Intersectional Representations of Identities in Queer Children’s Literature

Monica Ahuja, Verrazzano Class of 2024, completed major in Psychology and minors in Disability Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

For my capstone project I decided to take a close look at children’s literature, more specifically representation in queer children’s literature. This project started with my interest in how the content that children consume can have a lasting impact, especially on children that are questioning and beginning to discover who they are. After some discussion with my mentor, we came to the idea of looking at children’s literature as an avenue to explore this concept with a focus on queer children’s literature.

I spent time reading literature related to the topic, identifying books that might be a good fit for this research, read and analyzed these books, and wrote about my findings. It was a joy getting to work with children’s literature and being able to see how much it has changed through the lens of a researcher but also from the perspective of a former child who used to love reading children’s books. In this research we chose to focus on the overall/general representation of the primary characters in the texts but also on how several aspects of identities such as gender, sexuality, race and culture, and socioeconomic status are illustrated. We also looked at the presence or lack of intersectionality in queer children’s literature.

We found that primary characters were often portrayed positively, but there was an overall lack of diversity and development of characters with strong and complex intersectional identities. In other words, there was actually very little discussion about sexuality, race, culture, and class in these stories. And the characters were often one dimensional. Overall, this capstone experience was a positive one. I was able to develop and improve my research and writing skills. I also learned more about the consumption of literature by children in the present. It was also a wonderful experience being mentored by Dr. Hill and having such great guidance and support throughout this process. In the future, this experience will inform how I conduct research and allow me to better understand the world of children’s literature.