When their queen bee Ali went missing a few years ago, they drifted apart to their personal dramas. The girls were friends, and then they weren’t. And Emily (perhaps too typically for the one who ends up kissing girls) is the sporty one, a swim champion and good girl a little bored with the straight(laced) life. The girls fall along pretty typical teen lines - Aria is the artsy one, Hanna is obsessed with fashion, Spencer is an uptight overachiever. The fact that it’s all wrapped up in a fashion conscious, murder happy prep school setting is just damn fun.Įmily is one of four girls who make up the core Pretty Little Liars characters.

The fact that the arc of the entire series is arguably fueled by the tension inherent in young feminine characters actively embracing their sexuality is fascinating. The fact that Emily and her complicated queerness are an integral part of one of today’s most popular young adult series is interesting. Over the course of 16 books (with a few more on the way) Emily has questioned her sexuality, questioned it again, and had serious relationships with both boys and girls. The diversity represented in the PLL books is mainly embodied in the character of Emily Fields. Among the interesting things that came to light was that no matter how you break down the combination of “best selling” and “diversity representation” the Pretty Little Liars book series by Sara Shepard is a major player at that intersection. Earlier this year, Malinda did a post breaking down diversity in young adult bestsellers.

Pretty little liars based on book