In celebration of one of my favorite weeks in the year, Banned Books Week, I have decided to take a look at why we ban our books in the first place.

For those who are not aware, Banned Books Week is a week out of the year (typically the last week of September) where readers are celebrated and encouraged to pick up books whose content has been challenged or questioned.

The reason these books are removed from public or school environments are because moderators claim the material contains "violence", "racism", "offensive language", "sexually explicit content", and is "unsuitable for the age group".

I first found out about Banned Books Week my freshman year of high school, when my English teacher discussed it with me because she thought it would be an important issue to me, as I am such an avid reader. And I've fallen in love with the concept of Banned Books Week as a way to rebel if even in the smallest way by reading and promoting the content of books that specific organizations have removed from the public eye.

The question we should really be asking is why?

I personally have never believed in the censorship of art of any kind. I was raised in a household where it was natural for one to praise art for what it was; if a musician released music with explicit language, it was because the song was intended to be heard with explicit language. And in that same respect, if an author writes a book with so called "unorthodox" content, it is because the author believes the message they are trying to convey cannot properly be delivered without that content in place. It was written a specific way, therefore it is intended to be read a specific way.

So, why do we try to hide our people- namely our youth- from the powerful messages trying to be conveyed to them? When I think of why banning books is an issue in our society, I don't think the people who do it do it out of malice; I think they truly have a deeply rooted belief that they are helping. But what they are missing is, to put it simply and bluntly, the point.

The youth that these books are being taken away from are living through the experiences moderators think they are too young to read. Believe it or not, young people struggle. They lead messy lives and do things they shouldn't and that is a universal truth that is not going to change. It's time we start owning up to that and stop treating youth like one mass, uniform group of children and treating them as what they are, and what they are are unique individuals with their own valid thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.

Do I believe that a third grader's first chapter book of the academic school year needs to be E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey? Of course not. Do I think John Green's Looking for Alaska (coincidentally my favorite book of all time) needs to be removed from high school libraries because of a single page involving an oral sex scene? Absolutely not. Whether or not the book banners themselves, teachers, friends, parents, or peers want to believe it: teens are participating in those kinds of things. If they think they're old enough to be doing it, they are old enough to read about it.

The freedom to read is a privilege. America has one of the highest literacy rates in all the world. And I feel as though it's a disgrace to that privilege to take it away from so many people on such arbitrary grounds.

With that said, I believe in the freedom to read. I believe in the power of words and I believe that they should be shared in the form they were intended to be shared in. Literature is not something to take away from out youth, but it's something to embrace and to share among each other. If you haven't this week, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of next year's Banned Books Week and pick up a book and give it a good read in the exact context that it was intended.