Off-Campus: Bringing Diverse Lit to Young Readers with Promised Protagonists
Posted on December 16, 2024
In the second installment of our interview series "Off-Campus," WWB's Maggie Vlietstra spoke to Katie Lin, high school student and founder of the youth-led organization Promised Protagonists, which aims to help kids feel reflected in the literature they read. Katie spoke to us about connecting to heritage through books, underrepresented countries in middle-grade lit, and what she’s reading right now.
Tell us about Promised Protagonists. How did you get started? What’s your mission?
Promised Protagonists is an organization created to increase equity in children’s literature! We publish biannual magazine issues filled with diverse middle-grade stories and host a weekly book club. Our mission is for every kid to feel like the protagonist of a story and to learn more about the variety of life experiences through storytelling. The idea came to me toward the end of my freshman year, mainly from my various experiences teaching and reading.
I realized I knew very little about the collective “Asian-American experience” despite being Chinese-American myself, and I was honestly a bit surprised when people would casually bring up their heritage in conversation because I felt almost scared to talk about it. It really was only through reading other literature, these hidden stories taking places in streets or buildings around me I had never entered, that got me thinking I had my own story to tell. And there was so much family history I’d never known about that brought me here. My life wasn’t boring, I had a perspective to bring to the table!
Combined with my love for teaching, I was inspired to focus on middle-grade literature and education. Those upper-elementary years were really important in shaping who I am, and there’s so much perspective to be learned from these kids. I also felt like there were lots of teen writing resources out there, but not many for younger writers, so I hope to change that.
What's one of your favorite resources that Promised Protagonists offers?
Probably our weekly children’s book club. We read a short story each week and learn more about its context, discuss themes, and do a fun activity. I think more people should know that although this is a weekly commitment, we also open up the book club to a larger audience for things like guest speakers. People in professional literary fields come in to lead a book club meeting, which is something I would have loved to see as a kid. For example, one of our upcoming guest speakers is from Words Without Borders! [WWB's Maggie Vlietstra will be visiting the book club in January to discuss the story “It’s a Chick, Not a Dog.” —Eds.]
Does Promised Protagonists have any upcoming events or initiatives we should know about?
Yes! Our literary magazine publishes different stories and art submitted by people across the world. We currently have submissions open for our third issue, and anyone can submit through our website for a chance to be published and receive feedback. I highly recommend WWB Campus readers submit any poetry, articles, short stories, recipes, photos, or artwork they’ve created. We absolutely love looking at all of them.
What’s one language, part of the world, or genre of literature that you’d like to see better represented in classrooms? Why?
I think we definitely need more literature from specific countries instead of always grouping stories by race, which is why I appreciate WWB so much. Even though there are a lot of shared experiences within these groups, it’s important to see the nuances of each story as well. One country I’d like to see better represented is Indonesia. It’s one of the most ethnically diverse countries and it gained independence from both the Netherlands and Japan, which is rarely taught in schools. We’re usually taught that ethnicity is the same as nationality, except for in certain cases like the US. But that’s really not true, and I think literature can help reveal the many different identities within certain groups currently portrayed as homogeneous.
I also feel like middle grade literature about mental health should be more prominent. It’s a common issue a lot of kids face, but it isn’t often talked about at that age because it’s labeled as a more adult struggle. We should definitely work on finding a balance between making stories “appropriate” and addressing the reality youth are actually experiencing.
Finally, what are you reading right now?
I’m just starting Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano! It’s been on my list for a while now, and I’m excited because the book’s been raved about a lot. I love both reading and writing stories surrounding family history, so I feel like it’s something I’d enjoy.
