Archive

Sexy Girl Sex! (and Why it’s Important)

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:42-05:00June 14th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: New Adult|

Female sexuality in young adult and new adult fiction is a topic that has interested me for many years, and something that I’ve been wanting to write about for just as long. I’m glad I waited until now, because last month was a gold mine for arising issues relating to the topic. On twitter, social occurrences and media treatment of said occurrences sparked the trend of #YesAllWomen and #WeNeedDiverseBooks. While the events that initiated both hashtags were either disheartening or devastating, women used social media to prove that their opinions mattered. I also had the opportunity to attend [...]

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The Cross-Dresser in YA Literature

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:43-05:00June 12th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Book Review|

First let me say that I’m very happy and honored to be writing a blog post for Gay YA. What I’d like to talk about today is the representation of cross-dressers in YA literature. Though transgender characters are becoming easier to find, cross-dressing characters are not. Why is this? I think it represents our prejudices as a society. I truly believe that cross-dressers are one of the most marginalized and misunderstood segments of the population today. I’m thinking specifically of teen cross-dressers. Gay and transgender kids have support groups, but CD teens have very few if any resources. Representation of [...]

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June Book Haul

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:43-05:00June 9th, 2014|Categories: Archive|

Woah, it's June already! I don't know how that happened. I headed to the library last week and picked up my monthly quota of Gay YA, which I'm here to share with you all. On the docket for this month isssssss: Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block After David Levithan said at the con I attended that Weetzie Bat had inspired him to write, I had to read it. And Francesca Lia Block is one of my new favorite authors, so I had double the motivation! Shine by Lauren Myracle This has been on my TBR FOREVER. I just started it [...]

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Book Review: Caught in the Crossfire by Juliann Rich

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:43-05:00June 3rd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|

Juliann Rich’s debut novel Caught in the Crossfire is a new and much needed story in Gay YA literature. The book is about a gay teen who is a devout Christian, and struggling to reconcile those two things. We first meet Jonathan at the beginning of a month long bible camp. At the beginning of the story, Jonathan is aware of his feelings for guys, but not too eager to try and understand them. We’re also introduced to Ian, the love interest, quite early. Ian, we learn, is also gay and is much more outspoken about gay rights. [...]

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The Intersection of Art and Advocacy

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:43-05:00June 2nd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|

My son came out to me at the age of 15, and I remember feeling totally overwhelmed with fear. Though I could provide safety and acceptance within our home, I felt powerless to protect him in a world I knew could be less than kind to him. So I became an advocate as well as a mom. Let me take a moment to make an important point about what advocacy is and what it is not. True advocacy is walking beside a person engaged in fighting for equality. It does not assume that the people we support are powerless or weak, for that too is [...]

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Interview with Tess Sharpe

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00May 15th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Book Club|Tags: Bisexual|

Tess Sharpe is the author of Gay YA's May Book of the Month Far From You-- which has quickly found a place on my Favorites shelf. This book features a bisexual and disabled protagonist, and I found it to be incredibly moving and well-written. Join our discussion of it over on the forums and read our full review! Tess Sharpe is here today, discussing her writerly journey and her thoughts on Gay YA. This is my first interview, so I hope you all enjoy it! -Victoria Victoria: While on the path to getting published did you ever run into any [...]

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Review of FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00May 6th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|

FAR FROM YOU is GayYA's May Book of the Month. We're giving away a signed copy to two lucky winners in our giveaway, which you can enter here, and discussing the book as we read through it together here. Later in the month, you can look forward to an interview from Tess Sharpe and a TwitChat inspired by the book. Review: FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe You guys are all bookish people, so I'm sure you know (and savour) the feeling of being so wrapped up in a book that opening it feels like your very own [...]

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May Book Haul

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00May 3rd, 2014|Categories: Archive|

Hey everyone! So I'm going to be starting a new thing: book hauls! If you're unfamiliar with the term, it basically means I'm going to be slightly self-absorbed and hope you care about my very interesting thoughts on all the books I just bought. Except because I'm poor I'll probably mostly be doing library book hauls...where I talk about all the books I just checked out. So. Yay? Oh, and it'll be all (or mostly) Gay YA. Here we go! I got: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz on Audiobook I've [...]

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Review: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00May 1st, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review|

Review by Alex Mccoy Craig and Harry, ex-boyfriends, are trying to break the Guinness World Record for longest kiss. Peter and Neil, who've been dating for a while, are trying to figure out whether they're too familiar with one another. Ryan and Avery have just met and are tentatively (but excitedly) starting something new. And Cooper just wants to stop being so lonely and feeling so misunderstood. In *Two Boys Kissing*, the stories of each of these boys are told from the unique perspective of a group of gay men that have lost their lives to AIDS in [...]

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Haircuts, the Media, and Free Electrons

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00April 14th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: LGBTQIA, Representation|

About a year ago today, I announced to my friends that I was going to be somewhat spur-of-the-moment and chop off my waist-length hair for charity. I wasn't expecting huge applause, or great concern, or really any kind of reaction that involved a lot of emotion. All I wanted was someone to come with me to get it cut, for moral support. Instead I got: "Are you sure, Georgie? I mean - won't you look a bit - lesbiany?" At the time, of course, I rolled my eyes, believing it made absolutely no difference what these girls thought. I told myself they [...]

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