It's no secret that I have a lot of Thoughts and Opinions all the time, and given the past week's events, I've been thinking about whether my Thoughts and Opinions are worth sharing. But I'll keep it brief.

1. I hope this is a lesson for writers to be mindful of how they interact with fans. They're not your toys or your echo chamber. They are real people. They don't exist to act as a guard dog. They should not vehemently defend writers to the point of putting down other writers.

You can enjoy the attention and adoration without taking advantage of it. You can't control what your readers will do. But you have a choice how to respond.

Unfortunately many of That Person's responses that have been floating around Twitter were....Not Good.

Moving on.

2. Writers cannot and should not be put on pedestals. Hold them accountable and challenge them. If they can't take valid criticism raised by their readers--who often do it out of love--they do not deserve their platform.

There IS such thing as hate. But to dismiss every bit of valid criticism as hate is very immature. Please do not see it that way. Constructive feedback doesn't negate your hard work or talent. It simply encourages you to grow more as a writer.

3. Now when it comes to BIPOC...

Well.

None of this is a subtweet. Just getting this out of the way lmao. Because I know some of y'all will start thinking I'm being shady af lmfao.

Let this past week be a lesson that when BIPOC speak, we need to listen. When BIPOC raise the questions of diversity, we need to re-assure them that they are NOT in the wrong for coming forward to say so.

I hope this gets through everyone's head that this is NORMAL for BIPOC. What you saw was not an isolated event.

Obviously she-who-shall-not-be-named caused issues FAR beyond misrepresentation of BIPOC, but let's focus-

for a second on BIPOC raising concerns and being shut down with a block or by white fragility.

This. Is. Normal. For. Non-White. People.

(Good example: see ELEANOR AND PARK by Rainbow Rowell. She has never EVER acknowledged racist depictions of POC in her book)

I've previously ranted about the complicit attitude of many, many white Wattpad readers and writers. I have a whole other Opinion on that so let's focus on where we move on from here.

4. I hope this is a lesson for many white Wattpadders that simply showing up to show solidarity is not enough. We need to really, REALLY think about material we're engaging with and people were boosting BEFORE shit hits the fan. We need to do self-reflection about whether or-

not we've been taking initiative to support fellow BIPOC. It should be a daily routine. Not a once-in-a-while act.

A lot of people with BLM reading lists--Have you been reading those books? Have you been promoting and supporting those authors?

Solidarity is more than just a passive response. True solidarity comes even before shit hits the fan.

A genuine effort to support BIPOC on a platform like Wattpad requires constant re-examination of the ways even you may unknowingly be perpetuating a racist environment.

It will be uncomfortable and difficult and you might want to shelve it for later. But you know, most things worth investing in are.

While I'm grateful that we as a community have pretty staunchly shut down a toxic, racist white woman, I hope we also continue to engage in discussions about authentic representation and fostering a healthy reading community.