Article

Maggie Tokuda-Hall – Helping Young Women Find Their Place

March 7, 2022

 

“I’m a children’s and young adult book author, which means I am in a rare industry that’s largely dominated by women. YA is, as a genre, so mature in its intersectional feminism, and so writing within that framework gives authors interested in that incredible leeway to ask difficult questions, to play more with more risk. There will always be a market for books about exceptionally beautiful girls who are deadly with a sword or something, but it’s a real gift not to be limited to that tough girl trope as a market expectation. However, the real world is not our very niche corner of a niche industry, and so there’s this bizarre mismatch between the general world that bumps up against our work and those of us who are immersed within it. And it’s in the moments when that mismatch is most apparent that I feel like it’s possible anything I’ve written could have some minute value in the world; a girl will reach out and tell me she’s come out because of something I wrote. Or she’ll write to tell me that she’d been sexually assaulted, and my goofy book helped her feel like she could talk about it. And it makes me grateful for the many women who’ve made YA what it is. Without them neither myself nor the girls who’ve written to me would have found our place.”
– Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Join us in honoring Reboot Network member Maggie Tokuda-Hall during Women’s History Month.

Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author of Also an Octopus, illustrated by Benji Davies, The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea, Squad, illustrated by Lisa Sterle, and Love in the Library illustrated by Yas Imamura with more books forthcoming. She has a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College, and an MFA in Writing from University of San Francisco. Learn more about Tokuda-Hall at prettyokmaggie.com.