PoC Character Inspo On Pinterest

PoC Character Inspo on Pinterest

In response to this post I did some extra work filling out my character face claim boards on Pinterest and found there actually are a lot of good onsite pics. One just needs to search outside the primarily white & pretty “character inspiration” tag. 

Here are some safe search terms I’ve found useful so far:

poc character inspiration - woc character inspiration - character inspiration black/asian/latina - [insert ethnicity here] character inspiration - mixed race

indian character inspiration - native american character inspiration*

interracial character inspiration - poc couples - blaxican - blasian - 

#b(lack/Asian/white)m(an)a(sian/black/white)w(oman) couples** 

poc lgbt couples - fem black couples - [idk hard to search sfw lqbt pics] 

Cons

Pinterest searches are skewed toward photos of women, and what male photography can be found will generally fall into the “hot” category.

Searching “character inspiration” will always bring back only the most gorgeously Photoshopped human beings. 

Other keywords will likely bring back Instagram pics which aren’t very “story” like— especially if you’re writing a world sans smartphones.

If you search “[any race] girls” Pinterest will automatically show a disclaimer about their policy on nudity. Search for women not girls. 

Hispanic and Latino mean different things which confuses searches, and they apply to a variety of nationalities so be specific. 

Same goes for Asian, pick a nationality or be doomed with the skinny white girl equivalents of East Asia. Ain’t nuthin wrong wit skinny Asian/white girls, they’re just annoyingly prolific online.

BE VERY CAREFUL SEARCHING FOR LGBTQ IMAGERY. I was quick to clear my search history after finding content for this post. 

Hey, if Pinterest writers start tagging PoC inspo pins with relevant terms it will make them easier to find— plus, making your collection searchable may get you more followers. If anyone knows of any additional and exceptionally useful Pinterest keywords, please tell me. I’ll (gladly) test them out and add them to the list. 

Thanks @prideandpen, @lmartinezwrites, @boothewriter, @brynprocrastinates, and @ashleyddddd. I hope you find this useful. 

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*No worries, Pinterest search generally knows the difference between East Indian and American Indian.

**Search for specific interracial pairing i.e. bmaw, amww, ambw etc., but make sure to also type “couples.”