Throughout middle school and high school, the majority of the books I was assigned to read were written by old white guys way back before I (and even my parents) were born. I can think of exactly two books I read in my pre-collegiate career that were written by women: "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton and "To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee. Incidentally, these were two of my favorite books that I was assigned to read.

While I know that those old white men-written books hold value in their own ways and have definitely shaped and impacted the world, there are only so many stories they can tell, people they can represent, and voices they can accurately embody. By including stories told by only one type of person in schools, you exclude the voices and representation of many other people.

From the ages of 10 to 18, school makes up the majority of kids' lives. During those years, you spend eight or more hours there every day, your social group is people you've met through school, you're involved in school activities, and then you come back home and do homework for hours on end. School is an impossible beast to hide from.

With school being such a large part of people's lives, it's so important for them to see themselves and their stories represented in the curriculum they're being taught. These older, classic books that are being forced into the hands of students today are just getting... obsolete. I'm not saying they don't have their place, but there are books that have been released recently that better tell the stories of the world today, from the perspective of all different types of people.

Look, the world has changed drastically since many of these books were published. While some of the issues we have today were also issues back then, there are more books available that explore these issues in new, fresh, and different perspectives now. And these new perspectives provide the representation that is sorely lacking for many students in school today. Representation is essential and nonnegotiable, and there's no reason not to see it in school curriculum.

Here are some books that have been released in the last 10 years that should be included in school reading lists:

1. "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas.

Based on the Black Lives Matter movement, this book explores issues of racism and police brutality and is something that everyone should read.

2. "Challenger Deep" by Neal Schusterman.

This book does an amazing job of representing mental illness in a way that is healthy, realistic, and productive.

3. "Sold" by Patricia McCormick.

Intense, heartbreaking, and eye-opening, this book shows the reality of human trafficking, something that is still a huge problem in the world today.

4. "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Rashad, a black teen who is the victim of police brutality, and Quinn, a white teen who witnessed what happened to Rashad, this book takes on issues of race and police brutality.