Guest Blogs – Page 7

Interview with Simon Tam

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:11-05:00October 29th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Aromantic, asexual|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day 4 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Asexuality in YA Series – Aces Out: Laying the Cards On the Table – Acing Romance: On Writing YA Love Stories as an Asexual - 5 Tips and Tricks To Writing Asexual Characters Hi! Welcome to the Gay YA’s Asexual Awareness Week! I’m interviewing Simon Tam, doctor aboard Serenity, the spaceship from the cult spacewestern hit TV show Firefly. In my headcanon, Simon is asexual and aromantic but just lacks labels. As someone who has changed her labels not infrequently in the last ten years since I came [...]

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5 Tips and Tricks To Writing Asexual Characters

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:14-05:00October 28th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual, Representation|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day 3 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Asexuality in YA Series - Aces Out: Laying the Cards On the Table - Acing Romance: On Writing YA Love Stories as an Asexual by Aisha Monet It is only a few weeks before NaNoWriMo, when writers all over the world will be cracking down to write a 50,000+ novel in the month of November, and I want to challenge everyone to include an asexual character in their novel this year. It’s so excruciatingly easy that I’m not even sure how to describe it. All you have to [...]

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Acing Romance: On Writing YA Love Stories as an Asexual

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:14-05:00October 27th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual|

by JL Douglas I identify as demisexual. For me, that’s defined as “maybe I want to kiss and hold hands, but probably only after I’ve known the person for years.” I also write Young Adult romance. So far, none of my characters are demisexual. They get crushes, and sometimes they even act on them in ways that go beyond kissing and holding hands. Generally, their approach to romance is much more fast-paced than the one I know. They feel attractions, sometimes to people they just met! Lunaside, my first book, is in part about a girl dealing with [...]

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Aces Out: Laying the Cards On the Table

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:14-05:00October 26th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day 1 - Previous Posts: Introduction to Asexuality in YA Series by Zach J. Payne I didn’t come out with a bang, but with a whimper. There are people who might see this as a blessing. Some people have their sexualities so scrutinized by those around them, and they’re forced to make a declaration for one side of the other. Some pray for the ability to slide under the radar, to have nobody recreate the Spanish Inquisition every time that they dare to express themselves. Me? There are times where I feel like Schrödinger’s [...]

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How To Make Your Library a Safe Space for Queer Teens

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:17-05:00October 8th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|

by Angie Manfredi Last year, I chose Alex London’s YA dystopian thriller Proxy as my teen book club’s selection. This meant my library would purchase multiple copies, many teens would read it, and then we would Skype with Alex to talk about it. Why did I choose Proxy? Well, partially because it’s superb YA: a well-written, engaging, fast-paced read that asks interesting questions about debt and income inequality. But I also partially chose it because it has a gay, biracial lead character and the author is a gay man. I wanted my teen readers to experience a swashbuckling [...]

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The “Acceptance” Narrative in Trans YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:17-05:00September 30th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Representation, Trans|

by Vee S. Transgender people, like most marginalized groups, have continuously had their stories taken from them. Throughout the years, they’ve been told that the feelings of their oppressors are more valid and important than their own. Their stories have been repositioned to put cisgender people in the center of them. This happens in real life-- the opinions of cisgender people on trans issues are prioritized above those of transgender people—and in fiction. In this post, I focus on the fictional aspect, and how it relates to real life. In fiction, a narrative has come forth that centers [...]

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#BiVisibility

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:18-05:00September 26th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Bisexual|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 6 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series – Bisexuality in YA – On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors – The “B” Word – There Once Was a Girl - It’s Not Just a Phase by Sarah Kettles If you’re reading this, there’s no way you don’t know what a ridiculous and problematic and wonderful and frightening and enormously influential thing social media is, particularly in the lives of teenagers, and even more so in the lives of marginalized teenagers. Sites like Tumblr and Twitter and Instagram and my once-beloved LiveJournal [...]

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There Once Was a Girl

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:18-05:00September 24th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Bisexual, Representation|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 4 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series – Bisexuality in YA – On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors - The "B" Word by Tristina Wright Once upon a time, there was a college girl very confused about her sexuality, and her best friend was a lesbian. They were the closest of friends and helped each other through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. They were never more than friends, nor did they ever want to be. They were friends and that was special in itself. There’s [...]

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The “B” Word

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:18-05:00September 23rd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Bisexual, Representation|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 3 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series – Bisexuality in YA - On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors by Camryn Garrett Reading a book is like being sucked into someone else’s world. I’ve learned about other worlds, but also my own through reading. Not only have I discovered that I was struggling with mental illness, but I’ve learned more about other cultures, other thoughts, other places, all in between two covers. But on the other hand, I’m often learning about a specific group of people. It changed between the [...]

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On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:19-05:00September 22nd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Bisexual, LGBTQIA, Representation|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 1 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series – Bisexuality in YA by Claire Spaulding When I first started brainstorming for this post, I came up with a list of what I want to see in bisexual YA: more badass bisexual ladies going on adventures! Swoon-worthy romance with happy endings! Bisexual pirates! Seriously, guys, where are my bisexual YA pirate novels?! But then I moved beyond what I want in bisexual YA right now, and I started thinking about what I wanted in bisexual YA back when I really, deeply needed [...]

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