While hoards of Young Adult fans queued for free books at Book Expo America in New York, a smaller but equally as satisfying conference quietly took place in Melbourne, Australia.

The Australian Reading Matters conference put the focus on the flowing of ideas, rather than the accumulating of free books (as satisfying as that can admittedly be). The official hashtag made plain one of the purposes of the conference; to remind us all that #YAmatters. However, inspired by the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, this year’s hashtag could almost have been #RepresentationMatters.

The questions of diversity and representation were hot topics at this year’s conference. As with the discussion of gender at the last Reading Matters, held in 2013, this year wasn’t explicitly themed around diversity, but the program and list of panelists demonstrated that this was a key consideration for organizers.

More from Reading Matters: These Broken Stars author Amie Kaufman on the power of gender-flipping characters

Throughout the conference and no matter what the panel theme, panelists returned to the idea of diversity again and again. To keep this important discourse going, we asked some of the many authors in attendance to tell us why representation in Young Adult fiction matters so much to them.

We need diverse books because…

Ambelin Kwaymullina (‘The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf’)

“We need diverse books because a lack of diversity is a failure of our humanity.”

Amie Kaufman (‘These Broken Stars’)

“Everybody should see themselves on the page, and I hope that the people I allow to see themselves on the pages will write their own stories more, and more, and more.”

Ellie Marney (‘Every Breath’)

“Because everybody should be able to tell their stories, and because everybody should be able to feel like they can see themselves in the literature that they read.”

Fiona Wood (‘Six Impossible Things’)

“We need diverse books because we have a diverse world.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (‘The Impossible Knife of Memory ‘)

“We need diverse books in order for humanity to move forward.”

Sally Gardner (‘The Door That Led to Where’)

“Because we’re not all the same. We’re all different.”

Simmone Howell (‘Girl Defective’)

“Because everybody is different, and everybody has a story, and everybody needs a story to relate to.”

Tom Taylor (‘Injustice: Gods Among Us’)

“Everybody in the world needs heroes, and everybody has the right to see themselves reflected in their heroes.”

Will Kostakis (‘The First Third’)

“Teens see themselves in the books that they read. If you don’t show them their place in the world, then they just might assume that they don’t have one.”

You can read more about the We Need Diverse Books campaign on their website, or check out the #YAmatters tag on Twitter to see more of the conversation from Reading Matters.

Correction: The We Need Diverse Books campaign art originally included in this article has been removed at the request of the organization.