Swearing In Children’s Books
This is everybody's favorite fucking topic. It is swearing in children's books. Very controversial.
I'm not a prude in any way, shape, or form. But I feel very, very conservative when it comes to books for younger readers. You really have to also take into consideration the gatekeepers: teachers, librarians, parents, religious leaders, grandparents, kind of really making the purchasing decisions for board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books.
When you get into middle grade and young adult, the gatekeepers are a little less powerful. Kids of that age are gonna hear swearing, so it wouldn't necessarily be so out of line. There are gonna be some imprints that are more conservative, that are more buttoned-up, but there are gonna be some imprints where even sex, drugs, violence, and swearing happen in YA novels.
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Hi, this is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. This is everybody's favorite fucking topic. It is swearing in children's books. Very controversial.
I wrote about this on Kidlit. I actually wrote two posts about it on Kidlit and I dropped the f-bomb. Cheeky me. Totally, you know, off the cuff and I had people in the comments be like, "Well, goodbye."
You know, I am a potty mouth. I'm not a prude in any way, shape, or form. But where it does get controversial is if you want to write swearing into books intended for kids. That is the topic of this video and I hope I didn't offend you with my f-bomb. Might drop another one. Who knows? We'll see.
So, basically, board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books, all of those books that are kind of through ages 0 to 9, I wouldn't swear at all. I wouldn't even say "hell." You know, you can maybe do a "heck" in chapter book. You can maybe drop a "darn" but basically, you have a lot of those gatekeepers, those teachers, librarians, parents, religious leaders, grandparents, kind of really making the purchasing decisions for books of kids that age. You have Scholastic. You have the book fairs. You have all that potential to kind of reach a kid audience, so you have to think a little bit more conservatively about what those gatekeepers are gonna want to kind of push on kids.
I feel very, very conservative when it comes to books for younger readers. Like, for example, if I read a chapter book manuscript in my editorial practice where there's a kid calling somebody stupid, I'm thinking about my own young kids. I would not want to even see that behavior modeled by a character, even if it's a bully character, even if they redeem themselves and have a redemption arc and everybody validates him, whatever. I almost don't want to see that behavior, because I know my 5-year-old will read about that in a book. Like Harry Potter uses stupid all the time. I'm reading it with my now 5-year-old and, you know, I cringe every time that word comes around because I don't want my kid calling other kids stupid and think it's okay just because Ron and Hermione did it. So, I am very good at separating my person, my personal life person from my children's publishing person because I understand all the issues at play.
Now, when you get past chapter books, you get into middle grade which is kind of like 9 to 12, 9 to 13 aged readers, and you get into teen books which are kind of 13-plus, 14-plus, 15, 16, 17-plus, all of that. There, you really have to also take into consideration, yes, the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers are a little less powerful in a lot of instances. Kids are able to choose what they like, you know. We have the influence of Captain Underpants and all of this kind of... The gross-out humor really comes to the forefront. Kids are starting to watch TVs where people swear, you know. If you have HBO, you can say "fucking" on the air. If you have just general TV, you can say "bitch" on the air. Kids are gonna hear swearing. They're gonna hear swearing with their beautiful cherub-cheeked friends. Like it's just the reality. They're gonna see it on YouTube. They're gonna see it on TikTok. They're gonna be in a culture where swearing happens and kind of things that you don't want the kids interacting with. It happens. Sexuality, all of this stuff, like advertisements with sex and advertisements with sugar and all of this stuff, it does happen, and kids are becoming more aware. And as gatekeepers, as parents, as teachers, religious leaders, we can only do so much to sort of keep them on the right path because they are individuating themselves. At that point, it is developmentally appropriate for them to start separating and start forging their own identities.
So, I would say middle grade, younger middle grade, you might still get caught out for swearing, but as you get into older middle grade, I wouldn't use kind of the bad swears like the b-word, the f-word, all of that. But you might say "hell," you might say "damn," you might say "asshole," and it wouldn't necessarily be so out of line in upper middle grade.
That being said, everybody has their own mileage, and it may vary. So, if you want to write really clean, absolutely. If you want to write really swear-filled, really potty mouth, sewer mouth in middle grade, you are still gonna meet a lot of friction from gatekeepers so a lot of agents, a lot of publishing editors, they will say, you know, "You got to keep it mostly clean." And if a "hell" sneaks through every once in a while for middle grade, that can be okay, depending on the publisher. So, for example, if it's a really conservative publisher, it may be a Christian publisher, you're not gonna get very far but there are some publishers where some more kind of cloak wheel, timely, kind of cultural voices, really contemporary voices do flourish and we do see the occasional swear because things have kind of gotten more casual, even on TV, even on the radio, as we've sort of been rolling along over the last 20 years.
Now, in young adult, the same advice applies of, you know, there are gonna be some imprints that are more conservative, that are more buttoned-up, but there are gonna be some imprints where even sex happens in YA novels, where even drugs happen in YA novels, violence happens in YA novels, and so swearing kind of comes part and parcel with all of that. You can drop some f-bombs and they'll be perfectly at home at those imprints.
That being said, the number one consideration of whether you even should swear... So that was kind of the answer of whether you can swear. The answer of whether you even should swear in your manuscript all boils down to one thing for me, which is, is this necessary in the moment? Is this necessary to the character? Or are you doing it because you want a more contemporary voice? Are you doing it to be edgy? Are you doing it to be slangy? Are you doing it to sort of take a shortcut to writing a real teenage character because you feel maybe insecure about being an adult writing a teen or kid character, so you put some swears in there? It can't be gratuitous. It needs to be a very real and necessary part of that character and of that situation. If the character doesn't necessitate it, if it's extra, if the situation doesn't necessitate it, if it's extra, then I would err on the side of caution, leave the swearing out. But if it's consistent with character, if it makes sense for the situation and it's not gratuitous, then I would say in older middle grade, some of the kind of the lesser swears, and in YA, you can kind of go into the more aggressive swears. I would just stay away from words that tend to be really polarizing toward protected classes. So, for example, the c-word for women, the n-word is very inflammatory. Those are words that I would stay away from under any circumstances. But when we're talking about kind of the big swear words, if they're necessary, yes, you can use them. You might turn some people off. You'll definitely hear about it on social media if the book is published and there are parents who, you know, were like, "I..." You know, the pearl-clutchers will come out of the woodwork.
That being said, it should be a necessary thing, rather than just something that you're doing because it's teenagers and that's how teenagers talk, if that makes sense...so food for fucking thought. My name is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. Here's to a good fucking story. I'm sorry, I had to. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Here's to a good fucking story. Here's to a good story, you bitch.
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