YA Pride

Call for Submissions: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:14-05:00January 4th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|Tags: Aromantic|

During Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, we want to use our space on GayYA to support AroSpec voices. Last year, we decided to host Awareness Week Series over the various LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on the site at all times, we wanted to dedicate a concentrated space to people from a specific community to talk about how they’re represented in YA. The response from the community was phenomenal– we got to feature many fantastic and thought-provoking posts, and watched as the community fostered some nuanced discussions via our identity-centric Twit Chats. I personally remember feeling [...]

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A Form of Love That Has Nothing to Do with Sex

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:40:14-05:00December 17th, 2016|Categories: Archive|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day #6 Previous Posts: Even a Little is a Lot: Asexual Representation in YA by Lucy Mihajlich | Representing the Asexual Experience by Tabitha O’Connell | My Kind of Normal | 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. by Justine Mitchell In 2012, age nineteen, I entered my first and only romantic relationship, with a boy I'd been friends with for a few years. I'd been interested in him for most of that time, too. I'd read about [...]

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Even a Little is a Lot: Asexual Representation in YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:17-05:00December 16th, 2016|Categories: Author Guest Blog, New Releases, Publishing People, Writers on Writing|Tags: asexual, Dystopia, Speculative|

Asexuality in YA Series: Day #5 Previous Posts: Representing the Asexual Experience by Tabitha O'Connell | My Kind of Normal | 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. The future always seemed bright, but it turns out that was just global warming. Meals don’t come in pills, shoes don’t lace themselves, and there are flying cars, but the gas mileage sucks. There is one difference. People have always searched the internet for answers. Now they actually worship it. Pen Nowen’s father [...]

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Representing the Asexual Experience

By Daisy|2020-03-28T13:40:17-05:00December 15th, 2016|Categories: Archive|

by Tabitha O’Connell As an asexual reader, I love finding characters I can relate to—so few exist whose sexuality is similar to mine that it’s really special every time I encounter one. Sometimes, these characters have the word “asexual” explicitly applied to them in-text, and it’s always great to see my label used and normalized. However, what I most enjoy reading are narratives that convey what it’s like to be asexual—and using the word isn’t necessary for that to happen. In fact, some of the ace characters who have been the most meaningful to me are ones that [...]

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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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What’s So Important About Ace Representation?

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 13th, 2016|Categories: Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual, Representation|

by Kazul Wolf We all know that representation matters. This is a blog on diversity, I mean, it goes without saying. Asexual representation, however, is a tricky thing. Growing up ace but completely ignorant of what asexuality is wasn’t a fun experience, as most asexuals would know. I was never into the things that other girls liked, but not in the I'm-better-than-them nonsense sorta way, I just didn't get it. Why did the princesses always want princes when they could have DRAGONS? So I never got into Disney, I avoided anything that was pink or frilly because I [...]

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Navigating the In-Between: Demisexuality in YA Lit

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 12th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: asexual, Demisexual|

by Dill Werner I can only speak for one person when it comes to demisexuality—me. My experiences, my preferences, my sexuality, me. Being a queer demisexual means that I fall somewhere along a spectrum within a spectrum along another spectrum. I am a demisexual floating in the asexual spectrum hunched under the queer umbrella. It’s…complicated. Demisexuality is a very individual and emotionally-linked experience, which makes it difficult to draw out an exact description of what it is to be demi. Being demi means my sexual orientation falls somewhere between asexual and sexual. I feel sexual attraction but not [...]

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Introduction: Asexuality in YA Series

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 12th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|Tags: asexual, Demisexual|

During our Asexuality in YA series, we want to use our space on GayYA to support ace-spectrum voices. Last year, we decided to host Awareness Week Series over the various LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on the site at all times, we wanted to dedicate a concentrated space to people from a specific community to talk about how they’re represented in YA. The response from the community was phenomenal– we got to feature many fantastic and thought-provoking posts, and watched as the community fostered some nuanced discussions via our identity-centric Twit [...]

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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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