh the books dd2 reads are probably mostly female only or at any rate the male characters are the brothers (usually) to the female MC, she's got two floor to ceiling bookcases filled with her books.

anyone daring to write about a girl who likes glitter and rainbow would be accused of pushing the stereotypes and people would still moan.
I think this is another issue. I was a stereotypical girlie girl. I liked dolls, sewing, playing keeping house, pink and dresses. My dsis was the opposite
People dismiss that sort of character as "sexist" and "wishy-washy" in literature. I found that quite hurtful as a child. It felt like I was being told I shouldn't be the way I wanted to be, that liking these things was wrong.

Go and read the Famous Five. Look at Anne. She's actually a strong character. She's scared-but she still does it. She keeps up (as the youngest). She has ideas that the others listen to and act on. They respect her for who she is. And she does the cooking etc because she enjoys it. Not because the boys say they won't, in fact there's several places where they ask her what they can do to help. They respect her for what she does.
By saying that what she does is "shoved on her because she's a girl" you're actually diminishing her character. You make the boys think they shouldn't be doing it, that doing the cooking and homemaking makes her lesser.
If you look at it the other way and say Anne is far more of a complex character than the others, because she not only takes part in the adventures, even when scared, but she's also doing more than just rushing round after the criminals.

Enid Blyton, for all her faults, was very good at writing books about women. I lived off of Malory Towers and St Clairs for years (which itself reveals how limited my choices were).

We can go into the nuances of what kind of female a book is representing but for the point I’m making, that doesn’t matter to the point I am making here. I just want my daughter (who is only 18 months) to be exposed to an equal number of heroes and heroines from the very start of her reading life. I think if it doesn’t affect the story (and I’m not sure why it would in most cases), I don’t see why a female (or male author) can’t try to redress a historical imbalance by making the protagonist female. Or at the very least (as a pp said they did) to question why they were making that character male and if they had to be.

I make public space art, and always feature women where possible- so female 1920s agricultural worker, female WW2 air raid warden Ido this to redress the balance and make local heroic female characters and role models more visible within the community.

I studied children's lit for one module for my uni degree and learned there is a marketing reason for this. Even historically speaking girls and boys read in very different ways. Of course a lot of girls enjoy girls targeted at them which had female protagonists statistically girls are more open to read books written by men and with a boy as a protagonist then the other way around. It is not as relevant any more but boys showed a pattern of being open to books meant for outside their social class.

YABU. Personally, I only read books about dogs if they 've been written by a dog. Which is limiting.