Young Adult Literature

5 YA Characters Amandla Stenberg Could Play Next

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Chelsea Hensley

Staff Writer

After receiving her BA in English from the University of Missouri, Chelsea Hensley realized she had no idea what she was doing with her life. So she decided to call herself a writer and is just rolling with it. She's read Pride and Prejudice, and watched the Keira Knightley adaptation, so many times that she often gets them confused. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys taking selfies, watching Netflix, and everything Beyonce does. Blog: The Chelsea Review Twitter: ChelseaBigBang

While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Tuesday, January 3rd.

This post originally ran October 5, 2016.


The first time we met Amandla Stenberg it was as Rue in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games, a casting choice that led to a storm of racism from THG fans who couldn’t picture the delicate and innocent Rue as black. Flash forward to 2016 where Stenberg will soon star in film versions of YA novels Everything, Everything, the-yet-to-be-published-but-highly-anticipated The Hate U Give, and The Darkest Minds based on Alexandra Bracken’s bestselling trilogy of the same name. Nothing’s changed too much since THG, not with Bracken and others having to defend Stenberg’s casting to “fans” who can’t imagine main character Ruby, originally written as white, as black.

But since we’re not all Tim Burton or similarly close-minded, here are five YA characters, coded as white on the page, who Amandla Stenberg could play to further cement her reign over YA film adaptations.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie PerkinsAnna Oliphant (Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins): Amandla would be a perfect Anna, forced to upend her life and move to Paris for her senior year. There Anna falls in with a group of students including Etienne St. Clair, who Anna is immediately attracted to despite Etienne having a girlfriend, and Anna not exactly being on the market either. Anna is endearingly awkward, and thoroughly hilarious, as she tries to navigate a foreign city and her feelings for Etienne. Just for good measure, Stenberg would also be a perfect fit for Isla in Perkins’ companion novel Isla and the Happily Ever After. And why not Lola in Lola and the Boy Next Doortoo?

Blue Sargent (Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle): Confession time, there are some series I can only read if I racebend them. This is one of them, but I would have flipped if leading lady Blue Sargent, borne of psychics and destined to kill her true love with a kiss, was black. Her natural skepticism and distrust of the Aglionby students stems more from a class barrier, but a racial one accompanying it would make equal sense as the school is mostly white. 

all the rage paperbackRomy Grey (Courtney Summers’ All The Rage): Stenberg would be an awesome Romy, forced to withstand bullying and shaming from former friends and classmates after her rape. Called a liar and finding solace only in a job where no one knows her, Romy’s situation only worsens when her former friend goes missing. It’s a heavy read, with a true, and therefore infuriating, depiction of rape culture. With Stenberg’s outspokenness and activism, I know they’d approach the subject respectfully.  

Sophie Winters (Tess Sharpe’s Far From You): I won’t be satisfied until Amandla stars in a twisty, flashback-filled murder mystery so they might as well be in an adaptation of this one. Right after kicking her pill addiction, Sophie is forced back into treatment after her best friend Mina is murdered. Drugs left on Sophie indicate a botched drug deal and not the planned murder she knows it to be. Though no one believes her, Sophie remains adamantly sober, determined to do whatever it takes to find Mina’s killer.

throne of glass paperbackManon Blackbeak (Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series): In another series begging to be racebent, Manon is all badass, all the time. She’s an immortal witch leading her coven of Thirteen atop battle-ready wyverns, but all you really need to know is that Stenberg once rocked grey braids, and that alone makes them perfect for playing TOG’s morally grey, silver-haired wingleader.