Search for lesbian grandmothers who inspired children’s book | Books

A search is underway to find two lesbian grandmothers who inspired a new children’s book after a chance encounter with a woman performing a pantomime at Blackpool Pride.

Anonymous women attended a reading by popular artist Mama G in 2021 to complain about the lack of diversity in young literature.

When Mama G read to children in Blackpool Winter Gardens, women asked if there were lesbian grandmothers, she said.

The question stunned him. “I thought, um, no. I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen lesbian grandmothers in any story, even as side characters,” she said. Clearly disappointed, one of the women told him that “it’s very difficult to represent yourself in books.”

That conversation led Mama G, whose real name is Robert Pearce, to write an illustrated children’s book featuring two older gay women “front and center of change.”

The Proudest Bird in the World book will be published on July 1, and Mama G wants to dedicate her book to the couple who inspired her, but she needs to track them down first.

However, despite weeks of calls on social media, radio and newspapers, their identities still remain a mystery. Mama G likened the social media campaign to searching for a missing person, saying: “I don’t know their names, I don’t even know if they’re from Blackpool; they might be visiting.”

The women are described as being approximately 6 feet tall, with short hair, one with “salt and pepper loose curls,” and possibly wearing jeans and striped tops when they met Mama G in 2021.

Although Mama G has spent nearly two decades promoting diversity in family storytelling, she said the conversation with the women was a “wake-up call.” “These two women face an uphill battle in representation because they are a minority within a minority, and that really touched me,” she said.

“The visibility of lesbians is much less than the visibility of gay men in the media in general. The visibility of older LGBT people is greatly reduced relative to the visibility of LGBT-coded children or young adults.”

A. US survey in 2022 It found that although there has been a significant increase in the number of LGBTQ+-related books for children since 2000, these characters are rarely the main protagonists, and some groups, such as bisexual people, are “completely absent.”

The Proudest Bird in the World is about Gilbert, an ordinary white bird who wants to express who he really is and accidentally stumbles upon a Pride Parade, as he discovers that true colors don’t have to live outside.

The main characters are two lesbian grandparents who educate Gilbert and her grandchildren about what the colors of the rainbow flag mean to them.

Mama G, who performed on the outskirts of Edinburgh this summer, said the lack of diversity in children’s books was still a problem, despite the efforts of some authors and smaller publishers.

He said publishers told him they were “not comfortable” taking on his first book, Oh Yes I Am!, about a boy living in a gray world but learning to make it sparkly, because it “could be taken as an LGBT story.”

This book and The Proudest Bird in the World, published in 2023, were acquired by smaller independent companies.

Mama G said major publishers are staying away from books celebrating diversity because of their profit margins, and “there’s a lot of pressure against the community.”

“I think you need to look at smaller publishing houses to get a variety of books published because they are in a better position to take risks,” he said. “I’m excited to see what happens in this book, and I hope that if we find lesbian grandmothers, they’ll be proud to be a part of it.”