A graduate of Palmetto Senior High student is carrying her fight against book bans from the halls of her high school to a national stage.
Iris Mogul, who is currently a freshman at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been named Youth Honorary Chair for the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week 2025, which began Sunday and runs through Saturday.
Mogul joins legendary actor, author, and activist George Takei, this year’s honorary chair, in leading the annual event to spotlight the growing threat of censorship in schools and libraries across the country.
"As a high schooler, Iris started a banned books club in her community after the state passed laws to remove hundreds of books about race, history, and sexuality from schools," said the ALA in a statement announcing Mogul's appointment.
She quickly inspired classmates, educators, and parents to join the movement, and she has continued her work as a student leader in the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Student Advocates for Speech.
She also received an honorable mention from the prestigious Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards in May 2025.
Rise of organized censorship
Mogul’s efforts come at a time when book challenges are sharply escalating nationwide. The majority of book censorship attempts now originate from organized movements.
According to the ALA, "pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries in 2024."
Books by or about LGBTQIA+ individuals and people of color make up nearly half of those titles targeted.
George Takei's role then and now
George Takei, known for his role in Star Trek and as an outspoken civil rights activist, said there is a critical link between books and democracy.
“Books are an essential foundation of democracy,” said Takei. “Our ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ depends on a public that is informed and empathetic, and books teach us both information and empathy.”
Takei, whose own New York Times–bestselling graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, has been targeted by censors multiple times, also talked about the personal impact of censorship.
“First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me.”
Takei, a Japanese-American, was interned as a child during World War II with his family and other Japanese-Americans.
He said the public needs to fight in opposition to censorship "so that we all can find ourselves — and each other — in books.”
Banned Books Week 2025, now in its 43rd year, will use the theme “Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights” to call attention to the national issue.
The week culminates on Saturday (Oct. 11) with “Let Freedom Read Day,” a day of action where people nationwide are encouraged to take at least one step to fight censorship.
