Teen Voices – YA Pride

Teens Talk About LGBTQIAP+ YA: Part 1
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Teens Talk About LGBTQIAP+ YA: Part 1

Archive, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices

Teens Talk About LGBTQIAP+ YA: Part 1

By Vee|2020-08-19T22:34:34-05:00August 21st, 2020|Categories: Archive, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices|Tags: asexual, Coming Out, Mental Health, Queer Girls, Representation, Trans|

Earlier this year, we asked teens to tell us about the LGBTQIAP+ YA books that have touched their lives. This is our first round-up of those stories! We are so excited to be able to share these. Books can touch lives in unseen ways, something that is especially the case for LGBTQIAP+ YA books. We wanted to make some of those unseen experiences visible. This series of post is a reminder of why LGBTQIAP+ YA is so important, why it is so necessary for all of us to keep writing and advocating for these books. "Of Fire [...]

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You Are Not Alone: Finding Community as a Nonbinary Teen

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 28th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: asexual, Bisexual, Intersectionality, Non Binary, PoC|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 12 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by Kav If I'm being honest with myself, I never thought of myself as “straight.” Growing up, I never labeled myself that way and instead thought along the lines of “I’ll love who I love, no matter their gender.” That's not to say that I never struggled to discover my gender and romantic and sexual orientations or that I never had a coming out experience - it's definitely been a rocky ride. But when it came down to it, I was always fortunate enough to have been sure [...]

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I am the captain of my soul: On Being a Queer, Muslim Teen

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 23rd, 2017|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: Intersectionality, Muslim, PoC, Queer Girls|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 11 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by Warda When I’m asked what it’s like being a queer teen in today’s age I kind of want to counter with: “Well, what’s it like having two eyes and a nose?” You know, something snarky and light-hearted that makes it clear queerness is perfectly normal without having to go too much into my own experience. It’s something I’ve always shied away from; sometimes I can’t find any words and other times there aren’t enough words in the world for me to even begin to explain. But, hey, [...]

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The Myth of Arospec People and Loneliness

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:14-05:00February 21st, 2017|Categories: Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices|Tags: Aromantic|

Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week Series: Day 2 by Ruairi There was a horrible moment in realising I was aromantic where it hit me for the first time that the majority of my life plans had gone out the window. Where I'd been taught there should be experimentation and heartbreak and marriage and a happily ever after, usually with some flowers or flowery language involved, I suddenly realised I didn't want any of it, really. All these experiences, these plans, these expectations for the rest of my life didn't feel right. And it was terrifying. I assumed that my life [...]

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My Kind of Normal

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 14th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices|Tags: asexual|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day #3 Previous Posts: What's So Important About Ace Representation? by Kazul Wolf | Navigating the In-Between: Demisexuality in YA Lit by Dill Werner | Introduction: Asexuality in YA Series by Vee S. I thought there was something wrong with me. Some sort of genetic, chemical, or otherwise biological malfunction that made me so much different from every other girl in my grade. While my third grade classmates whispered about the boys they kissed in the girls’ bathroom stalls, I stayed silent. When my friend said she was in love, I didn’t know what to say. [...]

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The Hero’s Journey in Trans YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 2nd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices, Writers on Writing|Tags: narrative, Representation, Trans|

by Vee S. Introduction Last year I wrote a post about the “Acceptance” Narrative in Trans YA. That post detailed my thoughts on three problematic books that feature cis characters lamenting how hard it is to know someone who is trans. Today, I want to talk about another issue of representation in trans YA, and a narrative that is even more common. This post is kind of a second blush look at representation in trans YA. The “acceptance” narrative covered the really problematic representation, and this post tackles the next, more nuanced stage. Today I’d like to talk [...]

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Interview: Meredith Russo, author of IF I WAS YOUR GIRL

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00November 30th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Teen Voices|Tags: Realistic, Representation, Trans|

Trans Awareness Week Series: Day #9 Previous Posts: Reading Myself in Code by Sacha Lamb, Building Zoey's World by Anya Johanna DeNiro, We Need Trans Books… But We Really Need Trans Writers by Elliot Wake, Second Trans on the Moon by Kyle Lukoff, How the Fox Became by Fox Benwell, Interview: Alex Gino, The Room Where it Happens by Parrish Turner, Trans Stories Are Human Stories by April Daniels, Center Trans Voices: Introduction to Trans Awareness Week Series by Vee S. This Summer I got to go to ALA in Orlando, which was an incredible and intense experience. I wrote some about how validating my experience was as a [...]

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Duality, YA, and Crumpled Stickers

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:34-05:00September 21st, 2016|Categories: Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices|Tags: Bisexual, Representation|

Bisexual Awareness Week Day #1 - Previous Posts: Introduction by Shelly Z I’ve begun to see that there is a strange duality when it comes to my pride. I wear it openly online, and in person only to those who I know extremely well. I attended Pride for the second year this summer, and I am struck again and again by the duality upon reflection. A key highlight of Pride for me is seeing the colourful stickers that attendees wear to ID or to just celebrate. The only day I wear my “Proud” sticker is on Pride. I [...]

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Interview: Vee sits down with David Levithan & Nina Lacour

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:35-05:00June 29th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Blogathon 2016, Book Club, Fun Things, New Releases, Teen Voices|Tags: Coming Out, gay, lesbian, Minor Queer Characters, New Releases, Poetry, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Realistic, Representation|

I had the INCREDIBLE opportunity to be able to sit down with David Levithan & Nina Lacour when they came to Addendum Books on the You Know Me Well book tour. This was literally one of the best experiences of my life and I am so thankful to the authors for taking the time to do this and to everyone else who had a hand in making this possible. We got to talk about the new narratives You Know Me Well brings to the table of LGBTQIA+ YA, how the collaboration on YKMW began, and what its existence [...]

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Never Am I Whole

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:37-05:00June 18th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices, Writers on Writing|Tags: Black, Intersectionality, Mental Health, nonbinary, Representation|

by Wesaun There’s nothing more exciting than the prospect of finally seeing myself in the books I read except, oh wait, I never do. I look and look and search and search and all that meets me is a gap, all that meets me is the laughter track as if I am on a comedy show and I am the queer character that has just had a cruel trick played on them. All that meets me is parts of my identity dismembered and separated into different stories but never am I whole. Because according to books, I do [...]

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