It’s not exactly a title of honor: being one of the most banned authors in one of the most conservative states in the nation.
And Ellen Hopkins doesn’t take pride in it. She doesn’t want her young adult books removed from school libraries in Utah. She firmly believes kids here — and across the nation — should have access to the stories that she writes.
Even if they’re uncomfortable to read. Especially if they’re uncomfortable to read.
Hopkins said that’s the point of her books: to explore hard truths and tell about real, traumatic experiences that kids go through. That includes rape and drug addiction and human trafficking and “other gritty but real things.”
“Every kid’s life isn’t pretty,” Hopkins said. “We can’t just take the ugliness out of the libraries. You need to see it.”
Hopkins’ books have been removed 35 times across the biggest school districts in Utah, according to a recent survey by The Salt Lake Tribune, making her the No. 2 most banned author here after fantasy writer Sarah J. Maas. The difference, though, is that Hopkins’ books are directed at teens, and they are meant to be instructive.
She said banning her titles denies kids who have gone through something difficult a chance to see themselves represented in literature. And for kids who haven’t, she said, they miss out on learning about someone else’s pain and developing empathy.
The experiences she writes about, Hopkins said, aren’t meant to be gratuitous. There’s a point in including those scenes, and she always ends the stories with hope, with the character finding a way out and overcoming their struggles.
She said she feels parents who oppose her books misunderstand that and take them out of context.
That includes “Crank,” the story Hopkins wrote based on her own daughter’s experience getting addicted to drugs in high school.
“I wanted to show how easy it would be for that beautiful kid to make one wrong decision … to try to show kids not to do that,” the author said.
Hopkins recently spoke with The Tribune about her books, the recent movement to challenge titles like hers and why it matters that students have access to all kinds of stories. This Q&A with her has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What do you think of the recent movement to ban books, including yours?
This current wave has been going on for awhile, but when it first started, it surprised me with what it represented. It used to be that one parent finds a book they don’t like. That’s what it’s supposed to be.
It’s not supposed to be this politicized thing that it’s become. Now it’s politics. It’s not the same thing.
It’s surprising how fast it was coming, the ability of a handful of people with a long list of books. Now they’ll just search for my name. They haven’t read the books. That’s the biggest problem. If they read them, they would understand why the scenes they’re worried about are in the book. Pulling quotes out of context is ludicrous.
I provide resources for kids in every book. My goal with all of these is to help kids not do the things in the books.
Another thing people don’t realize is that a lot of my references come from this Christian evangelical space. If you read my books, every single one of them has a godhead reference. I was raised Lutheran. And I raised my kids in the Lutheran church.
Why should students have access to your books?
You can scrub ugliness out of maybe some kids’ lives, but not out of most. And for the kids that are going through it, they need to know that they’re represented, that somebody knows that this is what they’re going through. A lot of kids think they’re the only one. They think they can’t talk to parents. They need to know that someone is willing to listen, that someone is willing to represent them. All of my books show them there is always a way out.
And for the kids that aren’t going through it, they need to understand why the kid over there looks that way or maybe take notice of a kid that may be in trouble. There are symptoms; there are signs. It’s an empathy thing.
The situations in my books, they’re valid. It’s real life. Trying to hide these things, prostitution, addiction, sex, I’ll just tell you for a fact, kids know about them. Kids approaching adolescence, if they don’t know what those things mean and don’t know how to deal with them without going overboard, they will go overboard.
And for the kids they decide shouldn’t exist, it doesn’t mean they’re not going to. LGBTQ kids will still be here.
What made you start writing these kind of stories?
“Crank” is my daughter’s story. It’s my family’s story.
My daughter was a straight-A kid. She wanted so badly to go to the Art Institute of Seattle. Then she met the wrong guy, and he got her into drugs. Now, her dreams are gone. Those dreams are gone. She struggled with that addiction for more than 25 years. … It affected everyone who cared about her.
I wanted to show how easy it would be for that beautiful kid to make one wrong decision ... to try to show kids not to do that. I wanted them to see the reality. The rape scene in the book, for instance, that happened in real life. That’s not gratuitous.
I get thousands of messages and emails, people telling me my books changed their life, gave them insight. Parents have thanked me for opening conversations, opening their eyes so they could see their kid starting down that path.
Kids have told me they’ve read my books and now want to go into social work. I’ve changed career paths and lives. I will leave a legacy behind.
What kind of pushback do you see?
For all the ugly comments I get, I’m still receiving dozens of messages a day, sometimes more, from kids who are reading my books. That’s why I have to keep going.
My next young adult book coming out next year is about twins separated by the foster care system. One ends up on the streets; one ends up in juvenile detention.
All of these stories are real. The characters in all of my books are inspired by real people. All of the characters in “Tricks,” those are real stories.
After every book talk I do or every book signing, there’s two or three kids that come up and tell me their story. They know that I care about them, that I will listen to them.
That’s a huge accomplishment.
What effect do the efforts to ban books have on you as an author?
Well, publishers are now thinking about the content of books. I started to self-censor several times. I had to remind myself I can’t do that. I have to keep going the way I’ve always gone, in telling the truth. And some truths aren’t pretty.
The thing about teens is their bulls--- meters run high. And they know when you’re not being honest. I reflect that in my books. In “Crank,” getting high is fun at first. It has to be. Then, more and more, it becomes a weight, a monster, and it takes over your life. That’s how really addiction is. And you have to see that change and be honest about it.
What do you want to say to people who oppose your books? Do you have a message for parents in Utah?
If a person in Utah has a problem with their kid reading one of my books, I’m happy to have the dialogue. Let’s talk. I’ll read you my readers’ letters. It will open your eyes.
If we can recognize what a victim might look like or a perpetrator might look like or what abuse looks like … books can do that in a safer way than TV or phones or video games. At the very least, they have to use their own imagination to get the picture.
I think kids are much more sophisticated than most adults want to give them credit for. If it’s not happening to them, it’s happening to someone they know.
I’ve raised three generations of kids. I’ve taken custody of my daughter’s kids. I’ve talked over the years to tens of thousands of kids, via email and in person. I’ve been in schools — rural, suburban, intercity. I know them. I know that the things that affect their lives every day. Closing their eyes to it and closing the book covers does nothing.
You have to address the problems. You have to acknowledge they exist.
I believe our youth is our future, which is another reason why I need to keep writing for them.