As you may have already noticed, most characters in the Harry Potter books are straight and white. In fact, there's nearly not enough diversity in both the books and the films. It's problematic in the sense where it erases any other possible culture and/or sexuality and gives a negative image of what society really is.

Not everyone in Harry Potter has to be white. In fact, most characters weren't even described thoroughly enough for us to assume their skin colour, which means that you can basically change their whole appearance as much as you want as long as you stick to the brief descriptions. e.g. Hermione's skin colour was never actually made clear, and you can therefore assume that she is black if you want to, no one can criticise you for it. And it's the same with Harry, his skin colour was never described, and you can therefore imagine that he is in fact part Indian. Funnily enough, Hari in Sanskrit means "lion".

We need more POC representation on Wattpad and everywhere, really. It's essential.

It doesn't mean that all your characters must be coloured, but just try to include some, it's truly important, especially in modern society today with all the racism going on and all.

Now another problematic thing is the lack of LGBT representation in fanfiction, and in films and books in general. There is not one gay canon character in Harry Potter. JKR said that it was because she feared judgement at the time and she had a hard time publishing, but that was only for the first book. She had an immense success and could totally afford making one character gay if she really wanted to by the time the last book came around, but she didn't.

However, she did say, outside of the books, in various interviews, that Dumbledore was gay and had a relationship of some sort with Grindelwald. You can also assume that Dean and Seamus were madly in love, that Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadowes were in a secret relationship, that Wolfstar is real, that Tonks was genderfluid and that Draco had a crush on Harry.

There's nothing wrong with it, and if anyone tells you that there is, burn them with fire and I'll meet them in hell.

Don't be afraid of representing minorities in your stories, they're so important and needed and honestly, they're beautiful people.

So there you go.

(written by kencbi)