Tomi Adeyemi

There's so much talk of representation in politics and entertainment - it's everywhere - but I didn't realize representation was important until really my senior year of high school.

I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star. I want her to know that she's beautiful, and she matters, and she can have a crazy, magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger.

You're never wasting your time as long as you learn from every single thing you do, whether you feel like those attempts are successful or not.

The power of fantasy is that you can make people understand the deeper realities of our world in a way that they wouldn't normally be able to because of all the things in our world that closes them off.

For readers of color, and especially black readers, black girls, I just want them to feel seen. And not just seen - I want them to feel epic and know that they are epic.

I had a lot of different reasons for writing the book, but at its core was the desire to write for black teenage girls growing up reading books they were absent from. That was my experience as a child. 'Children of Blood and Bone' is a chance to address that. To say you are seen.

What's demanded from us black creatives is both a blessing and a curse, because it pushes you to be your absolute best. You cannot be anything less.

You need a community to succeed. In the back of every book is an acknowledgments page full of all the people it took to get that writer to the book you're holding.