GIVE IT TO ME BI: Bi+ Visibility in Children’s Books – Is It Possible?

We are truly lucky at GITMB to have a vibrant online community of podcast listeners and readers of our column in our beloved Star — it gives us endless insights into what our community cares about. (Join us by searching ‘Give It To Me Bi Community’ on Facebook!). 

A recent post by a member really got us thinking about bi+ visibility. 

Being visible implies being seen, not just by yourself, but by others. This is what the civil rights icon Marian Wright Edelman meant when she coined the phrase: ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’

This powerful saying is fitting, because the post from a new mum, who is bisexual, prompted much discussion in our group about the lack of bi+ visibility in children’s books. 

She couldn’t see her family in any children’s books, and worried that if her children were to be bi+, they wouldn’t see themselves either. 

We have seen an extraordinary rise in the number of kids books that show queer people – same-sex parents, trans family members, non-nuclear family units, chosen family — and they are all okay. 

But the B in LGBTQIA+ is often missing, and to visually show a bi+ dad or an aunt will take creative thinking. Perhaps we can apply what we have learnt in normalising gay and trans people in children’s books, and share these learnings by normalising family units with bi people in it. 

We already know that the rates of young people identifying as bi+ are increasing rapidly, so maybe we don’t need to. But, perhaps we would feel comfortable and accepted earlier if we were told from a young age that ‘it’s okay to be bi.’ 

This is something we certainly wish we were told as kids, and something we encourage you to teach the young people in your world.