Want to Protect Your Kids from Sexual Content? Here's how.
Jean the Book Dragon is your new secret weapon
Once upon a time, a girl sat down to read a good book and soon found herself in the middle of a steamy sex scene. Sound familiar? If this has ever happened to you or someone you love, you know how disappointing, frustrating, and infuriating it is.
One girl had this very thing happen to her one too many times and decided to take matters into her own hands. The result has been over 50,000 Instagram followers in one year, an unexpected career with major book publishers, and a lot of happy readers.
Her name is Jean the Book Dragon. Here’s the conversation I had with her recently. (Don’t miss her book recommendations and warnings in questions 3 and 4! You can also find them in my previous post about Jean the Book Dragon here. I’ve included links so you can quickly put them in—or keep them out of—your Amazon cart.)
Okay, here we go!
1. Tell us about Jean the Book Dragon! What was the genesis of the idea?
Books and reading are my biggest passions. I love being able to escape into worlds that are only limited by my imagination. There was a period during my teen years when I didn’t read for quite a while. But then when my father was deployed overseas in 2022, I desperately needed an escape from missing him and all the hard days. So, I picked up the Hunger Games series and blew through them in just a few days! That’s where my love of reading picked up again! Since then, I’ve read hundreds of books and am still going strong!
But one thing that I’ve struggled with is finding books without any sexual content. In the book world we call it ‘spice.’ I speak from experience when I tell you that at least 1/3 of the Young Adult section in Barnes and Nobel is books that shouldn’t be there due to awful sexual scenes.
I’d have to constantly stop reading books part way through due to unexpected sexual content. One day I just thought to myself, “I can’t be the only one who’s fed up with this.” So in November of 2023 I created Jean the Book Dragon! (Jean’s my middle name). On my page, I only read and recommend books that are clean and don’t have any sexual scenes, innuendo, or excessive swearing. I even have romance and language scales on each of my book reviews so that readers can decide if a book will be a good fit.
2. What has the response been to your efforts to review and promote good books? What has surprised you most about this journey?
The response to my page has been nothing short of inspiring. In just one year I’ve managed to gain almost 54,000 followers. I work regularly with clean authors and big-name publishers to help promote clean books to teens and adults. What’s surprised me the most is some of the private messages and comments I’ve gotten from followers that have been so humbling. Here are a few I’ve saved:
“I’m a victim of sexual assault and your page is the only one I trust to find books I can comfortably read.”
“Your account is one of the only reasons I started reading again! I was struggling to find books with no spice romance….Thank you for doing what you do.”
“Just discovered your Instagram and I love it! I'm so passionate about protecting kids and teens from explicit content. Your reels are hilarious and so relatable.”
3. What 3 or 4 book SERIES would you most highly recommend to parents and teens? On the flip side, are there any book series that you suggest families avoid?
A lot of series that I love are also currently unfinished, so I can’t guarantee that they’ll continue to be clean. So I’ll recommend my favorite finished series:
-Dragon School, by Sarah K L Wilson
-Lockwood & Co., by Jonathan Stroud
-Ranger’s Apprentice, by John Flanagan
There are quite a few series I would recommend AVOIDING. The most sexually explicit ones also happen to be some of the most popular right now. Such as:
-A Court of Thorns and Roses series, by Sarah J Mass
-Throne of Glass series, by Sarah J Mass
-Fourth Wing series, by Rebecca Yarros
-Shatter Me series, by Taherah Mafi
These are some of the most sexually explicit books I’ve come across, and unfortunately, they are also taking the book community by storm. (DON’T BUY THESE BOOKS.)
4. What are some little-known literary gems you’d like everyone to know about?
Some of my absolute favorite clean books aren’t very well known, so this is my opportunity to shout them from the rooftops!
-Bride of the Fae Prince by Anastasis Blythe
-The Misadventures of Miss Adelaide by Maggie Dallen
-Unmasked by Kelsey Chapman
-Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
-The First Dark Sorcerer by Abby Arthur
-Heirs of Secrets series by Berlyn Hayes (currently unfinished but she’s a clean author so it should stay clean)
I’ll also mention some of my favorite clean authors. They only write clean books and are all incredible women!
C.F.E. Black
Mary Mecham
Callie Thomas
Maggie Dallen
Berlyn Hayes
5. What can parents and families do to best protect themselves from inappropriate material?
I’m often asked what I do to help avoid inappropriate books. I have a few resources that I use almost daily:
-Common Sense Media is a big website for content descriptions. They give detailed information on sexual scenes, language, violence, Etc.
-Amazon book reviews. I know it sounds strange, but readers will often mention if the book was clean or ‘spicy’ in a review. And Amazon is chock full of book reviews! Some key words that usually mean a book has sexual content are: steamy, angst, spice, hot, open door, or sometimes readers will even use a hot pepper emoji. If I see these key words in reviews, then I can safely assume that the book is sexually explicit, and I move on.
-I’ll often go to the author’s Instagram page and see what kind of info they have on each book! Sometimes I have to scroll through a few posts, but it’s a surprisingly helpful way to find info.
-On the same note, don’t be afraid to message the author on social media and ask them about the content of their books! They’ve always been super kind and honest to me, and they love helping potential readers!
6. What do you like to do when you're not being Jean the Book Dragon?
When I’m not working on my page or reading, you can find me comparing books with my cousins, spending time with my grandparents who live nearby, or outside training and riding my beloved horse around the gorgeous area of rural Idaho.
7. What are your goals for the future of Jean the Book Dragon and where can people follow you?
My goals for Jean the Book Dragon are pretty simple. I want to help teens, adults, and parents find clean books that they can enjoy without worrying about the content.
I hope to be able to continue to grow my page and help even more authors and publishers reach clean readers, as it can be difficult given how popular ’spice’ is. I’m so thrilled that I get to make this my career and help fellow readers find clean reads that they’ll be able to escape into!
You can follow me on Instagram @JeanTheBookDragon
