the disturbing trends of YA cover girls

By: Stephanie Campisi

Wandering the young adult literature shelves these days is a Warholian experience: selecting a handful of books within the same subgenre and placing them side by side can yield results not unlike Andy's multi-coloured Campbell's Soup print.

At first glance, the plethora of similar covers speaks merely of a combination of slashed design budgets and a “me-too” mindset. But further analysis shows that these covers are not simply perpetuating the overuse of iStock photo images, but also a number of highly problematic messages.

The first of these is the headless heroine, which though perfectly suitable for a retelling of Sleepy Hollow is less so for other types of fiction. This approach to cover design involves photographic covers depicting women whose heads have been either partially or wholly cropped. Ostensibly this is to allow the reader to “imagine” the character, but in reality the result is objectification and dehumanisation—and often with lashings of frothy bubblegum pink

Fortunately, these types of designs have been subject to a high degree of scrutiny and criticism, and is slowly waning as the stylistic choice du jour. But that's not to say that the subsequent trends are any more positive.

Currently rife throughout the paranormal subgenre is the “sicky lass in pretty gown” cover trend. These covers--and owing to the overall popularity of this genre there are a disturbing number of them--typically comprise a pale-skinned girl dressed in a formal gown and being positioned in such a way that she seems utterly without agency. It's not unusual for these covers to depict girls swooning, lying helplessly on the ground, or leaping—one presumes—to oblivion. Indeed, Rachel Stark (assistant marketing manager of Bloomsbury and Walker Books for young readers) describes these covers as as representative of our “obsession with an elegant death”.

Such covers go beyond the issues raised by the headless heroine trend in that not only do they objectify the subject, but they seem to be normalising violence, and particularly romantic violence—which in this genre is all too often depicted as an “all-consuming” relationship to the detriment of (most usually) the heroine.

However, while some elements are overrepresented in young adult cover design, others are underrepresented, one of which being the use of people of colour in cover design. Admittedly, there are proportionally too few POC in young adult fiction generally, but even taking this into account the representation of such characters on book covers has been one that has invited much discussion and debate. Anecdotally, it seems that covers featuring POC main characters are less likely to receive a photographic cover. In addition, cases of “white washing” aren't unheard of: Justine Larbalestier's Liar Liar, which was originally released (in the US) with a white cover model despite having a POC main character is one case that received a good deal of attention.

But not all publishers are getting it wrong. In the past year there have been a number of evocative covers that don't rely on any of the above in their appeal to their audience. Take, for example, the stunning The Sky is Everywhere, which is elegant and evocative, Cath Crowley's eye-catching Graffiti Moon (which won an APA book design award) or Lia Weston's The Fortunes of Ruby White, or the two examples below of Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains. These, of course, are just a few of the many excellent designs out there—and with luck publishers will consider the issues raised by their cover designs and ensure that covers like these prevail.

Stephanie is a reviewer for 'Read in a Single Sitting'