In the Eye of the Beholder
There are the common standards of beauty:
Big eyes
Gorgeous hair
Sensuous lips
Less attractive features:
A hairy back
Skin lesions
A nose tattoo
When it comes to looks, the boy love-interest in a YA novel often draws heavily from list #1. We’re talking a lot of green-eyes, hair you want to rake your fingers through, and kissable full lips. Whew! Is it hot in here?
I understand the reason behind this. It’s fun to drool over surface details. When it comes to love, though, I believe the interior matters more.
To draw the focus away from the physical appearance in my books, I choose ones that are somewhere between list #1 and list #2. For instance, Nico in MY INVENTED LIFE wore bangs halfway down his face, concealing his eyes entirely, and eliminating the problem of having to describe them. Just kidding. Sort of.
But do I take this too far? The copyeditor of my latest book, MISS FORTUNE COOKIE, thought so. My main character, Erin, has a little crush on her friend’s boyfriend, Darren. After I established his awesomeness through his actions, Erin describes him like this:
He is as tall as Mei, lean and golden-skinned, with a broad forehead and pointy chin. I think of him as a Filipino-American Legolas from The Lord of the Rings movie, except with spiky black hair. In a word, hot.
The copyeditor wrote a note in the margin, “Is Darren supposed to be attractive?”
At first this annoyed me. Does every guy have to be a cross between Thor and Adonis? In my mind, Darren resembled a certain rock star. Of course, he was attractive, especially if you have a thing for Asian rock stars.
But after closing my eyes and trying to picture what the reader might see, her words made me doubt myself. I was under intense deadline pressure. I took out the pointy chin.
I was foolish. Pointy-chinned guys deserve love, too.