125 reviews for:

Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real about Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America

Amy Reed, Julie Murphy

4.13 AVERAGE

misssleepless's review against another edition

5.0

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This was phenomenal and extremely powerful.

dizzyiz's review against another edition

4.0

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really good!!! except for Ellen Hopkins' essay. I found that one bad and offensive honestly. but otherwise I really enjoyed it!!!!!

nickoliver's review against another edition

4.0

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I've read this book two weeks ago, so I don't really remember much about each individual story. But I did write down each of my ratings, so here you go:

Sandhya Menon: 3,75/5 stars
Anna-Marie McLemore: 4,5/5 stars
Amy Reed: 5/5 stars
Christine Day: 4,5/5 stars
Sona Charaipotra: 4,5/5 stars
Jaye Robin Brown: 4/5 stars
Brandy Colbert: 3/5 stars
Alexandra Duncan: 3,5/5 stars
Maurene Goo: 4,5/5 stars
Stephanie Kuehnert: 4,75/5 stars
Julie Murphy: 4,75/5 stars
Somaiya Daud: 3,75/5 stars
Nina LaCour: 4,5/5 stars
Aisha Saeed: 4/5 stars
Hannah Moskowitz: 4/5 stars
Ellen Hopkins: 1/5 stars
I.W. Gregorio: 3,5/5 stars
Martha Brockenbrough: 3,75/5 stars
Jenny Torres Sanchez: 3,75/5 stars
Amber Smith: 4,25/5 stars
Tracy Deonn Walker: 4,5/5 stars

Overall, this was really great! I would have loved to have a trans woman included in this list - maybe instead of Ellen Hopkins, who's the only one who makes NO FREAKING SENSE in a book like this. Her essay is basically 'Look what a great ally I am!'. Which is ironic, considering she loves to undermine the voices of marginalized folks, especially people of colour, and thinks it's appropriate to tell their stories for them?
Honestly, just skip her essay. Do yourself a favour.

My favourites were, as the ratings already suggests, the stories of Amy Reed, Julie Murphy and Stephanie Kuehnert. Julie Murphy's story made me squeal with delight, that's what I remember the most.

ashleu's review against another edition

5.0

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While I didn't find all the stories to be perfect, this is such a cohesive collection and I cannot wait to introduce it to everyone.

may's review against another edition

4.0

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Never dismiss your own perspectives. Never question the validity of life in the margins.

This anthology truly lives up to its name: It tells the important and diverse stories of women whose voices have been ignored and smothered but will not take silence anymore.

These stories as a whole all have an underlying message of feminism and female strength and power, and while some authors may share the same marginalization—no two stories or messages are the same and I LOVE that. Each author had something new to contribute and I think they were [almost] all important. (The [almost] is for certain essays.)

Reading through my highlights and notes for this anthology makes me smile and feel inspired, because this collection of essays is so empowering for any and every woman. It’s a highly intersectional anthology that celebrates the voices and stories of marginalized women, and these women build each other up and call for change.

🌹 FAVORITES (in order)

|| Black Girl Unbecoming • Tracy Deonn Walker
|| What I’ve Learned About Silence • Amber Smith
|| Trumps and Trunchbulls • Alexandra Duncan
|| Tiny Battles • Maurene Goo
|| Unexpected Pursuits: Embracing My Creativity, Indigeneity & Creativity • Christine Day
|| Fat and Loud • Julie Murphy

Almost all of the essays in this collection are amazing, but these were my absolute favorites. I 100% recommend you read these pieces, if you read nothing else in this anthology.

🌷 HIGHLIGHTS

I was going to do mini reviews for each essay, but 1) I really don’t have any experience in reviewing nonfiction, and 2) there were… 21 essays and it would be too much for me to write mini reviews for 21 pieces. So I’ll just be talking about the ones that stood out to me and listing my individual ratings for all the essays (without a review).

To go in order of the anthology, Anna-Marie McLemore’s piece was unfortunately one I didn’t much enjoy. It’s about how she, a brown woman, thought she wasn’t worthy of God, and I find that an important narrative to tell, but sadly (because of personal history), it focused too much on Christianity for me. I think it’s a story necessary to tell, but not for me personally.

Christine Day’s essay about finding her creativity and getting in touch with her indigenous identity was one I can connect a lot to. I’m not indigenous, but I relate so much to writing being a form of expression to connect to your identity. And since we literally do not get any indigenous voices in literature, this essay is especially important.

I also completely loved Alexandra Duncan’s piece. It was just... extremely well-written, and I feel like it will be a really cathartic read for abuse survivors. Her discussion of gaslighting (from a perspective of someone who had been gaslighted) and how ingrained it was in society against women was something I’d never read before and I found it highly important.

Maurene Goo’s essay about her experiences with being Asian-American was something I related to so much, and I am forever glad that that piece was included in this anthology. There were things I’d internalized for so long that were addressed in this piece, and seeing that something I’d experienced was not something I’d experienced alone meant a lot to me.

Another essay I really loved was Julie Murphy’s piece on being fat. Her discussion of how she had to be political whether she wanted to or not because of her body was something I think is really important, and she also had a lot of other perspectives on fatness that I found highly significant. And I really appreciate how she highlighted how she was much more privileged as a white woman versus a woman of color, despite not being privileged in other areas.

There were some more essays I didn’t enjoy, however. Hannah Moskowitz’s piece was just one I didn’t get, and while I know that the importance of a piece does not depend on whether or not I, personally, get it—I didn’t really understand at all what she was trying to say? What message she was trying to get across? And what relevance it had to this specific topic? It was weird. I don’t know. I don’t want to say her experience isn’t important (because, hello, dismissive and dehumanizing) but I just was confused. A lot.

Then, there was a just disgusting essay by Ellen Hopkins, who has really proved herself not to be much of a[n intersectional] feminist. Her piece was all about how she accidentally became an activist after seeing how her parents treated marginalized people and realizing her privilege. Congrats, you saw marginalized people suffer and it accidentally turned you into an activist, when marginalized people have had to advocate for themselves because of their mere existence as a marginalized person, while you had privilege problems. (Can you tell I’m annoyed.) I mean, here is an abled, white allocishet woman who is not marginalized in any way, taking up a place that could have been for a trans writer. But I mean, those abled allocishet white women will always be taking up spaces for marginalized people, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And finally, I just didn’t understand what the message was with Martha Brockenbrough’s piece. Like, her piece is titled “Not Like the Other Girls”, and even after having read it, I’m still not quite sure whether or not that was supposed to be ironic? I was just very confused with this essay and did not get what she was trying to say at all.

Luckily, after those few essays that I unfortunately did not like, there were two that were just absolutely amazing. The first is Amber Smith’s piece, and god, it was just so well-written and powerful and touching. It’s a story about sexual assault, but I know it will resonate with more than just sexual assault survivors. It was just. amazing. I can’t describe it in any other way.

And the second essay was Tracy Deonn Walker’s, which was about the expectations put upon her as a black girl and how art helped her fight back, and it was just... amazing. It was my favorite of the whole anthology, and I think it’s just an extremely well-written, inspiring, powerful, and highly important story. I am so glad it was included in this anthology and I cannot wait to read more of Walker’s work.

🌷 SOME COMPLAINTS

I would have liked to have seen even MORE marginalized authors? There were a lot of authors of color, which I appreciate, but there were only a few queer ones. I think the experiences of queer women of color are extremely important and I would have liked to see more queer authors of color. There was also a lack of trans writers, which Amy Reed acknowledged in her foreword, but acknowledging a problem doesn’t solve it. Trans voices and trans stories are extremely important and I really really wish at least one trans author had been included in this anthology.

There were a few other small things that I didn’t like (saying “American Indian” instead of “Native American” [it was like... trying to do word play with “Indian-American and American Indian” which is. not cool in a lot of ways], and a bi author describing her relationship with a man as “hetero” [bi women can define their relationships how they like but it just, to me, reinforces the idea of gay vs. straight relationships with multi-gender-attracted people]), but the second worst thing after the lack of trans writers was the inclusion of a completely non-marginalized author whose story was about accidentally becoming an activist, which was an accident because she was... privileged. I know I already talked about this but I’m pretty sure we all would rather read about a trans woman’s experience than a white abled allocishet woman’s. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Honestly, skip this essay and spare yourself the pain of having to read an essay wanting you to feel bad for a woman realizing how wrong she was to not be an activist before she saw marginalized people suffering.

Luckily, those are pretty much the only complaints I had. I really, really loved this anthology and so many of these stories resonated with me. Reading just a few quotes that I highlighted makes me feel empowered, and I think that says a lot about this collection. Please, if you can, read it, support these [mostly] marginalized authors, and be an intersectional feminist unafraid to make change happen.

🌹 RATINGS

🌷 My Immigrant American Dream by Sandhya Menon • ★★★★☆.5
🌹 Her Hair Was Not of Gold by Anna-Marie McLemore • ★★★☆☆
🌷 Finding My Feminism by Amy Reed • ★★★★☆
🌹 Unexpected Pursuits: Embracing My Indigeneity & Creativity by Christine Day • ★★★★☆.5
🌷 Chilled Monkey Brains by Sona Charaipotra • ★★★★☆
🌹 Roar by Jaye Robin Brown • ★★★★☆
🌷 Easter Offering by Brandy Colbert • ★★★★☆
🌹 Trumps and Trunchbulls by Alexandra Duncan • ★★★★★
🌷 Tiny Battles by Maurene Goo • ★★★★★
🌹 These Words Are Mine by Stephanie Kuehnert • ★★★★☆
🌷 Fat and Loud by Julie Murphy • ★★★★☆.5
🌹 Myth Making: In the Wake of Hardship by Somaiya Daud • ★★★☆☆.5
🌷 Changing Constellations by Nina LaCour • ★★★★☆
🌹 The One Who Defines Me by Aisha Saeed • ★★★★☆
🌷 In Our Genes by Hannah Moskowitz • ★★☆☆☆.5
🌹 An Accidental Activist by Ellen Hopkins • ★☆☆☆☆
🌷 Dreams Deferred and Other Explosions by Ilene (IW) Gregorio • ★★★★☆.5
🌹 Not Like the Other Girls by Martha Brockenbrough • ★★☆☆☆
🌷 Is There Something Bothering You? by Jenny Torres Sanchez • ★★★☆☆.5
🌹 What I’ve Learned About Silence by Amber Smith • ★★★★★
🌷 Black Girl, Becoming by Tracy Deonn Walker • ★★★★★