Ellen Oh on the Power of Representation

Posted over at the Nerdy Book Club, Ellen writes of how:

"When you’re little, you don’t know what you’ve been missing if you’ve never seen it before. I didn’t know that the hole in my heart that had been filled with self-loathing and a wish that I could have been born white, had formed because of a lack of representation. I didn’t know that seeing yourself in the pages of a book would be life transforming. That book was The Joy Luck Club."

The piece is also a celebratory lead-in to telling us about Flying Lessons and Other Stories, the new anthology of short stories from #WeNeedDiverseBooks that Ellen edited.

Ellen's essay is a great reminder of how powerful it can be to see yourself in the pages of a book. And how we, writers and illustrators, can give that gift to our young readers.

Check out the full essay here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee