By Ellen Madden
Angie Thomas was born on the twentieth of September 1988 in Mississippi, America. Thomas is well known for being a young adult American writer who witnessed a lot of gun violence growing up. In her teenage years, she became a rapper but decided to end that part of her life after a short while. Later, she became the first black teenager to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Belhaven University.
While in college, one of her professors recommended Angie to write about her growing-up and her experiences. Through her books, she hopes to uncover various truths and stereotypes.
As Angie Thomas wrote her various books, she believed it was important to show activism through her novels, such as showing different lives and uncovering stereotypes. At the same time, trying her best to respect Black Lives Matter and their organisation. An example is The Hate U Give, where she voiced how something so political can become extremely personal and how being wrongly labelled can hurt your rememberence.
The Hate U Give was the first book Angie Thomas wrote in 2017. This novel was very eye-opening towards Black Lives Matter. However, due to this storyline, Katy Independent School District in Texas and the South Carolina Police Union got this novel removed from the bookshelves and booklist due to profanity complaints and readers’ possible distrust towards cops. This did not stop Thomas from releasing an award-winning prequel, Concrete Rose, in 2021.
On the Come Up was published in February 2019 and discussed the negative aspects of women and minorities speaking up in society. Due to its popular demand, it received a New York Times bestseller and Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult novel.
Blackout was co-written with various writers, such as Tiffany D. Jackson and Ashley Woodfolk. These 6 authors wrote about teen love during a power outage in the Big Apple, New York City.
It is important to note that Angie Thomas faced a lot of backlash for writing her books. Before she started writing The Hate U Give, she thought of becoming an author for fantasy genres targeting middle school children. It is important to share our personal stories, as we don’t know what another person could be going through, but it could help them feel less lonely and could be influenced to share their stories, just like Angie Thomas.