✨Contest Alert!✨ + Why Representation in Books Matters
Research shows that reading = imagining = achieving
CONTEST ALERT: The Longest Ride by Mackenzie Myatt
Our In Defense of Big Dreams author Mackenzie Myatt is heading out on her longest ride ever, and made a list of what she wants her future self to know when she wants to give up… And we want to hear from you! Head over to Instagram and tell us what you want your future self to know while pursuing your next big goal. 5 random winners who share in posts or stories + tag us will get sticker packs.
Why Reading is a Gamechanger
Often, I (Strong Girl Publishing founder Molly Hurford) get asked why I care so darn much about seeing athletic and sporty middle grade and young adult girls represented in both fiction and nonfiction books. After all, people who like sports can always tune in and watch World Championships, World Cups, Championship games and most women’s sports on TV or online if they want to see women in sport. It’s getting easier and easier to access coverage of women’s sports, so why do we need to read fictionalized accounts of girls in sport?
Easy: Because most of the girls who are tuning into these sports on TV or online already are invested in sport, or have a parent who cares deeply about the sport and is bringing the kiddo along for the ride. But for those girls who aren’t already invested in sports, there’s not really much of a draw to tune into professional sports. For me, as a very un-athletic kid, I would never have watched sports. (Obviously, I’ve changed my tune since then!) However, if you handed me virtually any kind of book, I’d read it. I was a huge bookworm.
So while I love writing books and publishing books for girls who love sport, I also love writing books and publishing books to help girls find sport. I think for many girls, books are an entry point into a new world, a new hobby, a new way of looking at identity. As I’m putting the finishing touches on one of my upcoming books, The Long Run, I’m thinking a lot about this—both the girls in the book are reluctant athletes for different reasons at the beginning. They don’t feel like sports are accessible or welcoming for them. I hope that I’ll have girls picking up this book who feel that exact same way—and like the book’s protagonists, I hope that their minds will change.
And this isn’t just a wild idea: There’s research that’s looked at the power of fiction for kids and teens and found that a story isn’t just a story. Unlike a sport-based movie or TV show or even a live sporting event, reading a fiction book about sport allows the reader to imagine herself as the protagonist in a way that isn’t as possible when presented with an image of the protagonist. (For example, watching Blue Crush, the early aughts surfer movie, made a generation of us love the idea of surfing. But if you didn’t physically resemble Kate Bosworth, it was hard to actually see yourself in her shoes. Imagine reading a book about a super cool surfer girl, though, where there isn’t a picture of what she looks like. It’s easier to put yourself into that scenario.)
If you’re reading this and you remember reading Nancy Drew books and wanting to be a detective, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If those books about solving mysteries involving old clocks (and a sweet convertible!) got you excited about becoming a forensic investigator, imagine what reading a book about shredding on a bike, surfing, playing soccer, skateboarding, or playing hockey could do for your bookworm!
At Strong Girl Publishing, we started in cycling with my Shred Girls series. We’ll add to that category with Mackenzie’s book this fall, but we’ll also be branching out into strength training and more CrossFit/gymnastics-oriented content with The Strong Girl, and we’re still building out our first anthology and seeking a wide range of diverse athletes to share ‘what they wished they’d known.’ Our long-term vision is to build out a diverse and inclusive library that includes books and authors with a broad range of backgrounds and life experiences, because we know how important it is for every girl to see herself in these stories.
Thanks for being along for the ride!
-Molly