Not exactly a mystery why some people like Miss White Hawaii 2020 are so interested in telling the stories of non-white people in their work. It's a failure of creativity. /1

As publishing has become more invested in publishing diverse authors, there has emerged a certain kind of YA writer who believes that #ownvoices and diverse narratives now DOMINATE YA publishing. /2

Some of them like this, some of them hate it, but all of them see this as the true state of the world. To get published, you need to write a "diverse" story, and white people aren't supposed to do that. /3

Obv this isn't true. A lot of YA is all over the place with representation. The veracity of this belief doesn't matter. What matters is that these writers can't let it go. /4

It fucks up their creative process. The only stories they can come up with are the stories they're not supposed to tell. They see diversity as a convention of YA as a genre and all their ideas have to fit into it. /5

The thing is, some of them are well-intentioned. They're legit embracing (in their own minds) the #ownvoices and WNDB movement! Those stories are more interesting!! They need to be told!! ! !! ! /6

The stories they are qualified to tell, if they can think of any, seem lame in comparison. Miss White Hawaii prob thought no one needed another book about soccer or whatever white people thing, but I also bet that she wouldn't be able to find an interesting way to write one. /7

Eventually they feel connected enough to the diverse idea they came up with that they convince themselves that ~we're all a lil diverse~ and it's okay to mine a marginalized community for your own commercial gain. /8

Lemmie say it again: they're connected to the idea, not to the people. Their connection to their idea makes them genuinely feel that this IS "their story to tell" because they came up with the story, ergo they're connected to the people! /9

The thing is, there are plenty of interesting stories left for white people left to write! White people don't really understand white culture!!! What if more books tried to do that?? Again, a failure of creativity. /10

Like 30% of all posts on Writer Reddits are about this exact thing, white people who believe that they're the exception to this because they're attached to an idea. THINK OF ANOTHER IDEA. /11