A Teen Girl Learns To Love Herself And Her Community in Renée Watson’s 'Love Is a Revolution'

Author Renée Watson was in the midst of writing her latest novel, Love Is a Revolution, just as many teens and young people across the country began getting involved with community activism for the first time in their lives. As she watched teens lead marches and speak out against injustice, Watson also began wondering if it was the right time to create a story about a Black teen who learns how to embrace love in all of its forms.

“I wanted to write about joy and about a girl who gets to fall in love, and gets to mess up and make mistakes and be a nuanced girl who isn't perfect. But then the pandemic happened, and the Black Lives Matter movement was happening over the summer with protests against police brutality,” Watson recalled. “So I thought, ‘oh no, I'm way off here. How can I be writing this love story with all of this tragedy happening?’ But then I thought, love and joy are real things too, and that is happening right now.”

Released earlier this month by Bloomsbury, Love Is A Revolution tells the story of 17-year-old Nala, a high schooler in Harlem who lives with her aunt and uncle and her “cousin-sister-friend” Imani. As Nala, Imani, and their friends set off to have a transformative and memorable summer just before their senior year, Nala also begins to discover more about the importance of self-love, particularly when it comes to body positivity and creating a place for herself in her community.

The FBomb had a chance to talk with Watson about her new novel, the power of activism, and how young people can make a difference even when they aren’t old enough to vote.

When we first meet Nala, she isn’t an activist but pretends she is to get the attention of a guy she likes. As the story evolves, we see her learn more about her community and get involved more. What made you want to create a character that is new to organizing and activism?

When I first started writing this book, I had just finished writing the end of the novel Watch Us Rise, which was co-written with Ellen Hagan. The two main characters in that book are very bold and brave, and they are taking charge at the school while pushing back against systems of oppression. I absolutely know teenagers like the ones in that book.

But I also know young people who are not quite there yet. They care about the issues, and they definitely have opinions, but they are never going to be the ones that go up to the mic and make a big speech or lead a protest. I wanted to write something for that person to say, it's OK if you're not comfortable doing that quite yet. Your activism doesn't have to wait or look just one way. Now is the time to ask, ‘How do I try this out?’

Nala is plus-sized and she is clear throughout the book that she isn’t embarrassed by or ashamed of her body. One of my favorite moments in the book is when she essentially tells her crush that she doesn’t have a problem with her body, it’s the world around her that has a problem with her body.

It was important to me while writing a teen rom-com that I push back against some of the tropes that often happen in this genre. I wanted to show what it means for a girl — a Black girl and a girl who is big — to be the center of attention and to have that hot guy. I wanted her to be able to exist without making an apology for her body and while accepting who she is.

Sometimes in young adult novels, the focus of the main character is that they go on a journey and it's about them changing, or they're being bullied and they overcome that. But I just wanted to normalize body diversity. I was very intentional in making not only Nala big, but Imani big, and their mothers are big women too. There are a variety of sizes in this book because that's our world.

Plus, Nala grew up in Harlem. She's a New Yorker. I think she is the kind of girl who would grow up believing that she is beautiful and knowing that she's seen her image reflected back to her many times. She’s around a lot of different cultures and skin tones and hair textures. I wanted all of that to be in the book. I think that's an amazing thing to be able to have that kind of confidence in yourself at a young age.

The relationship between Nala and her cousin Imani was also so interesting to see play out. Nala began living with her aunt and uncle when she was very young because various circumstances led to her mother not being able to properly care for her. Throughout the book, we learn how this nontraditional family structure affected both girls.

I know many people who grew up in unconventional family structures — girls raised by their grandmas and their aunts and uncles — so I knew that I wanted to have a nontraditional family structure in this book. I also just wanted to be honest about the complications of love and family. Nala is figuring out not just romantic love in this book but also how to love family and how to forgive. How do you ask for what you need? We see that Nala is struggling in her relationship with her cousin Imani because they've always been compared to each other. So they're figuring out that dynamic between them.

One of the most memorable lines in the book is when Nala’s grandmother tells her that “the most radical thing you can do is love yourself and each other.” Is that what you want readers to take away from this book?

If you think about what's happening right now, especially for a girl like Nala, who is a big, dark-skinned girl, saying ‘I love myself’ in a world that doesn't always show you love is a radical thing to do. I think that what her grandmother was saying at that moment is that the way to push back against those messages is to really take care of yourself and to be your best self. Loving yourself sometimes the answer to the things we're fighting against.