My freshman year of college, 'The Hunger Games' movie adaptation came out, and I was really excited about it. This was maybe 2011. I loved it, but there was a lot of hateful backlash against the black characters in the film. Tomi Adeyemi More Quotes by Tomi Adeyemi More Quotes From Tomi Adeyemi The knowledge and insights you can get in just one day at a writers' conference make it worth the trip. Tomi Adeyemi day you one-day knowledge You can make something out of every unfinished story and every rejection if you work at it. Tomi Adeyemi story you rejection work If you want to write, just believe that you can, because it's about perseverance. Tomi Adeyemi you perseverance want believe Children of color need a mirror to see themselves in. And then people who don't have that experience, they need a window. They need a really personalized way to see what people who are different from them are going through. Tomi Adeyemi mirror experience children people Imagination is a funny thing - we sometimes need to see something before we can truly picture it. Tomi Adeyemi picture imagination sometimes funny For readers of color, and especially black readers, black girls, I just want them to feel seen. And not just seen - I want them to feel epic and know that they are epic. Tomi Adeyemi feel know black color I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star. I want her to know that she's beautiful, and she matters, and she can have a crazy, magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger. Tomi Adeyemi day black girl beautiful Death is something that I am still trying to figure out a healthy relationship with. Tomi Adeyemi i-am trying relationship death I grew up in a predominantly white community - Hinsdale, Illinois - and given that, I feel blessed because I could still count my experiences with blatant racism on two hands. I thought racism was the substitute teacher picking on you because she assumes that you're a delinquent, and she doesn't know you have the highest score in the class. Tomi Adeyemi you racism blessed teacher We've been told the same story for so long. We've seen literally 1,000 'Lord of the Rings' movies. Tomi Adeyemi movies story lord long My very first story, I was around 5, and I really just wrote myself. When I was 5, I loved myself so much I gave myself a twin named Tomi. Everything started out fine. But then I didn't write another black character until I was 18. Tomi Adeyemi loved myself black character I spent 12 years of my life writing stories without black people. That's insane to me. It's insane that I could have believed in magical portals and dragons and all that stuff, but to believe a black person could be experiencing those things was unimaginable. Tomi Adeyemi my-life me life people There's so much talk of representation in politics and entertainment - it's everywhere - but I didn't realize representation was important until really my senior year of high school. Tomi Adeyemi high-school politics important school In terms of people who want to be writers, I wish more people knew how much work it was. Tomi Adeyemi i-wish wish work people Every first draft sucks, so when you have your favorite novel, and you're like, 'Wow, this is a masterpiece,' and then you write your first draft, and you're like, 'This is really bad,' and then you're like 'I can't do this because this is nowhere close.' When, in reality, the book you loved so much started out just as crappy. Tomi Adeyemi loved you book reality 'Children of Blood and Bone' is basically 'Black Panther' with magic. Tomi Adeyemi magic black children blood The power of fantasy is that you can make people understand the deeper realities of our world in a way that they wouldn't normally be able to because of all the things in our world that closes them off. Tomi Adeyemi you power people world What's demanded from us black creatives is both a blessing and a curse, because it pushes you to be your absolute best. You cannot be anything less. Tomi Adeyemi best you black blessing Part of the reason everyone is freaking out over 'Black Panther' is because we've never seen it. We have two thousand years of stories, and we've never seen it. Tomi Adeyemi everyone never black reason I had a lot of different reasons for writing the book, but at its core was the desire to write for black teenage girls growing up reading books they were absent from. That was my experience as a child. 'Children of Blood and Bone' is a chance to address that. To say you are seen. Tomi Adeyemi you experience black children
