Welcome to Love Yo Shelf

We are extremely excited to kick off our blog and introduce you all to Love Yo Shelf! Our goal here (and everywhere) is to shine the spotlight on traditionally marginalized groups of people and the authors who write in order to authentically represent them, with a definite focus on own-voices stories. We are passionate about all kinds of diversity, but especially Asian and Pacific Islander (API) representation.

About the Blog:

We know how hard it can be for people to grow up without seeing themselves as the protagonist, the love interest, the wizard, the princess – and more than that, only seeing themselves as a stereotype, a sidekick, a background character that’s never given their own character arc. And when you do stumble across a book that has someone is described to look a little like you, that’s still no guarantee that you’ve found positive representation. It’s hard, and discouraging, so our hope is to make it easier to find yourself in a book full of magic and adventure and help people realize that there doesn’t have to only be a cookie cutter kind of protagonist out there.

Love Yo Shelf is about loving the books you read because you connect with them and they make you feel seen, and ultimately we want that experience to help you love yourself as well.

About Us:

We met when we were 11 years old and briefly parted ways when we went to different high schools. We reconnected when we ended up going to the same university and have been bonded together ever since. When we’re not talking about books we’re currently loving and obsessing over our blog, we’re probably talking about the logistics of a zombie apocalypse or ranting about white supremacy.

Lauren is second-generation Chinese-American and is currently focusing her thesis on colorism in fantasy and sci-fi. She loves naps, asking strangers if she can pet their dogs, and rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender every few months.

Orianna is (half) first gen Filipino-Mexican-American studying sociology as she uses her mother’s immigrant story for inspiration. Her current passions are deep-cleaning and finding a belly-laughing joke every day.

Whether it’s with one person or one hundred, we’re really excited to share books with positive representation for marginalized groups, and we can’t wait to get started ♡