I love that you touched on the theory that Black stories don’t sell because it’s been proven wrong time and time again. But did it ever deter you from writing Black characters because that notion has been out in the world for so long, or did it only encourage you to write about them more?
JG: It never occurred to me to write about anything but Black people. But I never thought about writing for a long time, I think partly because I’ve been a huge reader my whole life, but for a long time, they weren’t telling… When I was a little girl, there weren’t stories about Black girls. And so I think it never occurred to me that I could be a writer, because I was like, “Well, I would only want to write about Black people. And I guess we don’t get those books.” As I got older, I was like, “Wait a minute, why are there no books like that? They must be out there.” I knew I wasn’t the only one who wanted them or the only one who wanted to write them, so I started writing. I think I started writing mostly just to see if I liked it…to give myself a creative outlet. Then, when I loved it and wanted to keep going, I was like, “Well, we’ll see what happens if other people want these stories.” And it turned out, yes, they do.
BuzzFeed: I love that! We are not a monolith, and our perspective is just so different culturally and universally. So, I’m glad that you chose to write about Black love, Black women, and Black professionals, because we are out there, and we do want to see ourselves reflected in the stories we read. Also, it was always a big surprise to me when I read the phrase “tall, dark, and handsome” in books by non-Black authors…
JG: [Laughs] Yes, I know exactly what you’re about to say, and I felt the same way.
BuzzFeed: [Laughs] I was genuinely surprised! I was like, “Wait, what?” That’s what you mean?
JG: Hair plays a big part in it.
BuzzFeed: Right! Hair plays a huge role when it comes to others’ view of the phrase, whereas I’m immediately thinking of skin tone [laughs], but I digress.