Holly Bourne’s advice for aspiring journalists
Calling any aspiring journalists …
Today we’re #TBT to this fab article Holly wrote for literacy charity Booktrust with advice for aspiring journalists. Click the link above for the full article.
Holly works as a journalist for TheSite.org, an advice and information website for 16-25 year olds.
Here at Usborne HQ we’re getting ready for the awesomeness that is the Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC) 17th-19th July.
Holly is going to be at YALC on Sunday 19th and we’ve pulled all the deets together in a super-handy GIF …
You’re welcome.
For full YALC details and programme visit the Booktrust website here. Looking forward to seeing you there!
The first review of Am I Normal Yet? is in! And Paper Trail YA loves it as much as we do! Read the review in full at http://bit.ly/1GWKwBY.
Am I Normal Yet? is out on 1st August 2015! Pre-order your copy now online or at your local independent bookshop.
Follow our 100 Days of Normal Pinterest Board and make sure you never miss a day of posts about the trilogy, Holly’s inspirations, pinable quotes, exclusive extracts, giveaways, and most importantly – cheesy snacks!
You’d be forgiven for thinking the internet is just a massive steaming turd of patriarchy, where any girl on it with an opinion is told she’s ugly and deserves to get sexually assaulted …
… While that is true to some degree – the interweb is also hosting all sorts of incredible grassroots feminism movements. From the campaign to get women on our banknotes, to the EveryDay Sexism project, there’s a whole lot of very good feminism happening online. Here are my favourite websites to surf when The Man (literally) is getting me down.
1) The Vagenda
The two girls who started this blog – Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett – literally have no fear. And they’re so much the more hysterically funny for it. The Vagenda started out by taking the piss out of the ridiculous expectations shoved upon us from women’s mags, and has grown from there. They are not afraid to call SEXIST BULLSH*T the moment something…umm…sexist and bullsh*tty…crops up. Their most recent wins were encouraging girls to deface those gruesome Are You Beach Body Ready? adverts, and making the #DistractinglySexy hashtag trend in response to a sexist comment about women in Science.
The fact that I ever-so-occasionally write for them is, does, of course, have nothing to do with why I love it so.
Best article: Why being a Cosmo-girl seems just really bloody knackering
2) Hollaback
Ever been cat-called or sexually-harassed while out walking and come away from it feeling:
A) Angry?
b) scared?
c) Confused?
d) Ashamed of what you were wearing?
e) Angry at yourself for not saying anything?
f) Alone…?
g) All of the above?
Then Hollaback is the online hug you’ve been looking for!
Women can mark where they were harassed on a map and then share their story of what happened to them. Other women can then click a button to let you know they ‘have your back’. You instantly feel less isolated, and the website is also an incredible piece of ongoing research into how out-of-control street harassment is.
3) Reductress
Literally the best piece of women’s mag satire I’ve ever come across. And the most detailed. And the most hilarious. At first glance you think it’s just another girly lifestyle website…then you realise they’re completely playing you in the darkest, most brilliant way possible. I have to regularly sit on my hands to stop myself re-tweeting every single article they publish.
Best article: I am not a feminist but I do think all men should die
4) YouTube
WHAT?! I hear you warble. Have you not SEEN the comments section of every single YouTube video ever? It’s like rape comments BRED with death-threats to make SUPER-TERRIFYING-WE-ALL-HATE-WOMEN threats – a bit like that scene in Lord of The Rings when Saruman breeds super-orcs.
But, among the terrifying misogyny, there are some totally kick-ass vloggers, using their channels and reach to make some totally kick-ass points about feminism. And totally owning it.
Best vids: Do I Look Like A Slut? by Hannah Witton
If Tampon Adverts Were Honest by Emma Blackery
CONSENT by Jack and Dean
Unfortunately, my beloved book industry, is just as sexist as all the other places out there. Books written by women are still seen as ‘fluffy’ or ‘frivolous’ compared to male-authored works. Most texts in the English Literature curriculum are written by men. And, even books ABOUT women don’t’ fare much better. The Pulitzer Prize, the top literature award ever, hasn’t had a winning book that’s about a woman since 2000. For Book’s Sake exists to counter-balance this – to help get women’s book taken more seriously. I’m so grateful it exists!
Best article: Race In The Hunger Games – why Katniss was a Woman of Colour
Are Happily-ever-afters in YA Novels Bad for Teenagers’ Love Lives?
Today we’re TBT’ing to an article Holly wrote for The Huffington Post on Happily-ever-afters in YA novels. We love it and think you will too.
Click on the link above and happy reading!
Congratulations to @eleanorford on Twitter – the very lucky
winner of the signed copy of THE MANIFESTO ON HOW TO BE INTERESTING. Happy reading!
There will be lots more opportunities to win copies of Holly’s books – so stay tuned and be sure to follow Holly on Twitter (@Holly_BourneYA).
Read the first chapter of THE MANIFESTO ON HOW TO BE INTERESTING at www.usborne.com/readmanifesto.
One of the best things about being an author is how much time you get to shamelessly hang out in bookstores. Since my first book, Soulmates, was published, I’ve met so many INCREDIBLE booksellers who’ve created thriving reading communities all around the country.
This week is Independent Bookshop Week – a week where we can celebrate all the cute/quirky/gorgeous/eccentric and just downright-ruddy-brilliant indie bookstores. So I thought I’d share my top 3 favourite indies that I’ve come across on my travels. Note: it was HARD getting it down to three.
1) Shakespeare & Company, Paris
Two of my bookish dreams as a child were,
a) To have a library like the Beast’s out of Beauty and The Beast, and,
b) For said library to have one of those whizzy ladders that goes along the bookshelves like out of Bedknobs and Broomsticks
So, on a trip to Paris I was awestruck when I stumbled into Shakespeare and Co. and realised my dream book-arrangement actually exits. This place just HEAVES with character, and books, so many books. Crammed into nooks and crannies and up-to-the-ceiling. It’s so charming and cosy that it’s a scientific impossibility to come out of this place without a new book clutched in your hand.
I had just signed with my literary agent when I went there and about to go on submission. I remember finding the cute children’s section, staring at the YA shelves, and thinking, “maybe just maybe this book-publishing thing will come off and my book will be here one day”.
I can’t wait for the day when hopefully I can go back and see my own books there.
2) Tales On Moon Lane, London
I spent two years living in Herne Hill and just minutes away from this cosy independent children’s bookshop. It was one my favourite things about living there (that and the local Fish and Chip shop, but that’s another list). It was also very dangerous financially as I kept ‘popping in’ to ‘have a look’ and coming out with a bag stuffed full of kids books. There’s a lot of doom-mongering about the death of bookshops in our amazon-era, but you don’t see any evidence of that in TOML. Whatever time of day you went in, there was always a line of excitable kids at the counter, begging their parents to buy more books than the armfuls they were already cradling.
3) Storytellers Inc. Lytham St Annes
Visiting this bookshop in the beautiful seaside town of Lytham was my highlight of my first ever book tour. I went to talk at their teen book club, and still to this day, remain jealous I didn’t have one when I was a teen. Honestly – there was pizza and book chat and a SECRET DEN. What else does a 14-year-old bibliophile need on a Friday night? It helps massively that Creative Director, Katie, shares the same encyclopaedic knowledge of the Angus, Thongs, and Full-frontal Snogging series as me.
What’s your favourite independent book store? Do let me know over on Twitter @holly_bourneYA.
About IBW
Independent Bookshop Week (20th to 27th June 2015) is part of the Books Are My Bag
campaign, and seeks to celebrate independent bookshops in the UK and
Ireland. We do this with events, celebrations, reading groups,
storytelling, author signings, literary lunches and face painting! Your
local bookshop will have their own way of celebrating, and we encourage
you to visit to celebrate with them.
