Thread by @haleshannon

This happens at least once every time we have an event for The Princess in Black. A wonderful, well-meaning, female librarian/teacher/bookseller/parent approaches me and asks,

“So, when are you going to write a series like this for boys?”

I feel Dean and LeUyen tense up beside me. Because they know what’s coming.
First I say, “The Princess in Black is for boys.”

Then I explain that kids, especially young kids, really do not care about the gender of the main character. They just want a good story. It's the adults who worry about it. Plus, it's good for boys to read about girls too.

Sometimes they quickly agree and amend what they’d said. But often, they look skeptical. They don’t believe me. Maybe they think I’m exaggerating just to sell more books.

They think it’s a lie because they're certain that in their school, it’s different. They have lots of first hand experience about how boys hate “girl stuff” how boys even mock it or boo it and “won’t be caught dead reading a book about a girl/princess.”

Their experience is true. Mine must be flawed.

But here’s the thing: there are literally hundreds of thousands of boys who read and love The Princess in Black.

There is overwhelming evidence that boys are fully capable of enjoying specifically these books and generally any book about a girl. So why haven’t you seen that in your school?

Let’s say that your school is somehow different than everywhere else. That no boy in your school would ever, ever truly like a book about a girl.
I would ask you to question: Why?

What is different about here? What are we doing that teaches boys to hate anything to do with girls? How are we raising them that they believe they shouldn’t empathize with girls?

Because that’s what reading a book about someone different from us does. Teaches us empathy. Helps us understand. That all people are as fully human as we are.

And then I would ask you to really question: is this a good system? Is this a system I want to work to uphold? Do I want to perpetuate the belief that boys can't and shouldn't empathize with girls now and in the future?

Or is there something I can do to disrupt it? Are there choices I can make that will help boys be their best selves? To learn to empathize with girls today? To grow up treating girls as equals when they’re teenagers and adults?

I really am sorry, well-meaning and wonderful parent/bookseller/teacher/librarian, for speaking so bluntly, for maybe making you uncomfortable.

I get tired of talking about this all the time. But everytime someone says “When are you going to write for boys?” I have about 3 seconds when I think: maybe this time I can let it slide. I’m tired, maybe this time I won’t speak up.

But if I don’t, then who would I be? And what is any of this for?