no one talks about how rick riordan literally scammed disney
dead ass pjo was that seemingly “normal” kids fantasy series with a seemingly white straight kid saving the world and it’s a fucking success. percy jackson? iconic! ppl fucking love percy and his character and then hoo comes out? everyone is pumped bc everyone is in love with that world. the first book? two main bad ass poc characters. the second book? two more bad ass poc characters! the fourth book and there’s literally a gay character and it’s not like disney could say no. hoo ends and then there’s magnus chase and ppl are fucking pumped bc that’s annabeth chase’s cousin and in the first book there’s a muslim girl and by the second book there’s a transgender and genderfluid character. trials of apollo? a main gay couple in a happy relationship and a fucking bi character. could disney say no? no. literal 10 year olds are reading books with heaps of representation all published by disney. rick riordan played the game. you step in thinking ur just gonna get white cishets and you walk out surrounded by different cultures and rainbows.
tldr; rick started out with the basic pasty white and straight series which got hella successful and used his success to pusblish more books and allow only one (1) cishet and only one (1) white
i doubt he planned it but deadass it would be so funny if that’s what happened
I saw him speak on /writing in the UK right before (or early in on when) his series hit it big. Planned. Definitely planned.
Thousand percent planned. Also Percy? Has a learning disability. RR’s son inspired him to write bc he is ADHD and dyslexic. This was all planned. He is all about inclusivity and representation.
He also makes his books incredibly funny, which is rather rare for YA and makes them more accessible to kids who don’t really like to read. In addition to having loads of POV character who have trouble reading themselves.
For those who’ve been living under a YA rock, this is Rick Riordan:
(this was the gay character in the second series)
(and the trans character in a later series)
Let’s not forget that he has an interest in the mythologies of other countries, but instead of writing them himself promotes other writers through his “Rick Riordan Presents” publishing imprint to do so!
being a brown girl and growing up w white friends was so painful, when i have a daughter im going to do everything i can to make sure she grows up with other brown girls
there’s so much shame and humiliation in being a brown teenager surrounded by white girls. when i went through puberty it wasnt same as my friends
like they just…..grew, they got breasts and hips and kept it moving. i got facial hair before any of the boys we knew. my body hair was (and is still) dark, thick, prominent and all over.
my closest friend saw my pubic hair in the girls changing room and told the entire school about it. someone asked me if i was secretly a man. i went home that day, my 12th birthday, and held back tears as my family cut my cake. i leaned too far over my work in art class causing my shirt to hitch up and my back to be exposed, i didn’t notice until the laughter of the group of boys behind me was loud enough.
there’s so much shame in being brown and having body hair. there’s so much self-hatred towards the natural state of our bodies. so when i see white women (whose bodies mine has always been dichotomised against) partaking in body hair activism that doesn’t acknowledge this, when i see those tiny tufts of wispy thin blonde armpit hair dyed bright pastel colours, i feel no empowerment and no liberation - just the pain i’ve always felt within my own natural body.
I want my heart to stop hurting over the littlest things. I want to spend the night without being overwhelmed with sadness. I want to stop having doubt and insecurities and I want someone to love me and not get sick of reassuring me I’m not just an added annoyance to their life
as a procrastinating overachiever i feel like i don’t necessarily “half-ass” things, it’s more like a “3/4 ass”. like overall did i do pretty well? yeah. did i reach my maximum potential though? i think the fuck Not.
