I think that it’s necessary and important — actually crucial — to include joy when writing, especially when writing for young people. And I don’t equate joy with happy endings or everything works out just fine because that’s not life. And I write mostly realistic fiction. So I do have the responsibility to be honest and to keep it real, but I think that joy is a part of our lives and that even on the worst day, even the worst week you’re having, there is a moment of grace. There are moments of calm and of peace. And so I try to make sure that my work is balanced with that one because I just believe it’s true. And I think it’s important to help young people find the joy. It might not be the obvious thing right away of what you could be grateful for or where the grace is in a moment, but if you look for, you will find it.
And I think that’s important, especially if young people are dealing with trauma or something really hard, then it’s important to say, you are not what happened to you. You can move past this moment. And that there is a way forward. And so I think often I say this quote so many times, one of my favorite quotes that keeps me anchored and keeps me going by Maya Angelou that says, my greatest hope is to laugh as much as I cry. So she does not hope that there will be no tears. In fact, it sounds like she knows there’s like this guaranteed resolution in her that I know that there will be tears. I just also hope I get to laugh along the way too. And so that’s something I think about a lot in my books is how can I help young people see the balance of their lives, find the things to be grateful for, and also how joy can be resistance, how you can say, yeah, life is hard.
And I’ve been through a lot. I’m going through a lot, and the fact that I still get up and choose to laugh and smile and choose to do something kind for someone else, that is my way of resisting and saying, I’m still here. This will not destroy me. This will not take me down. And I think that that is a great strength, and I think young people need that skill to practice the muscle of using joy as a weapon, also against hate and against sadness, against despair. I come from a people who sang in the fields while they were picking cotton, and yes, they sang to give messages about where to meet up and things like that, but they were also singing, I think, to keep themselves from despair. And so I think that helping young people tap into that kind of strength and that kind of joy is a powerful thing to give them.