Overheard a librarian say the most challenged book in her county last year was a graphic novel about puberty

That really hit me because I used to sneak read those same kinds of books under my desk in middle school and now I wonder how many kids today still get that same chance.

3 comments

3 Comments

grant7282mo ago

Oh man, that's wild but also kinda makes sense. I mean, puberty is already this awkward mystery for kids and a graphic novel makes it way less scary to actually look at and learn from. It's crazy to think that something meant to help kids understand their own bodies gets banned, like adults forget how confusing it all was for them back then. Maybe it's just me but I feel like the more we try to hide this stuff from kids, the more they just find it online anyway where it's way less accurate and way weirder. Kind of makes you wonder if the whole challenge thing is really about protecting kids or just making adults feel more comfortable.

kevin_schmidt972mo ago

Man, I still don't know what's happening down there and I'm thirty.

umabailey21d ago

Exactly. It's like people forgot what it was actually like being a kid and being totally confused about everything happening to your body. The whole "protecting children" angle is honestly just a cover for adults being uncomfortable with their own kids becoming sexual beings, which is just reality. Schools having these books and resources actually takes the pressure off parents to have those awkward conversations themselves, which a lot of them can't handle anyway. Banning stuff just makes it this forbidden mystery that kids will go dig up online in the worst possible formats, like weird YouTube videos or worse, actual porn where everything is fake and unrealistic. Let kids learn from age-appropriate comics and books written by actual experts instead of leaving them to figure it out from internet randos and 5th grade gossip.