Should we shield children from the harsh realities of the world?
Since attending The Bookseller Children’s Conference on the 26th September 2022, this question is one that I have thought of greatly. Although subjective to each individual and by no means, simple, it is a question to be considered by the publishing industry; an industry still lacking in diversity. This was discussed by one of the keynote speakers this year, managing director of Knights Of, Aimeé Felone in her discussion ‘Small and Mighty: How Independent Publishers Continue to Change the Publishing Landscape’. This was my first time attending an industry event, however, I felt extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from the incredibly talented panellists, keynote speakers and publishing individuals who spoke at the conference. I was unsure what to expect of the day and with this being online, I decided to get myself a cup of coffee (or two) and dive headfirst into the experience, still in my loungewear, admittedly.
Aimeé Felone began the conference by opening up about her personal experience in entering the publishing industry stating, “when I began my career in publishing nearly 10 years ago now, I found that irrespective of the size of the company, I was often the only black woman in the office and representation within the books themselves were either extremely lacking or extremely damaging”. I felt that this impact, above all, was important to consider when asking the aforementioned question on whether we should introduce real yet tough discussions into children’s literature. This also highlighted to me the lack of diversity in the publishing industry, which made the panel discussion titled, ‘Addressing the Tough Stuff’ that much more impactful.
Diversity is not a trend
Aimeé Felone – The Bookseller Children’s Conference 2022
Panellists, Adam Baron, Sue Grabham, Pragya Agarwal and chair, Charlotte Eyre confirmed the notion that we shouldn’t shy away from introducing important conversations to children’s literature for the young minds of today. We heard from Data Scientist, Author and Professor of Social Inequities, Pragya Agarwal, who informed attendees that according to developmental psychology, children as young as six months old have the ability to form bias’s and prejudices from the language and media they are exposed to.
we are all equal and we shouldn’t be treated unequally. We are different, we are special, but we are not unequal, we are equal
Pragya Agarwal – The Bookseller Children’s Conference, 2022
By introducing tough conversations through literature and media at an early age in a child’s psychological development, we can try and prevent the prejudices and learned bias’s they may have been exposed to already. However, it is not enough to simply have these conversations with no real progression. What I took from the conference is the importance in having these conversations daily and consistently and with this, we just might create a much more diverse industry going forward.
MSc Publishing – Industry Accredited Postgraduate Degree 