From The Telegraph UK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10039848/Dame-Jacqueline-Wilson-challenges-publishers-to-halt-the-pink-tide.html
One of Britain’s most eminent children’s authors has spoken out against the way marketing experts use the colour pink to lure young girls in.
By John Bingham
07 May 2013
Dame Jacqueline Wilson voiced frustration at publishers’ insistence that her books should appear in pink covers because they know it is likely to boost sales.
She said the practice was “pigeonholing” girls while also putting boys off reading her stories.
Dame Jacqueline, whose books such as the Tracy Beaker series dominated library lending in the last decade, challenged her own publishers to tear up the marketing rule book and bring out one of her stories in a different colour to test their own assumptions.
Her comments follow concerns from child development experts that a so-called “pink plague” on the High Street is in danger of brainwashing girls and reinforcing gender stereotypes.
But Dame Jacqueline said she also feared that the insistence on pink covers could downgrade her often gritty storylines – which deal with themes such as death, divorce, and homelessness – behind a “sugary” façade.
Her comments echo recent remarks by the bestselling adult author Jojo Moyes, who complained that her publishers’ insistence on pink covers made her books look like “chicklit”.
Dame Jacqueline admitted that her struggle against the pink tide dated back to when she was bringing up her own daughter, Emma – now a Cambridge don – but that even then she had little success in resisting it.
“I was the sort of mother who very much wanted to bring in bricks and engines and dress her in denim and give her a choice,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“But, when my daughter was little, her favourite colour was pink and she begged and pleaded to wear a pink dress.
“I am not anti-pink as such but I think it would occasionally be nice to have a different colour.
Continue reading at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10039848/Dame-Jacqueline-Wilson-challenges-publishers-to-halt-the-pink-tide.html
