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If you’re like many writers, you want to avoid harmful stereotypes in your work. You don’t want to hurt anyone, and you worry about getting canceled. You care deeply for others and for growing your writing career. And you want to include diversity in your work, but worry about portraying different minority groups in a positive, accurate manner.
Sensitivity readers like myself can be a big help with this.
What Is a Sensitivity Reader?
A sensitivity reader is a kind of editor who ensures your manuscript contains no harmful stereotypes, offensive language, or incorrect portrayals of specific groups, usually minority groups. All sensitivity readers have a different set of groups they specialize in, but they edit your manuscript for both overarching and little inaccuracies, telling you why and how to fix them. The vast majority of the time, sensitivity readers belong to the minority groups they’re editing for. See this short article to learn when you need to hire a sensitivity reader.
I personally will not only point out things to fix in your manuscript, but I’ll also explain what you’ve done exceptionally well! The editing process is tough, but I can give you a boost.
About Me
Hello, I’m Caetlyn! I’ve loved writing since I was little, acting out stories with my stuffed animals before I progressed to actually typing them out. I first began getting passionate about diversity in literature when my family adopted my youngest brother from China when I was in 8th grade, and this only intensified as I discovered my own diversities, such as my autism.
You can learn more about me, and my qualifications for sensitivity reading in my About Me page here.
What I’ll Sensitivity Read For:
- Autistic characters (especially girl/woman autistic characters and those diagnosed as an adult and/or misdiagnosed earlier in life)
- General ableism/disability
- Anxiety, especially emetophobia (fear of vomiting), trypanophobia (fear of needles), panic attacks, and a general anxiousness about medical things and diseases
- Intrusive thoughts and self-hatred
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Characters on psychiatric medications, especially anxiety meds
- Adoptive sibling characters (especially from international adoption) (Note: NOT the character who was adopted)
- Intersectionality within the above categories
- Ask me if you have anything else you’d like me to look over, and I’ll see if I can! Some things are by request only, to protect my siblings and myself. You can contact me here to ask questions or schedule a sensitivity read!
My preferences are YA and speculative (fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, etc.), but I’ll read anything that’s exclusively text. So, no pictures, but I’ll read fiction, nonfiction, outlines, scripts, or anything else. I love reading!
Question-Answer Sessions:
In addition to sensitivity reading, I offer paid question-answer sessions, so you can get guidance on topics I sensitivity read for before you even begin your project. That way, you don’t have to do as much editing, which can really save time!
I offer both one-hour video call sessions or three rounds of questions via email.
Pricing:
To see my prices for both sensitivity reads and question-answer sessions, click here!
Reviews:
“Caetlyn is a highly talented writer. I sought advice from her on my character Juno Graves from my novel, The Red Machine, and how I could improve upon portraying her character as autistic. She read through a collection of short snippets from each chapter of my novel that I have written so far. She complimented me on what I did well and offered helpful and kind suggestions on how I could improve. I am still learning about what it means to be autistic, so hearing her feedback helped me understand more how I wanted to write Juno.”