What is Marginal?

Marginal is a revolution in publishing. Led by young people, for young people, Marginal is the first youth-led publisher of its kind in the UK. With it, we hope to not just change the landscape of young people’s reading in the UK, we also strive to use Marginal as a platform with which to nurture marginalised talent and express a diverse set of voices and experiences which are currently going unheard.

Working closely with young creators to help them realise and develop their vision, Marginal aims to publish a diverse collection of books which reflect the full diaspora of identities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of marginalised young people.

How?

The Marginal Leadership Programme was set up by Comics Youth in 2019 and is a mentorship initiative providing underrepresented young people the opportunity to express themselves through the medium of comics, artwork, and writing with the aim of providing a career pathway within the publishing industry.

Over the course of the mentorship, young people aged 8 – 25 are provided with 1-2-1 coaching, training, mentoring, and guidance in all aspects of publishing including illustration, character design, writing, business development and editorial management so they can harness and build up their own talents and skill-sets while also co-running the publishing house together.

Marginal seeks to give agency to young people in developing narratives that reflect their identities and experiences. In doing so we want to raise the self-esteem of young creators while inspiring them to become a positive point of influence for other marginalised young creators to do the same.

Who?

We’re committed to publishing stories that platform the untold and the underrepresented. As such, we’re especially committed to working with marginalised young people across the Liverpool City Region with voices that are currently underrepresented in print media. These include young people from LGBTQIA+ and BAME communities, looked after young people and those who experienced inequality, young people from working class backgrounds and young people experiencing mental ill-health or special education needs.

Why?

Books and comics shape the culture of society. They inspire TV shows, films, stage shows, podcasts and more. They can influence our thinking and perspective and can provide frameworks from which we gain a sharper understanding of ourselves and the world and reinforce and normalise our values and experiences. Yet, all too often our culture is shaped solely by people who come from a narrow section of society – one which we may not.

This limits the perspective and range of culture. And when culture is restricted in this way, it only reinforces gatekeeping and hierarchy: Things that make marginalised people continue to feel ‘Other’ within culture, society and beyond.

Subsequently, the realities and lived experiences of young people often go unexplored or are misrepresented within our mainstream culture. Marginalised voices are continuously excluded from current creative print and online comics resulting in their stories not being told and shared.

Our ultimate goal is to help change the landscape of young people’s reading in the UK so that young people from diverse backgrounds can see themselves not only as characters in, but also as potential authors of, the books and comics they read.

We are interested in mentoring stories that reflect current and real youth issues in the UK, and with increased cuts to arts funding it is vital that these voices are heard. All sectors of society deserve the opportunity to tell and share their stories.