Angie Thomas

Michael Brown - when he lost his life, there was more focus on what he had done sometimes than what was done to him.

I think that the more of us who take the time to understand how someone else is feeling, the more likely we are to resist alongside them.

In the YA community, we are fighting for you and alongside you. When you make your voice heard, we're gonna be even louder on your behalf. That's definitely what I would like for teenagers to know. We've got you. We got you. I promise we do.

I knew there were calls for diversity in children's lit, but you always wonder as a person of color, how diverse is too diverse?

Bent Literary Agency had a Q&A on Twitter, and I took a chance and asked if the Black Lives Matter movement was an appropriate topic for a YA novel. Brooks Sherman, who is now my agent, responded that he didn't think any topics were inappropriate for YA. I remember being so terrified even just sending the tweet.

Especially for young POC, when we enter majority-white spaces, we feel the need to assimilate, to blend in, to prove ourselves. I don't think we discuss it enough.

The way you speak should not determine your intelligence. I should be able to say 'lit,' and you still know I'm intelligent. I should be able to say 'turn up,' and that doesn't take away from my intelligence. I wanted to break down that stereotype a little bit.

The transition from unknown to known-in-publishing has been empowering but also challenging. It's an honor to know that people actually want to know what I think about certain issues, but I also have to be careful about what I say or, rather, how I say it. The Internet is forever, y'all.

Representation makes a difference.

Initially, I wanted to write middle grade. YA scared me: there's a lot of responsibility in being a YA author. It's so important to give that age range the right books that reflect their world and show them themselves.

When I was in the YA age range myself, I didn't feel like there were a lot of books for me.

At the time when I was in college, Oscar Grant had just lost his life in Oakland, Calif. He was an unarmed young black male who had a record. And at the time when his death was making headlines, more people were talking about what he had done in his past than the fact that he unjustly lost his life.

When I was in college, I lived in a mostly black, poor neighborhood. That's where I grew up, but I attended a mostly white upper-class school in conservative Mississippi. I was often very aware of how I presented myself.

We're seeing young people find their own voices and find their activism.

A lot of people are quick to say that saying 'black lives matter' makes you anti-cop. All lives should indeed matter, but we have a systemic problem in this country in which black lives do not matter enough.

I think the more we see more officers holding each other accountable, the more we will see people trust cops in this country.

I've always been a huge Tupac fan, and I often listen to him for inspiration or when I'm stuck.

From my anger, frustration, and hurt, I wrote the short story that would later become 'The Hate U Give.'

Literature plays a huge role in examining difficult real-life issues.

Literature births activists.

When I was a kid, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was easy - the next Lisa Leslie.

My maternal grandmother was a star on her high school basketball team in small-town Mississippi.

At 7, I was shooting 3s with so much ease that the guys at the neighborhood park were impressed. Michael Jordan was one of the best humans to walk the earth in my eyes, third only to Jesus and my mother.

Basketball requires discipline. So does writing. Basketball requires practice. So does writing. Basketball requires resilience. So does writing.

I wish when I was 15 that I realized my voice was important and that even my thoughts and my opinions had value. Had I known, I probably would've spoken up more. I probably would've found my activism sooner and become a writer sooner.