Writing Like a Girl

I spent a good part of my youth trying not to be a girl. Had I lived in a pre-feminist era, I might have spent a great deal more of my life trying not to be a woman.

I am at home in my own skin, now, and thinking hard about my responsibilities as a writer to write characters of different background, race, gender, and sexuality. A lot of books out there are very white, and very straight.

I hope at some point to follow in such footsteps as Ellen Whittlinger, Erica Orloff, and Justine Larbalestier, who have eclectic casts of characters.

And I feel badly for this writer, who didn't have a history, really of trying not to be a girl. Bias, anyone?