Lisa Larson-Walker

When Becky Albertalli published her first young adult novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, with the HarperCollins imprint Balzer and Bray in 2015, she never expected it to be controversial. Shed worked for years as a clinical psychologist specializing in gender nonconforming children and LGBTQ teens and adults.*Yet her bookabout a closeted gay kid whose love notes to a classmate fall into the wrong handscontained a moment that rubbed readers the wrong way: Simon, the sweet but clueless protagonist, muses that girls have an easier time coming out than boys, because their lesbianism strikes others as alluring. At a book signing, several people approached Albertalli to complain that the scene played too readily into a narrative theyd heard many times before. Online, commenters condemned the fetishization of queer girls in the book as offensive. Albertalli hadnt originally given the passage a second thought: the character was obviously unworldly; elsewhere, he asserts that all Jews come from Israel. But in the latter exchange, readers pointed out, Simons Jewish friend immediately corrects him. The lesbian line, a snippet from the narrators interior monologue, receives no such rebuttal.

Katy Waldman is a Slate staff writer.

Albertalli felt crushed that her book had alienated members of the exact community she had hoped to reach. When she began to craft her second novel, The Upside of Unrequited, about twin sisters navigating the shoals of high school romance, she was determined not to make the same mistake. And so before her manuscript went to print, she reached out to a group of sensitivity readers. These advising angelspart fact-checkers, part cultural ambassadorsare new additions to the book publishing ecosystem. Either hired by individual authors or by publishing houses, sensitivity readers are members of a minority group tasked specifically with examining manuscripts for hurtful, inaccurate, or inappropriate depictions of that group.

On the site Writing in the Margins, which launched in 2012, the author Justina Ireland articulates the goal of this new fleet of experts: to point out the internalized bias and negatively charged language that can arise when writers create outside of [their] experiences. In April of last year, Ireland built a public database where freelance sensitivity readers can list their name, contact information, and expertise. These areas of special knowledge are generally rooted in identity (queer woman, bisexual mixed race, East Asian, Muslim) as well as in personal histories of mental illness, abuse and neglect, poverty, disability, or chronic pain.

Albertalli totaled 12 sensitivity reads for her second novel on LGBTQ, black, Korean American, anxiety, obesity, and Jewish representation issues.

As a push for diversity in fiction reshapes the publishing landscape, the emergence of sensitivity readers seems almost inevitable. A flowering sense of social conscience, not to mention a strong market incentive, is elevating stories that richly reflect the variety of human experience. Americaspecifically young Americais currently more diverse than ever. As writers attempt to reflect these realities in their fiction, they often must step outside of their intimate knowledge. And in a cultural climate newly attuned to the complexities of representation, many authors face anxiety at the prospect of backlash, especially when social media leaves both book sales and literary reputations more vulnerable than ever to criticism. Enter the sensitivity reader: one more line of defense against writers tone-deaf, unthinking mistakes.

In one draft, Albertalliwho totaled 12 sensitivity reads for her second novel on LGBTQ, black, Korean American, anxiety, obesity, and Jewish representation issues, among othershad described a characters older sibling, a black college student, as a bro, the kind of frat boy shed gone to school with in Connecticut. In my head, he was part of that culture, she says. But the two women of color reading the manuscript whipped out their red pens. Without consulting each other, they were both independently like, Nope. Thats not a thing, Albertalli recalls. Historically black colleges have a wildly different conception of Greek life, with fraternity members resembling superstar athletes more than dudes doing keg stands. So, yeah, Albertalli (who characterizes herself as white, chubby, Jewish, anxious) finished sheepishly, I definitely had to rethink that character.

Removing the frat boy brushwork from Albertallis draft turned out to be a simple fix. But sensitivity reading often raises more delicate tonal questions. There are issues of framing to consider: Is the book about the girl struggling with her weight too much about a girl, well, struggling with her weight? Does a characters reference to his shrink denigrate therapy? The author Nic Stone, who is currently penning a novel about a girl with bipolar disorder (and who herself served as a sensitivity reader on race issues for Jodi Picoult), stressed that her sensitivity readers completely changed the scope of her book. Shed realized, she said, in my attempts to de-stigmatize the illness by getting as much of its manifestations on the page [as I could], Id wound up making the book more about the illness than about the girl living with it.

Some publishing houses provide their own sensitivity readers, particularly in genressuch as young adult literaturewhere the industry feels protective of its audience. Stacy Whitman, who helms the middle-grade imprint of Lee & Low Books, explained that on most manuscripts her team consults a plexus of cultural experts theyve discovered through networking and research. The responses flow back to the author as part of the editorial process, and each reader earns a modest honorarium. (The site Writing in the Margins recommends $250 per manuscript as a starting fee.) By the time Whitman started at Lee & Low in 2010, she told me, seeking input from reviewers with firsthand knowledge of minority traditions and experiences had already become standard practice at the company.

The sensitivity reader is one more line of defense against writers tone-deaf, unthinking mistakes.

Authors and publishers may send off manuscripts for sensitivity reads at different stages in the writing and editing process. Early on, according to Albertalli, a writer might seek out feedback on her broader concept; as the project advances, particular phrases or details come under inspection. Albertalli cites the Nazi-Jewish refugee love story in one 2014 romance novel as an example of a premise that she believes should have been swiftly kiboshed. Lower-level gaucheries can be weeded out later. The timing is tricky, she said. You dont want to submit your draft too late and find out that your entire concept is problematic, but if you solicit the reading too early, you risk publishing a book full of microaggressions.

Sensitivity readers, Ireland insists on her website, are NOT a guarantee against making a mistake. The vetters are individualsthey cannot comprehensively sum up the meaning of a group identity for a curious author. One Iraqi woman might be charmed by allusions to a characters almond-shaped eyes; her friend might find the phrase clichd and exoticizing. Theres danger, too, that majority writers might grow too comfortable outsourcing the task of representation to advisers from marginalized groups. (Ive written a book. You fix it, this boogeyman scribbler declares.) Indeed, for the readers themselves, it can be grueling work. Angel Cruz, who advises on Filipino culture, the diaspora, and Catholicism, described sensitivity reading as emotional/mental labor. As the first line of defense against writers unexamined prejudice, she said, you do take one for the team in absorbing visceral blows that can land close to home. Freelance sensitivity reader Elizabeth Roderick, who concentrates on bipolar disorder, PTSD, and psychosisIm here to show the world that Im not, in fact, wearing a tinfoil hat, she jokedtakes aim at language that paints mentally ill characters as violent, completely unbalanced, and with evil motives.

Roderick has had a largely positive experience as a sensitivity reader. But authors, she said, can sometimes get slightly defensive. Evaluating one manuscript about a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia who escaped from an institution and went on a murder spree, she felt that this was not only clich; it wasnt a good representation of what schizophrenic people are like. The character didnt ring true or deep to me, Roderick said. She recommended changes to both the sick woman and the diagnosis. The author protested: If the story didnt have an antagonist, it wouldnt be very interesting.

Its not hard to imagine why sensitivity readers could potentially put authors in a difficult position. After all, where would we be if these experts had subjected our occasionally outrageous and irredeemable canonMoby Dick or Lolita or any other classic, old, anachronistic bookto their scrutiny? Plenty of fictionPortnoys Complaint, or Martin Amis Moneyis defined in part by a narrators fevered misogyny. Novels like Huckleberry Finn derive some of their intrigue and complexity from the imperfections of their social vision. In Portnoy, for instance, Philip Roth wanted the objectifying gaze of his protagonistwhich by default becomes our gaze, since we apprehend the world through himto make us uncomfortable. Perhaps he even wanted us to use the dubious precepts expressed in the novel to clarify our own beliefs.

Some sensitivity readers draw distinctions between offensive descriptions and offensive descriptions that appear to enjoy the blessing of the author. If Lolita had been written from Dolores point of view, Ireland said, it might be useful to have an advocate of childrens rights, a childhood sexual assault survivor, or a psychologist read the manuscript and give critique; but since it was told from the perspective of a pedophilenot regarded as a marginalized groupthat wasnt necessary. Still, its a messy project for one reader to suss out authorial intent. While sensitivity remains a positive value in most literature, and perhaps one of the greatest priorities for young adult literature, enforcing it at the expense of other merits, including invention, humor, or shock, might come at a cost. Cultural sensitivities fluctuate over time. What will the readers of the future make of ours?

Even these readers acknowledge the risks of overpolicing artists if the practice were to be taken to the extreme. Of course thats a danger, Roderick said. Art is a mode of free expression, and if you put constraints on it, it can become stilted and contrived. The hassle and potential discomfort of soliciting such feedback could theoretically have a chilling effect on writers working up the courage to venture outside themselves. If authors are frightened of offending members of a diverse group, and having to deal with the horrible outrage that can ensue in those situations, she said, then theyre definitely going to shy away from writing diverse characters.

But the fact remains that stories about straight, able-bodied (not to mention attractive, financially secure) teenagers far outnumber the alternatives. Though authors from all backgrounds use sensitivity readers, the stomach-churning image of a white person wafted down the path to literary achievement by invisible minorities remains. Thats one reason that many of the same stakeholders eager to standardize sensitivity readings as an industry norm are also fervent supporters of own voices work. (Named for a hashtag created by YA author Corinne Duyvis, this label applies to literature that both concerns and is produced by members of sidelined populations.) The idea behind sensitivity reading is not to strong-arm novelists or force their imaginations into preapproved play zones, Stone explained; its to smooth the process of representing otherness. An authentic book, she said, isnt the same as [a politically] correct one. In her opinion, the goals of sensitivity reading actually align with those of good artto create a layered and truthful portrait, whether or not it ruffles some sensibilities. Who could object, she suggests, to a procession of To Kill a Mockingbirds that evince a bit more alertness to the nuances of minority experience?

In Albertallis case, a sensitivity readers note ultimately produced a bright spot in her novel. The Upside of Unrequited features a queer teenager named Cassie who happens to have two mothers. While the reader, a bisexual woman, assured Albertalli that her treatment of the character hadnt hit any sour notes, she saw an opening for an interesting confrontationa challenge to one of societys more maddening myths about gay parents. On her advice, Albertalli had a student named Evan, this really douche-y guy, suggest to Cassie that her family had raised her to be queer. When he makes the comment, hes met by awkward silence; its clear that the other characters firmly disapprove. Albertalli was happy to orchestrate the teachable moment. And in the end, she realized it wasnt just a socially conscious improvement but a narrative one: Personally, she said, I loved that moment in the book.

*Correction, Feb. 8, 2017: This piece originally misstated that Becky Albertalli worked with gender-fluid teens in her therapy practice. She worked with gender nonconforming kids and LGBTQ teens and adults. (Return.)

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