The Episode team has been actively working on new ways to better serve the diverse community we’re so fortunate to have. We deeply appreciate the feedback raised from our community on issues related to story featuring, art assets, our Community standards, and more.
We’d love to highlight some of the changes you’ve already seen, and some that are currently in progress below. Our hope is that these changes will serve as the foundation for additional actions in the future.
Updated Episode Art assets:
New facial features and hairstyles to help portray diverse characters, along with new guidelines to help our team consistently create accurate styles in the future.
More curl type 3 and 4 and natural hairstyles.
Modest and fashionable clothing options.
Moving forward, our goal is that more diverse, representative, and/or inclusive items be included in every batch of new assets created.
Internal Actions to Improve Representation in Episode:
When it comes to stories we’d like to purchase and feature on Episode, we’ve added additional steps to our process to help us find more stories from BIPOC creators.
Regular featuring and lifting up of diverse voices on our weekly themed shelves.
Internal commitment on upcoming stories not to change main characters’ default appearances to preserve what the author intended; updated standards for the illustrative representation of these characters on story covers to more accurately capture their features.
Conducted a full review of our internal hiring process, expanded our outreach strategies and further structured our interview processes with the goal of increasing the representation in our staffing. This is an ongoing effort and is a long term commitment at the Episode and Pocket Gems company level.
Additional Episode community support:
Rolled out updated Community Guidelines to make what is unacceptable or inappropriate behavior in the Episode community clear, along with creating a dedicated method of reporting Community issues.
Streamlined and updated our reporting system. Reports related to bullying, harassment, or hate speech now go into a dedicated queue and into the hands of specially trained employees for investigation and responses as appropriate.
Additional Updates from Episode’s Parent Company, Pocket Gems:
Pocket Gems is engaging in company-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives, including education and working practices. We do this recognizing there is no ‘one size fits all’ definition of diversity. We are focused on increasing representation of Black and Indigenous groups across the company. We are also aiming to increase representation in specific functions where currently underrepresented including: Latinx, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, LGBTQ+, women and non-binary, and individuals with disabilities. We are doing this through an extensive review of our hiring processes, identifying ways to support growth to leadership for all groups above and other underrepresented groups, and creating ways to measure and demonstrate inclusive practices day to day.
We are striving to create a more inclusive space for all creators, readers, and employees. We’re grateful for your feedback, patience and support.
Not to be ~nitpicky~ but non-binary people are LGBTQ+ people. Saying women & non-binary people reinforces the idea that non-binary people are all AFAB “diet women” who might use they / them pronouns. Non-binary people fall under the trans umbrella and can have any assigned gender at birth and have infinite ways of expressing their gender
I also want to say there’s a lot more to it than just hiring or featuring stories by Black people, Indigenous people, LGBTQ people, disabled people, etc. For one thing, how much do those people’s views and actions align with the status quo? That matters more than just any one person having a particular identity or set of identities.
And none of it makes much difference unless Episode divests from making money off of authors who continue to use racist, transphobic, homophobic, etc stereotypes and caricatures in their stories under the guise of ~diversity.~ Removing stories that are reported for being blatantly racist or offensive to a marginalised group would also help.
Yes, It’s really very nice of Episode that they’re continuously working to represent the diverse community in more accurate way. But I feel like it’s time to release an appropriate body type for child characters. It feels really weird to write & see a child character having all the features of an adult.
Love the transparency though, I can safely say that Episode is making a lot of progress as a company, we have a long way to go but I’m glad to see us making so much progress. Much more progress being made than before at least
Lol why am I saying progress so much? Progress progress progress
I don’t think that would be included at this time. What they mean by diverse at this point of time is People of Color and the LGBTQ+ community. I could be wrong though! but it’s definitely for the people of color on episode.
I don’t want to applaud you because this is something that should have gotten included already. It shouldn’t have taken 2020 to make you realize the importance of diversity for the community. I read this post, and I’m thinking, “hmm, okay, you’re trying to make an effort.” But, at the same time failing to do so. The episode team ignores us when we tell you that some of your paid-big authors are being racist, homophobic, sexualizing sexual assault, and the list goes on. So, excuse my bluntness. But I rather see than hear you talking about what you’re going to start implementing. (I like to mention that this is coming from a Black twenty-something tired author.)
On one hand, I’m glad for Episode finally doing something tangible about diversity. The recent modest clothing update has to be one of my favourites in a while. On the other hand, the keyword is ‘finally’. I understand and second the points from @LiyahxWrites and @hibiscusgravy: it’s not just about the surface level of diversity, but respecting and uplifting the differences in ideas and stories and experiences as well as encouraging an environment with no bullying, very triggering content, isms and phobias.
Time would tell if these points do get enacted along with enforcing guidelines to every creator, but still I have my eyes on you Episode.
It’s easy stating what you’re going to do and we see you are making moves in the right direction. But it all really falls short when these instances are brought to light. For example, when offensive stories are left up to read and/or trend when they are reported and authors who have virtually spat on the marginalized people in this community, are allowed to live their best life being paid by Episode, consequence free. That’s how we see nothing is really changing and, therefore, it’s all performative.
It’s extremely difficult to believe that the company prioritizes diverse voices and existences when there are stories and people being endorsed and employed by Episode when they embody everything going against it. It’s a really big slap to the face and not to mention very hypocritical. It’s showing us you don’t really care.
Also, if you’re talking about a commitment to better representation and diversity within your company then it goes deeper than simply hiring more BIPOC, as Hibiscus mentioned. It means you gotta do the work to make sure everyone you hire is a fit candidate for the positive and respectfully inclusive image you’re trying to project within your company, including the people you are pulling from the community. And I gotta tell ya, it’s fairly easy to check on a good portion of them and see they ain’t the kind of people you want representing your company when you hold them up to these initiatives being proposed, and I’m stressing the ethical point made within that link.
While I tend to be mostly focused on the art segment of diversity, that’s not enough. It will never be enough especially when things are rotten from the core. So with that, scrutinizing who you’re hiring (including members from the community) as your employees and focusing on how to better handle offensive content within stories in a timely and respectful manner, should be top priority.
This. When the whole community comes together to inform you how a certain story is racist/homophobic/misogynistic and you still buy it/pay it/refuse to let the authors know, I find it difficult to believe that you truly care about diversity.
Everything you’ve done is incredible, I won’t sit here and say that that list isn’t good but at the same time I agree with what was said before
