00:00If you see this acceptable, you belong on a national registry and not a school board.
00:05I knew at some point my book was going to be one that touched a nerve with some parents.
00:10I just didn't imagine it would be across 20 states in the U.S.
00:22I'm not here to tell you how obscene this book is.
00:24It has made national attention because of its obscenity.
00:27Although it can be overwhelming to have literally state governments
00:32coming against you, governors reading your words out of context on television,
00:36I am fighting for this book because there are so many teenagers who still need it.
00:57I have watched students across the nation reach out and publicly say how this book has
01:03impacted them and changed their lives.
01:05Our books are not introducing teenagers to heavy topics.
01:10Teenagers are living in a world that is heavy.
01:13What our books are doing is giving them a resource and a tool
01:17so that they know how to handle those situations, not if they occur, but when they occur.
01:28So I learned about the book ban through Twitter.
01:35There was some white guy who was running to be the head of their school board in Kansas City
01:41and was using my book as his platform as to why he needed to be on the school board,
01:46because he needed to have the power to ban books like mine.
01:49I thought it was funny because it had already been out for 17 months
01:53and had already been read by tens of thousands of people and students.
01:57This book violates the law.
01:59Every single person who wants this book ban are pointing to two sections.
02:04What's interesting is the book is 320 pages.
02:07The sexually graphic parts may make up about three to four pages in its entirety in the book.
02:14And the chapter where I talk about sexual abuse, I'm actually teaching kids about
02:19grooming, teaching kids about consent, non-consent,
02:22and how to name what's happening to them when that situation happens.
02:26And in the section where I'm talking about losing my virginity,
02:29I am also in that section talking about the lack of sex education and how it set me up for failure.
02:49There are a couple things we can do.
02:55One, you have to buy the books that are being banned.
02:57More sales equals more visibility.
03:00So if they block books at high school libraries, but the sales of these books shoot up,
03:04then you will start to see that these books are being placed in airports.
03:08Then you will start to see that our books are being placed at more independent bookstores.
03:11You will see that we get shelf space at the Walmarts and at the Targets and at the big box retailers.
03:16We have to continue to fight it because our stories deserve to be out there.
03:20Our stories matter, and nobody should be able to tell us
03:22that we can't tell truthful stories about our own lived experiences.
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