Interview: Princess Cupcake Jones Author Yileya Fields

Posted on June 6, 2016 at 3:00 pm

While looking for books to read to her eldest daughter (when she was 2), Ylleya Fields was struck by the limited number of titles featuring African American characters. And so she created one: Princess Cupcake Jones was created, with Princess Cupcake Jones and the Missing Tutu. It won the Mom’s Choice Award, the Gelett Burgess Award, a Family Choice Award and a IndieReader Discovery Award. It was followed by Princess Cupcake Jones Won’t Go to School, and the latest is Princess Cupcake Jones and the Queen’s Closet.

Ms. Fields was kind enough to answer my questions.

What inspired you to create the Princess Cupcake series?

Princess Cupcake Jones was inspired by the lack of diversity I saw while looking for books to read to my children. I decided to take matter into my own hands and blend the appearances and personalities of my two eldest daughters – thus creating Princess Cupcake Jones.

What is Princess Cupcake like? What does she like to do?

Princess Cupcake Jones is a curious, sassy, yet sweet 5 year old. She can be quite mischievous, like most children her age.
She loves playing, dancing, and has quite the imagination.

Who is in her family?

Princess Cupcake Jones, her mother (the Queen) and her father (the King) are the main characters in the story. However, I’m exploring the idea of giving her a sibling in a future book.

Is she based on a real-life character?

She is physically a combination of two of my eldest daughters. I blended both of their appearances and personalities into one beautiful character. Yet my two younger daughters are now providing inspiration for her as well!

Do your children inspire or influence your stories?

Absolutely! The Princess Cupcake Jones series would not have come to life if it weren’t for my children. I felt a responsibility to create this series for them as well as children around the world so they could relate to a character in a book.

Why is it important for children of all races to have books about diverse characters?

Children seeing diverse characters is important because it drives home the fact that while people may look different physically, at the end of the day, our values, dreams, wishes, etc are the same. These characters connect them and help children to relate to each other better.

What books did you enjoy when you were a little girl?

Growing up I was a voracious reader. I loved poetry and still do. Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic were two of my favorite books!

What do you want children and their families to learn from these books?

With each book having a different life lesson, my goal is to reinforce morals and values that children utilize in everyday life. By reading the books together, families can bond over the fact that Cupcake and her family isn’t that much different than their own!

What adventures will Princess Cupcake have next?

The next book in the series “Princess Cupcake Jones and the Dance Recital” is due out this summer. It’s all about Cupcake’s love for dance and what child can’t relate to that?

Related Tags:

New Toys Reflect Diverse Bodies

Posted on January 28, 2016 at 11:22 am

This is progress. Barbie dolls will now come in diverse shapes, skin colors, and sizes, including petite and curvy. And LEGO is introducing disabled characters, including one in a wheelchair.

It is wonderful that children will be able to play with toys that reflect and validate their own lives and the world around them.

Chaz Ebert on the Need for Diverse Voices in Film Criticism

Posted on December 29, 2015 at 8:00 am

Chaz Ebert of rogerebert.com writes in The Daily Beast about the importance of more diverse voices in movie criticism — and in those who make movies, too.

Meryl Streep’s use of the word “infuriating” to describe the disproportionate ratio of male to female reviewers on the Rotten Tomatoes is apt.

But the need for diverse voices in film criticism does not suffice with gender. A wide spectrum of voices is critical in challenging the mainstream white male-dominated narrative that drives much of Hollywood and the popular media. Being introduced to diverse critical voices and opinions in the arts not only affects how we see the world but also has a profound influence on how we begin to heal it.

Chaz has been a leader in this effort, and has made particular progress in bringing great women writers to rogerebert.com, including my friends Sheila O’Malley, ReBecca Theodore-Vachon, Jana Monji, Susan Wloszczyna, Olivia Collette, Christy Lemire, and Anath White.

The Atlantic Monthly has an article on the falling percentage of women film critics. The discussion of how women were originally advantaged and then materially disadvantaged in this field is fascinating. Thelma Adams also writes about the problem of too few female movie critics for Variety.

According to the Gender at the Movies study of top critics on Rotten Tomatoes, men account for 91% of those writing for movie/entertainment magazines and websites such as Entertainment Weekly; 90% of those writing for trade publications and websites; 80% of critics writing for general interest magazines and sites such as Time and Salon; 72% of those writing for newspaper sites; and 70% of critics writing for radio outlets and sites such as NPR.

Meryl Streep Calls for More Women Film Critics

Posted on October 9, 2015 at 8:00 am

The Hollywood Reporter quotes Meryl Streep on the disproportionate number of male film critics on Rotten Tomatoes: “The word isn’t ‘disheartening,’ it’s ‘infuriating,’” she said. “I submit to you that men and women are not the same. They like different things. Sometimes they like the same things, but their tastes diverge. If the Tomatometer is slided so completely to one set of tastes, that drives box office in the U.S., absolutely.”

Streep made these comments in London, where she is appearing at the premiere of her new film, “Suffragette,” about the women who fought for the vote in the UK.

In a related story, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched an investigation of gender disparities in the film and television industry, following a request made by the American Civil Liberties Union in May.

Related Tags:

Actors Critics Gender and Diversity

New Report: Same Disappointing Results on Diversity on Film and in the Film Industry

Posted on August 14, 2015 at 10:24 am

A new study from USC’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism documents the vastly over-proportionate portrayals of white males on film and in filmmaking. Their review of 700 top-grossing films from 2007-2014 found:

Gender. Only 30.2% of the 30,835 speaking characters evaluated were female across the 700 top‐grossing films
from 2007 to 2014. This calculates to a gender ratio of 2.3 to 1. Only 11% of 700 films had gender‐balanced casts
or featured girls/women in roughly half (45‐54.9%) of the speaking roles.

Race/Ethnicity. Of those characters coded for race/ethnicity across 100 top films of 2014, 73.1% were White, 4.9% were Hispanic/Latino, 12.5% were Black, 5.3% were Asian, 2.9% were Middle Eastern, <1% were American Indian/Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 1.2% were from “other” racial and/or ethnic groupings. This represents no change in the portrayal of apparent race/ethnicity from 2007‐2014.

LGBT. Across 4,610 speaking characters in the 100 top films of 2014, only 19 were Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual. Not one Transgender character was portrayed. Ten characters were coded as Gay, 4 were Lesbian, and 5 were Bisexual. Only 14 movies sample wide featured an LGB depiction and none of those films were animated. Of the LGB characters coded, nearly two‐thirds were male (63.2%) and only 36.8% were female. LGB characters were also predominantly White (84.2%). Only 15.8% were from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Behind the scenes is even worse.

The landscape of popular cinema in 2014 remains skewed and stereotypical. Across 700 films and over 30,000 speaking characters from 2007 to present, movies continue to distort the demographic reality of their audience. Film characters are overwhelmingly White and male, despite both population statistics and viewing patterns.

Employment trends behind the camera evidence a similar dearth of diversity. Only five Black directors helmed top movies in 2014, and women were underrepresented by a factor of 5.3 to 1 as directors, writers, and producers in 2014. Further, the 100 top films of 2014 featured no Asian directors. Despite activism, attention, and statements about addressing the issue, Hollywood’s default setting for characters and content creators remains fixed on “status quo.”