Corie Weaver, co-editor of the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide a middle grade reader featuring diverse protagonists, sez: “31 percent of children’s books have central female characters, and even fewer feature main characters of color.”
Science fiction is no exception – A genre that’s supposed to inspire us towards a bright future isn’t making space for half the population’s dreams. Boys go and have adventures, girls are to be defended, or prizes to be won, and the landscape is very, very white.
We’ve just put out an anthology of 24 stories from amazing authors, ranging from Nebula and Hugo winners to relative newcomers to the field. 90% of the stories in the anthology are brand new, and 80% have central female characters. We don’t have girls who are prizes to be won or waiting to be rescued. All of our heroines and heroes are on their own adventure, not a side note in someone else’s. Our characters are white, black, Asian, latino. Human and robot. Everyone belongs here.