YA authors Tomi Adeyemi, Akwaeke Emezi, Elizabeth Acevedo, Angie Thomas, and Nic Stone joined forces for Elle to discuss the changing tides in young adult fiction, as well as the work that still needs to be done. The five authors also touched upon their influences and delved into their creative processes. “Once I got to the point where I began to get an understanding of myself and see that my skin was brown, and that I’m treated differently from others around me—and there wasn’t a reflection of that in the books that I read, I stopped,” Nic Stone says. “I see it as both an opportunity and a privilege to start readers. To have kids become readers because of something I’ve written is huge to me. And I do not take that for granted.”
Image credit: Stewart Butterfield
