We recently connected with Sanjana Senthil and have shared our conversation below.

Sanjana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The Kathai Teen Literary Organization operates on a multi-program structure. Through the Teen Literary Journal, Kathai Ambassador Program, various contests/essay prizes, and a children’s book, Kathai executes every project with the mission of giving every teen the opportunity to make their mark on the publishing/literary space.

The Kathai Literary Journal is the primary Kathai project. We publish teen writers, artists, cinematographers, and more in the effort to further expand the space for teen voices. Past publications, for example, have featured artists and writers from over 30 different countries who write directly towards the theme we set for each seasonal edition of the journals. This way, young creators have to focus on their creative vision and their unique voice, instead of hoping to impress our panel of teen editors/judges with new ideas. The success of these journals through teen excellence has not only furthered our organization’s mission, but has also garnered the attention of publishing houses and authors. As a result, we have been able to partner with them for introductions and other projects.

We have also created a live interview series on our Instagram page—where the larger portion of our marketing takes place, as well as community building—called “Book Talks.” Our leadership team interviews new authors on their books prior to publication here, which promotes honest discussion of a book’s purpose, the audience they are trying to reach, and most importantly, how they would encourage young writing work. This series has gained over 2k global views from teen creators, and we aim to increase that number 50% by next May.

This success has also contributed to the further development of the Kathai Ambassador Program. The Kathai Ambassador Program (KAP) brings in a group of passionate readers from all over the globe who seek to impact the publishing industry through their chosen hobby. The publishing industry often gives Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of books prior to publication to literary influencers or frequent reviewers in order to receive feedback on a novel. When Kathai first began as just a book review account, we received online and paperback ARCs to review; therefore, when we began the KAP, we utilized this to help teens impact the industry. Kathai Ambassadors are able to start social justice/advocacy book clubs (projected 75 clubs global by May 2025), interview authors for the live teaching series on Instagram (projected 50 interviews by May 2025), or review ARCs of YA novels on the Kathai Goodreads and Instagram to impact the industry (projected 200+ reviews by May 2025). Recently, we have also added a creative award for book clubs in order to better achieve impact.
Finally, the children’s book World Of Stories, aimed towards K-8 students to further their appreciation of new cultures and perspectives, will promote Kathai’s expansion in teen opportunity. World of Stories will promote teen advocacy for their diverse cultures through their writing and the illustrations of other teens. It will be distributed in a projected 126 partner classrooms in the US, which will be expanded to a global audience of 500+ classrooms by June 2025.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Sanjana, and I’m the teen founder of the Kathai Teen Literary Organization, which seeks to uplift teen writers, artists, and creators of any kind! We have a social media platform where we connect with over 210k people. We publish teens in a literary journal with global submissions and connect teens with the publishing industry.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

625.
That’s how many books my home state of Texas banned in 2023.
625.
That’s how many diverse perspectives—on culture, race, sexuality, gender, and more—that students will go without in their educational pathways.
When I saw this statistic, I felt reaffirmed in this belief: storytelling is the most human and most vital thing we all share. In controlling storytelling, whether fictional or nonfictional, oppressive groups can suppress new voices/diversity in literature—which has severe repercussions on young adults.
In addition to this injustice, I’ve found that it’s increasingly difficult for young people, especially of minority groups, to develop and share their stories in their mode of craft. I first hand experienced and continue to experience this when I see very few opportunities for young writers, artists, or creators to shape their creative voices, or see that current available literature in schools like mine, where young creators first explore their potential, is blindingly lacking in truthful diversity.
Young Adult literature is bursting with new novels, yet it is likely that not one of those novels consulted the voice of younger people before writing them—and the aforementioned truthful diversity is lost in stereotypes as modern publishing houses/authors seek to fill perceived “checkboxes” for diversity. As a South Asian American, I feel directly connected to this problem as I can’t remember how many times I have read great YA novels which do everything except escape the negative characterization of minority characters. It is frustrating and somehow embarrassing as it makes me frequently wonder whether that is what people will see me as.
The culmination of this pathway of discrimination and lack of diverse opportunity in both literature and the world around me is what inspired me to begin the venture that has become the Kathai Teen Literary Organization.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

For me, I wanted to really connect with a group of people that was like me. So initially, my teen literary organization was just a bookstagram. I posted books I liked, ones I was looking to read, and places I liked to go that were book-related. Then, I took that base and grew it by finding a niche (teen literary growth) and sticking with it. We now reach large audiences because of that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Kathai
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathai.official/