Ep. 66: Amelie Wen Zhao and WTF Is Up With YA Twitter?

This week, Amelie Wen Zhao had to self-cancel (or self-delay) her upcoming novel Blood Heir due to backlash on YA Twitter about all sorts of things, ranging from allegations of racist scenes to her own vindictiveness towards anyone who left her bad reviews. This isn't the first time such things have happened in the YA world. Now, both the social justice and anti-SJW forces are using Zhao to advance their agendas. Jess, Diana, Oxford, and Mark discuss why the moral stakes seem so high in the YA sphere and how an Asian woman is forced to navigate it. Intro/Outro Music: Panem Anthem from "The Hunger Games" Intro Voice Track: "Blood Heir Controversy" by Francina Simone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4S1p3KtZSw&t=83s) TWITTER: Jess (@cogitatotomato) Diana (@discoveryduck) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Mark (@snbatman) REFERENCED RESOURCES: The Toxic Drama of YA Twitter: https://www.vulture.com/2017/08/the-toxic-drama-of-ya-twitter.html YA Twitter Forces Rising Star to Self-Cancel: https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/ya-twitter-forces-rising-star-author-to-self-cancel.html How A Twitter Mob Destroyed A Young Immigrant Author's Budding Career (by Jesse Singal): https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/279806/how-a-twitter-mob-destroyed-a-young-immigrant-female-authors-budding-career Quillette Podcast 14 – Kat Rosenfield on the mobbing of Amélie Wen Zhao: https://quillette.com/2019/02/01/quillette-podcast-14-kat-rosenfield-on-the-mobbing-of-amelie-wen-zhao/ Children's Bookshelf's tweet on the Zhao controversy: https://twitter.com/pwkidsbookshelf/status/1091013855218667520?s=21 Will Menaker's tweet on the Zhao controversy: https://twitter.com/willmenaker/status/1091064621883113472?s=21 Jesse Singal's tweet on the Zhao controversy: https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1090474475676753921 Celeste Ng Is More Than A Novelist: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/books/celeste-ng-everything-i-never-told-you-little-fires-everwhere.html SUBMISSIONS AND COMMENTS: editor.planamag@gmail.com