The Power of Representation

I tried to write a review, but I wrote an essay instead...

I was severely bullied throughout most of middle school. And just when I thought it was over, it happened again in college, where most of the students didn’t look like me. As a child, I often hid in my room, for many reasons. Books and stories became my refuge. And when I say refuge, I mean it. They were my lifeline.

But here’s the thing: Most of the stories I read back then didn’t reflect me, not truly. The characters didn’t look like me, didn’t speak like me, and didn’t come from communities like mine. I was fed stories that promised that if you just worked hard enough, if you looked pretty enough, if you played by the rules, everything would eventually be fine. But it wasn’t true. It's still NOT true. And when things weren’t fine, I thought it was my fault. I thought that maybe I wasn’t working hard enough or fitting in enough. I didn’t realize that the problem wasn’t me, it was the society around me.

It took me MANY years to recognize that what I experienced wasn’t just bullying— it was racism and colorism. The comments about my hair, my body, my language, my culture—it wasn’t just kids and adults being mean. It was society teaching them that people who looked and spoke like me were somehow less worthy, less valuable, ugly, didn’t deserve to be in a private college… had bad hair, were too dark, didn’t speak English well enough, weren't feminine enough.

If I had read Tracy Deonn's Legendborn series as a young adult, I know it would've helped me a lot. Seeing a young Black girl navigating grief, power, and identity in a world that tried to diminish her, would've given me a framework for understanding my own experiences.

I would've realized that the bullying I endured wasn’t about me, but about a system that devalues, and dehumanizes Blackness and otherness. If I had seen someone like me in the pages of a story, I would have learned to name what was happening to me much earlier. I would've known I wasn’t alone.

Representation matters! It gives young people language for their pain and struggles. It shows them they are not the problem. The world is. It teaches them how to identify injustice and find strength in their identity. It gives them permission to exist fully and unapologetically.

Reading stories WRITTEN BY Black authors, authors of color, Indigenous authors, disabled authors, and 2SLGBTQI+ authors is more than just an act of expanding our literary experience. It’s an act of recognition, validation, and survival. These voices are being silenced by a society that prefers a sanitized, one-dimensional narrative, one that reflects an illusion of harmony rather than the hard and painful truths of our collective history and present.

But these stories are vital, not only because they offer a mirror to those of us who have long been overlooked, but because they help young people see themselves, understand their experiences, and know that they are not alone.

Erasure of these voices creates a society built on smoke and mirrors, a wishful imagining of a “perfect” world that simply does not exist. If we truly want a just society, we can't keep ignoring the truths about how it was built: colonialism, racism, classism, forced assimilation, ethnic cleansing, and exclusion. Stories from marginalized communities, of any genre, open channels for communication and deep, insightful conversations about identity, oppression, resilience, and hope. They show us the full spectrum of human condition and experience. They teach us how to face, rather than deny, the realities of this world.

We owe it to this generation and the next to make sure they see themselves in the stories they read. We owe it to them to create a world where marginalized voices are not only heard but celebrated. Stories have the power to heal and the power to open eyes. But only if we tell them. And only if we fully listen.

What book made you feel truly seen for the first time?

Thanks for reading!

M.Maldonado