Are beast races in fantasy cliched? Or just a staple of fantasy?

Ah, I see.

Well, none of my teen protagonists have the emotional issues/‘I have a problem with myself’ thing. If anything else, some might have an overconfidence in themselves.

 

Everything is cliche or uninspiring to someone. If you are doing something "cliche", make it your own. Be genre-savvy if you can, but even bunny-girls trying to jump over the moon is not even "original" nowadays.

 

Wait...

*goes to look it up, finds wiki article about moon rabbit lore* Oh, that's what all that was about. Huh, interesting...

 

I don't think beast races are cliche. I have several myself. Three, at least.