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Hi all, I'd like to take a minute to speak on something that's recently been brought to my attention by BIPOC authors and clients. This is an important issue, and I'm hoping to use this platform to generate more awareness. It’s the issue of "adultifying" Black teen characters.
Adultifying refers to the racist perception of Black teens as less-innocent, and more adult-like than white teens. It assumes that Black teens don’t need or deserve the protections and considerations we give white teens, and that their experiences are inherently more adult.
For a recent real-world example of this, just look to Miya Ponsetto’s assault of a Black boy who she believed stole her phone, lunging at him and attacking him in a hotel lobby. She saw this boy, who was walking with his father, not as a child but as a dangerous adult.
“Adultifying” influences the publishing world when Black characters are characterized as "too adult" or "not teen enough” for the Young Adult market, which effectively bars Black YA stories from being published.
I'd like to share a direct quote from a Black author regarding this phenomenon:
"This is common feedback to Black authors for books with Black girl protagonists. It's something we hear in everyday life too. That Black teens are somehow "older" and less innocent. For no other reason than because society doesn't see our innocence."
Agents and editors, especially white agents and editors (including yours truly) must examine our racist biases when we consider a Black story "too adult" for YA. Too adult by what metric? And why do we see these narratives as “adult” in the first place?
Adultifying Black teens creates a publishing market where *white* adolescence is perceived as the only real adolescence, and Black experiences are characterized as somehow ‘wrong’ for YA, not because of the experiences themselves, but because of who’s experiencing them.
Yes, there are usually multiple reasons a book is rejected, many of them subjective, however it's white gatekeepers’ responsibility to understand the ways in which racist bias is affecting our ‘subjective’ opinions.
I appreciate the authors who brought this to my attention and discussed the issue with me. With clearer eyes, I now see this happening all over the place, and it's something we gatekeepers must recognize, identify, and correct.
