I just had to share some feedback I got on a short story today.

“One of your characters needs to be a redhead. You need more representation in your story.”

Okay that could be legitimate feedback unless you consider a few minor points

1. About 3% of the world’s population are redheads and it feels like every second female UF protagonists. So I don’t really see under-representation as much of an issue.
2. There are only two characters in this story. Again I should mention that 3% thing.
3. At no point is either characters hair colour mentioned. You can make them whatever you want, it has no impact on the story.
4. It is set in the middle east about 3,000 years ago.
5. … you didn’t read it did you?