Inclusion in Media Matters - From Family Structures to Disabilities, The Power in Representation
Episode 38 - April 22nd, 2021
I am so excited for you to hear this conversation I had with Beth Cox.
She works with people across the board in the publishing industry but our conversation is about more than books. We expand on the topics of disabilities, family structure and diversity into discussions about representation in all media, including a very unfortunate example of what not to do.
This episode is for everyone, not just parents, not just people with kids in their lives.
It is for everyone who consumes media (which I assume is everyone) because we all have the power to make choices that guide publishers and content creators.
This conversation is not about shaming.
It’s about moving forward, educating ourselves,
and knowing the importance of seeking out new perspectives.
Who is Beth Cox?
Beth is an inclusion and equality consultant for children’s books with a mission to transform the bookshelves of the next generation.
She works with people in children’s publishing who know diversity is a priority but worry about being tokenistic. She helps them understand the basic principles of inclusion to ensure their actions match their good intentions.
Beth delivers unique programs, combing training and consultancy, empowering participants to embed inclusion without fear, judgement, or relying on marginalized colleagues for advice.
She has worked in publishing since 2003 and committed to making books inclusive since 2005. She worked in-house at Child’s Play (2003-2011) before going freelance and co-founding Inclusive Minds with Alexandra Strick. Beth lives in Wiltshire, UK as a solo parent to a donor-conceived almost 6 year old.
Join her mailing list HERE. Find her on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Programs and Resources
Inclusion Incubator is Beth’s programme for people working in-house in publishing.
Foundations for Inclusion is a group programme for freelancers in publishing.
Finding My Family in Children’s Books – A guest blog series exploring how families are represented in children’s books, whether that’s due to set-up, ethnicity, neurodiversity, disability, LGBTQIA*, socio-economic status or any other facet of diversity.
Do you want to take part? Fill in this form.
Inclusive Minds
Working with the publishing industry to help ensure authenticity in books.
The main way they do this is through the network of Inclusion Ambassadors, young people with lived experiences who are connected with authors and publishers as early as possible in the book creation process to ensure authenticity in character development.
Books Mentioned
Written by Cathy Camper
Illustrated by Kenard Pak
Written by Cory Silverberg
Illustrated by Fiona Smyth
By Anna McQuinn
and Rosalind Beardshaw
Episodes Mentioned
#Inclusion #Representationmatters #Disabilities #Familystructure #Diversity #Donorconceived #Singlemom #singleparent #Workingmom #Soloparent #Travellers #Romany #Limbdifference #Handdifference #Notawitch #Publishing #Writers #Illustrators #kidsbooks #Dobetter #Gainperspective #Mediarepresentation #bookstagram #Influencers
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