It’s already known that I’m an avid Tumblr user. For the most part, if I’m not breaking my thumb scrolling through tumblr, it is highly likely that I’m on the booksite Wattpad. Wattpad is a site where people can upload stories and get feedback through likes and votes.If a story has a lot of likes and votes there is a strong possibility that it will actually get published. I’ve seen quite a few books I read on Wattpad on the shelves of Barnes and Noble, while others have become e-books sold on Amazon. Some even gain the momentum, after publishing to become movies. All though I love Wattpad, I’ve recently noticed that the majority of the stories I’ve read have had an all-white cast. Majority of the stories start off with a Caucasian heroine with blonde hair and blue eyes, or there is a switch up and she’s a brunette with hazel eyes. Rarely have I read a story with a black, Asian, or Indian main character. Almost every LGBTQ+ book is about a Caucasian couple. The occasional person of color is mentioned and even then that character is just the perpetuation of a stereotype. I’ve read stories where the Indian kid was the top of the class and only cared about grades, the Chinese girl was the best at math and science, the black girls were braid-wearing loud mouths, and the Hispanic guys within the story only referred to girls as mamacita and were in gangs. If I do find a story with a black main character she is mixed or there is an emphasis on her curvy shape, “full lips”, caramel skin and straight hair. People have become aware of the lack of diversity on Wattpad and stories can be found with POC casts; however, these stories are less popular and therefore hard to find.

http://www.cbcdiversity.com/post/131694482968/the-importance-of-role-models-and-being

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0506/Lack-of-diversity-in-book-world-continues-to-stir-debate-video