A young adult author is causing controversy by saying she refuses to write about gay or black characters, and then in response to criticism said she is being ‘attacked’ for being straight.

S. E Hinton shot to fame in her teenage years when she wrote The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, about two competing youth gangs in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In a Q&A on her Twitter, the now 68-year-old said she would not include any LGBTI or POC characters in any of her future writings.

It came from a comment last year when Hinton denied there were any characters in the Outsiders that were gay, specifically Johnny and Dallas – two members of the Greasers gang.

The novel, which has seen renewed popularity after a 50th anniversary edition, inspired a 1983 film adaptation directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It starred a host of young actors including Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio (as Johnny) and Matt Dillon (as Dallas).

She began the Twitter war with her 43,000 followers by saying:

#ThingsIWontApologizeFor I am a heterosexual writer writing about heterosexual characters. Being attacked for being heterosexual. — S. E. Hinton (@se4realhinton) January 5, 2017

This angered people, especially after Hinton co-opted LGBTI ‘narratives’ for her own resource.

Hinton, who supposedly has never been a part of a teenage gang, then asked how she is supposed to know what a gay character goes through.