Pay It Forward:
Writer, editor, and former librarian Kelly Jensen shares some badass ladies we should know
Kelly: This is a cruel task because I am lucky to have many badass ladies in my life. Having to pick just a few is tough and not at all representative of the breadth of badassery I have access to and think about daily:
Courtney Summers — What I don’t think Courtney realizes is how many people she truly influences on the daily. And it’s not just those who read or share her books. She’s an incredible human being, exceptionally savvy and wise, and she’s been there for me in ways that few others have been. She’s one of the greatest women I’ve got the privilege of having in my life. I’ve learned so much from her and I can’t wait to keep learning more. [See Courtney’s Badass Ladies profile!]
Amanda Nelson & Rebecca Schinsky — Two of the ladies I work with at Book Riot, and they’re both passionate, dedicated, well-spoken women. Not only am I lucky enough to learn about being a Woman On The Internet from them, but they’ve been great support for me through figuring out my mental health, as well as finding solid footing in my career. It’s important, so important, to know you’re wanted and appreciated in your workplace, and these two women remind me all the time that this is a job unlike any I’ve had before…and that’s a good thing.
Liz Burns — One of my first blogger librarian friends has become one of my closest, too. Liz is so smart about librarianship, about YA books, and she’s modeled how to have a successful career, even if the career you’re in now isn’t where you started.
Leila Roy — I got to know Leila through her blog before I got to know her in person. Over the last couple of years we’ve grown closer, and she’s one of the few people who can read me the moment she sees me. That sort of relationship is magic. She’s smart, sharp, passionate, and has such neat ways of thinking about criticism, about censorship, and about the book world and blogging world more broadly.
A few other ladies who need mentioning: Brandy Colbert (missing my train home an spending an extra couple of hours with her one afternoon was a HIGHLIGHT of meeting her in person), Marge Loch Wouters (former librarian with incredible energy and enthusiasm), the girls who make up the International Library of Awesome (Angie, Drea, Abby, Katie, and Sarah — five librarian bloggers who have been a professional lifeline for me for many years now, thanks to one night at a party in San Diego), Kimberly Francisco (my outstanding coblogger at STACKED), and Janssen Bradshaw (former librarian turned blogger who is the reason I began blogging publicly in the first place).
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Kelly Jensen is a former librarian turned writer/editor who, after stints in Iowa and Central Texas, lives outside Chicago. She’s been blogging with one of her former grad school classmates, Kimberly Francisco, at STACKED since April 2009. FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD, an anthology of feminist essays and art she’s editing, will be published by Algonquin Young Readers in Spring 2017 and she was recently named a free speech hero by the National Coalition Against Censorship.
stackedbooks.org // bookriot.com // sizeacceptanceinya.tumblr.com
website // tumblr // twitter
Do you know a Badass Lady who deserves a profile? Put suggestions in the ask box, or submit links to existing content here!
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“Badass Ladies You Should Know” is brought to you by Kate Hart (kdhart), author of AFTER THE FALL, coming winter 2017 from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. If you add her book on Goodreads, she will love you forever.
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yabookers:
badass ladies: Romy - All The Rage
ashleyhblake:
You know what I’m sorta tired of? Girls getting labeled as a badass because they…well, kick literal ass. Okay, let me rephrase. Girls only getting labeled as a badass because they kick literal ass. Of course, I love me some Buffy. And Katniss and girls with swords and a nice right hook. So let me be clear: I’m not saying we shouldn’t have these sorts of female characters. I love them. We need them. We need to see girls with physical agency and ability and who save the floundering hero or kiss their girl while riding into the sunset. My beef is when these traditionally masculine characteristics are prized above traditionally female characteristics. Now, I would love to live in a world in which fighting and physical strength and ability are not seen first as masculine, and traits like vulnerability and dealing with emotional trauma and shedding tears are not seen first as feminine. Where behaviors aren’t gendered. But we don’t live in that world. Not yet. I hope we do someday and we should keep fighting to change these mindsets.
So here’s the thing: Being vulnerable. Dealing with complicated emotions. Nurturing those we love. Exhibiting emotional agency. If a female character shows all of these traits in a book, she’s not likely to be called a badass. She might be beloved. She might be heralded as well-developed and deep, but rarely as a badass. Now, if you add some snark and sarcasm and a few cuss words, maybe she’ll be a badass. And, hey, I love my snarky girls, but again, it seems like there must be some wall up between the world and her heart in order to be considered a badass. And yeah, Buffy was totally vulnerable with Angel and with her friends and faced some serious emotional shit. But if you take all of her vanquishing of vampires out of the equation, I’m not sure she’d be seen as such a bold and brave heroine. Now, you may say, “Well, if she’s not a slayer, her context changes, so inevitably we’ll see her differently.” True. She’d be a totally different person, one with fewer traditionally masculine traits and, most likely, much less “badass” in our estimation.
And I think this can be really damaging. Because it takes a shit ton of bravery to be vulnerable. To risk getting hurt. To tell someone you love them. To come out. To report abuse. I remember several months ago, author Melissa Grey talked about how she hated when people said loving tales like Cinderella was distinctly unfeminist, because it takes a great deal of bravery to love and trust someone after a history of abuse and neglect. Cinderella wasn’t rescued by a prince. She rescued herself when she decided she wanted a different life and was willing risk her heart to get it. Now that is badass.
Please don’t misunderstand. I love girls who kick all the literal ass. They are truly badass. But I want to see girls who take emotional risks, face emotional trauma, deal with those love triangles with agency and vulnerability, to also be seen as heros. Brave. Fierce. Strong. Badass. Because there’s nothing closer to us than our own hearts. And nothing braver when we place them in another’s hands.
Some of my favorite BADASS female characters:
Remy from Courtney Summers’ All The Rage
Reena from Katie Cotugno’s How To Love
Alexi from Courtney C. Stevens’ Faking Normal
Tabitha from Corey Ann Haydu’s Life By Committee
Skylar from Heather Demetrios’ I’ll Meet You There
Madeline from Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything
Maggie from Marci Lyn Curtis’ The One Thing
Naila from Aisha Saeed’s Written In The Stars
Sephora from Elana K. Arnold’s Infandous
Vanessa from Dahlia Adler’s Under The Lights
Sophie from Tess Sharpe’s Far From You
Emi from Nina LaCour’s Everything Leads To You
Lennie from Jandy Nelson’s The Sky Is Everywhere
Lexi from Jessica Verdi’s The Summer I Wasn’t Me
Alex from Francesca Zappia’s Made You Up
And a TON of others. For real. Emotional bravery is badass. Tweet me your faves!
(via nitatyndall)
summerscourtney:
I’m an author of young adult fiction and I write about girls. My newest novel, All the Rage, examines the shame and silence inflicted on young women in a culture that refuses to protect them. It’s about a girl who is ostracized by her community for speaking up about an assault. The absence of support takes a huge emotional toll on her.
Over the years, I’ve received incredible responses to my work; from readers who love and relate to my female protagonists to readers who wonder what the point of writing about girls is in the first place. I’ve written more in-depth about why I write for girls elsewhere, but the gist of it is this: I write about girls because every girl deserves the opportunity to pick up a book and see herself in its pages. I write about girls because girls, and their stories, matter. It’s my way of letting them know.
On April 14th, 2015, take the opportunity to tell the girls you know—and the ones you don’t—that they are seen, heard and loved. Share advice. Be encouraging. Tell us about or thank the girls in your life who have made a difference in yours. Use the hashtag #ToTheGirls along with your personal message of support and encouragement across your social media platforms (Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram etc).
Please visit http://summerscourtney.tumblr.com/tothegirls to find out how and creative ways to participate. I hope you will!
Last week’s Badass Lady You Should Know continues to prove her badassness.
(via brandycolbert)
I always want to write about the unique pressures girls face. I want to challenge and deconstruct gender-based stereotypes and expectations. I want a girl who picks up my novels to think about those things, and if she’s experienced them, I want her to feel less alone.— Author Courtney Summers on feminism and her work
(Source: katehart.net)
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There used to be a time when everything I didn’t succeed at felt like the end of the world. I thought my failures were final verdicts on my worth, on my value as a human being. But the beautiful thing about failure is that it often presents with it an opportunity to learn and grow and those are the things that bring you to, or closer to, your successes. And if that’s the case, have you really failed?— Author Courtney Summers talks to Kate Hart about bouncing back from failure
(Source: katehart.net)
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Places that inspire author Courtney Summers, this week’s Badass Lady You Should Know – check out her Instagram for more beautiful pictures.
(Source: instagram.com)
What inspires author Courtney Summers, this week’s Badass Lady You Should Know?
3 books:
Jonathan Strange & Mr.
Norrell by
Susanna Clarke
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami
3 songs/albums:
Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
Marina & The Diamonds - The Family Jewels
3 pieces of art/artists:
Beyoncé
Emily Horne & Joey Comeau's A Softer World comics,
especially ones like this: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=1153
David Fincher
3 video games:
Alan Wake
Alien: Isolation
L.A. Noire
3 random facts about Courtney:
I–briefly–had a pet crow.
I’ve encountered what I’m 99% sure was a ghost!
I’m a high school drop-out.
3 things she’d like to learn:
Patience
Excellent time management
The Star Trek movie theme on
the piano
Kate: Who are some badass ladies we need to know & why?
Courtney: I wouldn’t be doing an
interview about being a badass lady without these badass ladies: My mom. She’s
one of the strongest women I know. She’s clever and funny and tough and takes
no bullshit but also possesses the kind of compassion and empathy for people
and their situations that makes me want to be better. Amy Tipton, my literary
agent. Her work ethic inspires me. Her dedication to the books she takes on
reminds me to bring my all to the books I write. Amy’s dedication brought me to
my editor, Sara Goodman, who is also a badass lady, who brings out the absolute
best from those she works with and settles for nothing less.
Also, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Kate Hart, but the fact that she has a
blog championing badass ladies is pretty fucking great. Not only that, but the
work she does with YA Highway and within the book community is exactly what I
think of when people are talking about what a welcoming, generous-hearted place
it is.
(editor’s note: I didn’t pay her to say this. But Courtney is the literal best.)
Kate: What would your superhero costume look like? (Bonus points if you
provide an illustration)
Courtney: My superhero costume looks
exactly like Johnny Depp’s outfit in Secret Window, which I
feel speaks for itself.
Kate: Inspirational quote?
Courtney: “It’s nice to be liked but it’s better by far to get paid.”- Liz Phair
Kate: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever gotten?
Courtney: When my first novel, Cracked
Up to Be, sold, I called my grandmother to tell her the news. I said,
“Can you believe it?” And she said, “Yes."
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COURTNEY SUMMERS was born in Belleville, Ontario in 1986 and currently resides in a small town not far from there. To date, she has authored five novels. Her first novel, Cracked Up to Be, was published when she was 22 and went on to win the 2009 CYBIL award in YA fiction. Since then, she’s published three more books–2011 YALSA Top 10 Quick Pick and White Pine Honour book Some Girls Are, 2012 YALSA Quick Pick Fall for Anything, and 2013 YALSA Top 10 Quick Pick and White Pine Honour book This is Not a Test. Her e-novella, Please Remain Calm (a sequel to This is Not a Test) released in January, and her newest novel, All the Rage (April 2015) is already gathering accolades, including starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.
Follow Courtney:
courtneysummers.ca / summerscourtney.tumblr.com / twitter.com/courtney_s
instagram.com/summerscourtney / facebook.com/CourtneySummersAuthor
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"Badass Ladies You Should Know” is brought to you by Kate Hart (kdhart), author of AFTER THE FALL, coming 2016 from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. If you add her book on Goodreads, she will love you forever.
Sometimes the biggest obstacle on the road to badassery is yourself–it’s that part of you that’s afraid of wanting, receiving, giving, being tough, being vulnerable, speaking out and taking up space and owning it. Get out of your own way.— Courtney Summers's advice to aspiring badasses
(Source: katehart.net)
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Declare yourself a supporter of women. That’s almost too obvious, but it can’t be overstated. Let other women know you’re there for them and BE there for them. Raise them up. Make sure they’re heard. Help them on the path they’re carving out for themselves and I promise you, they will be there to help you on yours.— Courtney Summers on the best way to support other women in her Badass Ladies You Should Know profile
(Source: katehart.net)
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