Hey, Dollface: Pushing the Boundaries of YA in 1978
It was around then I began to realize that there was some current between Chloe and me that was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before; it was a vague, clouded feeling that I couldn’t quite place or identify. It didn’t happen all of a sudden; it was more like moments of dim awareness, followed by a gradual recognition that it was there without my understanding what it was.
Deborah Hautzig’s Hey, Dollface, written while she was a student at Sarah Lawrence College, was originally published in 1978, one of the first books of its kind. I’ve only ever seen it on one list of LGBTQIAP+ YA, although it was just reprinted in 2010 (and subsequently released as an ebook) — it’s been largely overshadowed by Nancy Gardner’s Annie on My Mind (which deserves the recognition it gets). I would most likely never have found it if my father hadn’t left a copy of it on my bed in mid-2011. It’s a very short read: my paperback copy from 1980 is only 118 pages.
The cover of Skyscape’s 2010 reprinting of Hey, Dollface. There’s also a new audiobook (Brilliance Audio, 2012) and a paperback edition (Skyscape, 2014).
Our protagonist is Valerie, a Jewish girl living in New York City, about to start her first year at a new school. Val is a quirky narrator, but without ever seeming artificially quirky. She’s just Val — odd, charmingly idealistic Val who assures herself she’ll “never get jaded”. And she doesn’t, either, even faced with the disappointment towards the end of the book — Val never gives in to cynicism. At school, Val quickly bonds with Chloe Fox, who in another book might risk becoming, as she occasionally imagines herself to be, “some mythical mysterious girl that everyone wonders about”. Given that this is posted on Gay YA, I’m sure you can see where the story is headed from here.
Homosexuality is evoked at several points early in the book (i.e., even before Val starts to realize that she isn’t straight), both subtextually (Val’s vague feeling of “What-will-people-think” when walking around the city with Chloe) and explicitly (as when Chloe suggests they “pretend
“Do you think homosexuality is a sin?” I said.
“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t feel like it’s a sin. I really don’t know.”
“I know what you mean. I don’t feel like it is, either. But….”
The main drama of the book is, of course, Val’s growing attraction to Chloe. She wonders if the relationship she and Chloe have is normal, she daydreams about the two of them, she weighs the pros and cons of telling Chloe she dreams about the two of them. During a particularly intense moment on a hillside in Massachusetts, the moment seems almost right:
I tell her everything else. Why can’t I tell her this? Would she tell me? Our heads were so close I could see the pores on her nose. We stared at each other in silence for a long time. What’s she thinking about? I wondered. […] What would she think if she knew I’d been having weird daydreams about her? Or that I’d thought of touching her? Would she be disgusted, or would she want me to?
Then, of course, Val’s father interrupts.
After an awkward night at Chloe’s house where nothing quite happens but also something happens, everything starts to fall apart. Val wonders, “Did I do something wrong? Why didn’t you call me? Do you feel guilty, too? Or just scared of me?” Finally, they manage to have a real conversation. It doesn’t go quite as Val might have hoped, but (and this is especially striking to me in a book from 1978) it ends with a reconciliation of sorts:
“Chloe? Remember before I said I was sorry about what happened?” She nodded. “I’m not. I’m not sorry about anything.”
“Me neither.”
The question of sexuality aside, it’s not an easy book. Val watches her mother’s struggle with grief in the aftermath of her grandmother’s death and does her best to help support her through it (even as she herself is grieving), and then has to find a way to help Chloe through her father’s death (“Why do people say, ‘It’s okay’?” Val asks herself). She grapples with love, sex, and romance (with insightful help from her mother), and with the realities of being a woman in a world where women are constantly subject to sexualization by men. She finds herself subject to unwanted attention from her babysittee’s middle-aged father.
The cover of my 1980 Bantam paperback edition. More adventurous than the 2010 reprint cover.
Judaism permeates the text, without the book ever becoming a story about the “conflict” between religion and homosexuality, in contrast to a lot of contemporary LGBTQIAP+ YA where religion is foregrounded (and where the religion is usually Christianity, usually some variety of Evangelical Protestantism). When Val muses on the morality of homosexuality, it is with reference to Anne Frank:
I remembered reading in The Diary of Anne Frank about how Anne wanted to feel another girl’s breasts and offered to let the other girl feel hers, but the other girl didn’t want to. I guess if you’re cooped up all the time and miss out on everything you start doing with boys when you get to be the age Anne Frank was, it’s okay, I thought. She had an excuse to want to do it. But what about people who don’t have any excuse—they just want to? Do I want to?
The generational trauma of the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism are also frequent low-level presences in the story, whether in Val’s memories of her grandmother:
[Grandma] had made me certain that there was a God; she was history, and tradition, and culture, she cried on the holidays, her very existence was proof that God was there and that being a Jew meant believing this.
or, subtextually, in her mother’s insistence that Val has a “nice nose”. I don’t remember how much I noticed this Jewish-ness the first time I read it, but this time it really stood out to me.
I should attempt to wrap this up, so I’ll leave you with a concluding thought. A number of Goodreads reviews said the book felt dated, and to a limited extent I agree, in that I don’t think you could tell this kind of story with these (white, private school-attending, middle- to upper-class) characters, set in New York City in 2014. But it’s not set in 2014: if nothing else, as my father pointed out to me, Hey, Dollface is a reminder that there have always been people willing to push the envelope of “acceptable” YA fiction.
If this post has felt a little dry, it’s because I’m struggling to put my feelings about this book into words. I can only imagine what this book would have meant in 1978, but I know that it rings true for me still (despite not being Jewish, a girl, or in any doubt about my sexuality) thirty-six years later. I hope other people will find the same.
Nathaniel Harrington was born and raised in suburbs of Boston, studied (comparative) literature in college, and is currently improving his Gaelic on the Isle of Skye. He has been writing gay YA since 2008 and reading it since 2009; someday he hopes to be able to share it with others in a format that isn’t half-finished NaNoWriMo first drafts and miscellaneous fragments. He enjoys working out the details of magic systems, doing citations for academic papers, reading in several languages (although he has yet to read any LGBTQ YA in a language other than English; suggestions are welcome), and obsessively categorizing books he reads on Goodreads.
Shadowplay by Laura Lam: Review
by Georgie
Having read Laura Lam’s Pantomime – and loved it – I was super excited to read its sequel, Shadowplay, which follows Micah Grey’s journey as a fugitive after the tragedy at the end of the last book.
Pantomime’s closing moment saw Drystan, the white clown from the circus, telling Micah that he knew a magician who they can trust. At first their only problem is being on the run from the policiers, but more dangerous things soon start to happen. Micah’s being tracked by a Shadow who is absurdly skilled at following him. And when they get to the Kymri Theatre where the magician Jasper Maske lives, he starts to have visions of another time. The world-building in this novel was absolutely stunning, and every single page was full of colour and mystery and tiny hints that led up to one of the most shocking endings I’ve read in a long time.
Seriously, the ending. My mouth was genuinely hanging open. Just as I thought that all the problems had resolved themselves, more danger came into the picture, and all the little clues fell into place to reveal a darker, more sinister picture than I’d expected. This book managed to be haunting and enchanting at the same time, with Micah and Drystan’s romance woven into the heart of the story alongside mythology and magic. My only quibble with Pantomime was that it felt quite densely written which made it hard to follow at times – but, happily, Shadowplay was gripping from the first page to the last, and continued to have an exceptionally strong narrative voice that stands out from the rest of the YA market.
Again, the fact that Micah is intersex was clear throughout the book but really wasn’t made prominent at all, which was wonderful. There are so many LGBTQIA+ novels where the author has obviously tried too hard to tick that diversity box by including queer characters, but it gets awkward and forced and that character only has one dimension which is their sexuality or gender (or both). Laura Lam has done an awesome job in making Micah’s attitude to his gender realistic: he’s self-aware, but at the same time doesn’t dwell on it because it’s something that he’s dealt with for his whole life.
If you liked Pantomime, you’ll fall in love with Shadowplay. Almost like actual love. You’ll think about it the whole time and maybe dream about it a little bit. It’s one of those possessing books where the world it’s set in is so carefully and imaginatively built that it seems like a real place, and this novel is your route to get back there.
I suppose I could sum up this review by saying that in my head, I compared it to Narnia.
So that’s really all you need to hear.
Georgie Penney is a teen writer and bookworm from England. At the moment she’s working on a gay YA novel of her own and can be found procrastinating on Twitter (@missgeorgie) or else ranting on her blog (georgiepenney.weebly.com).
Author Interview: Becky Albertalli
Maybe you have heard about this upcoming book called Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which releases next year (April 7th), or maybe you haven’t, either way I’m here to tell you about it and about how excited I am for it!
First things first (I’m the realest…I had to, I’m sorry), what is it about ? According to Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.
Doesn’t it sound amazing ?! I thought so, and then we had the incredible chance to interview the author, Becky Albertalli, about it and it just made even more excited!
Nadia: What can you tell us about your forthcoming debut, Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda? What should we expect?
Becky Albertalli: So excited to be here, and thank you so much for interviewing me. I’ve been a fan of this blog for a long time!
SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA is about this messy-haired gay kid coming out, getting to know himself, and managing some tricky relationship dynamics – all while falling head over heels for his anonymous email pen pal. You should expect a lot of flirtatious emails, Elliott Smith worshipping, a few serious moments, and a bunch of making out.
N: We here at GayYA are eagerly awaiting April 7th. What’s it like for you to have your book almost officially here?
BA: It is completely surreal. It actually feels a lot like a pregnancy – so much slow-building anticipation, curiosity, excitement, and anxiety. I really think this time between my book deal and my release date has been transformative. There’s so much happening behind the scenes at HarperCollins, but part of the process has also been about preparing emotionally to step into an entirely new role. It’s amazing to realize I’ll be a published author in less than five months.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Balzer + Bray, 2015)
N: Where did the idea for SIMON come from?
BA: The idea for the book definitely started with Simon’s character. I had this mental image of a blond kid wearing glasses and a hoodie, and he kind of evolved from there into this smart, funny, music-obsessed theater kid, who’s way less cynical than he thinks he is. I always knew Simon would be gay – I spent years working with gay teens and gender nonconforming kids as a psychologist and volunteer. In some ways, I think of SIMON as a tribute to these kids, their awesome families, and their absolutely inspiring courage.
N: What was your favorite thing about writing SIMON (book)? And/or about writing Simon (character)?
BA: For me, so much of the SIMON book really is the Simon character! I loved writing the flirty emails between Simon and his pen pal, Blue. That being said, my absolute favorite scene to write – and all of my former therapy clients should stop reading this now – was a scene where Simon manages to get drunk at a bar in Midtown Atlanta. I would seriously love to write an entire book in the voice of Drunk Simon.
N: I read you are a clinical psychologist, and that is amazing! (I’m working on becoming one myself! Also you worked with gender nonconforming children?? That is awesome!) Do you think your experience in Psychology has influenced your writing in any way? If so, how?
BA: I am so, so excited to hear you are working on becoming a clinical psychologist! I definitely think my training and experience as a psychologist has influenced my writing. I am super careful not to use ANYTHING that my therapy clients have shared with me in their sessions. But in general, it was such a gift for me to spend time with some incredible teenagers, see them interact, and re-acclimate to life in high school. Also, in graduate school, I had to write detailed session transcripts to bring to supervision sessions. It’s amazing how much it forced me to really listen to the rhythms of teenage conversation – so helpful for writing dialogue.
N: Is there something you hope readers will take from SIMON?
BA: There’s no question that SIMON is intended to be a feel-good book. I love happy endings, I love makeout scenes, and I’m probably just as much of a hopeless romantic as Simon is. I didn’t want to shy away from the reality of being a gay teenage boy in suburban Atlanta, and the story definitely includes some difficult moments. That being said, I think the joy outweighs the heaviness here. More than anything, I’d love for this book to be another reminder that gay teens do deserve a happily ever after.
N: I saw the cover reveal post on The Midnight Garden, and it seems Simon reallyreally likes Oreos. So, an important question from an Oreos enthusiast, does Simon like his Oreos complete, or is he like me? I like to eat the black part and leave the white part for someone else. 😉
BA: This is an extremely important question – and as an Oreo enthusiast myself, I have all the respect in the world for your approach. Simon takes his Oreos in many ways, but his absolute favorite is the soggy Oreo mushed in milk.
N: You’ve talked a bit on Twitter about how books that aren’t “about” being queer are maybe not the best thing. Could you talk a little about that?
BA: It’s definitely a complicated issue. I actually really love books that include LGBTQIA+ characters, but aren’t necessarily about being queer – and I think it’s amazing that we’re starting to see more books like this in the market. I do think it’s a problem if people *only* want to see books that don’t deal with queer issues. There’s this sentiment I hear sometimes that YA has moved past needing to explore these issues, but I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that point. Aspects of LGBTQIA+ identity are still so central to many teens’ experiences, and being queer can come with enormous stressors for teens – especially in certain regions of the country, certain religious groups, certain subcultures, and even specific families. Simon is a gay, white teenage boy who comes from a liberal family – in a conservative suburb – of a liberal city – in a conservative region of the country. So many environmental factors shape our experiences as we develop our sexual identities. It’s so important that we continue to tell a broad range of stories.
N: What’s on the horizon for you? Any future projects coming up? Do you think you’ll continue to write about queer characters?
BA: Right now, I’m just beginning edits on my second book with Balzer + Bray, which is a companion book to SIMON. Though the main character of my second book is a heterosexual teen girl, I’m excited about a few queer supporting characters. Also coming down the pipeline: a dual-POV gay love story set in New York City, co-written with my friend Adam Silvera (author of the stunningly amazing MORE HAPPY THAN NOT, which releases from Soho Teen in June).
Becky Albertally
I do know I’ll always want to write about queer characters, in both main and supporting roles. I’ll write about non-queer characters, too – but I try to keep in mind that writing straight, cis characters is a decision, not a default. Not every story is a good match for every author, but I do think all authors have a responsibility to approach diversity issues thoughtfully and intentionally.
N: Where would you like to see queer YA go next?
BA: There’s so much to be excited about in upcoming queer YA, and so much I’d like to see! I would love to see more exploration of intersectional diversity – especially more characters who are disabled or culturally diverse, in addition to being queer. I’d also love to see more queer historical YA (I fell in love with Robin Talley’s incredible LIES WE TELL OURSELVES, and I’ve been dying for more in that vein). It would also be great to have more stories about teens who identify in some of the less well represented groups under
the LGBTQIA umbrella – for example, trans and asexual teens (and I’m especially excited for I.W. Gregorio’s debut, NONE OF THE ABOVE, about an intersex teenager). Finally, in general, I’d love to see more book covers like Dahlia Adler’s upcoming UNDER THE LIGHTS, featuring gay and lesbian couples kissing.
Also, in general: more kissing. I want to see so much kissing.
I definitely agree with the “more kissing and happiness” part.
Thank you so much Becky for sharing some of your time with us!
You can pre-order SIMON online, and find out more about Becky on twitter and on her website.
(So, the verdict: SIMON sounds awesome amirite?)
Author Interview: Ami Polonsky
Gracefully Grayson, which we reviewed earlier this month, is a middle-grade book about a transgender girl and it’s Ami Polonsky’s debut novel. We had the pleasure of interviewing Ami about her amazing book and her writing process.
Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky (Hyperion 2014)
Q: Gracefully Grayson was just released on November 4th! What is it like to have your book out in the world?
A: Thanks so much for interviewing me! It’s really exciting that GRACEFULLY GRAYSON is out in the world. I waited twenty-five months for pub day! On one hand, I love that people all over can read and talk about Grayson’s story and I feel so honored that GRACEFULLY GRAYSON has been well received. On the other hand, my life feels very much the same as it did before November 4th. I still spend a lot of time doing laundry, picking up after my kids and pacing around the house trying to come up with new writing ideas. Unfortunately, most writers live pretty unglamorous lives!
Q: Where did the idea for Gracefully Grayson come from?
A: When my two children were very young, I noticed that my son wasn’t drawn exclusively to “boy toys” and my daughter wasn’t drawn exclusively to “girl toys.” I began to think a lot about the boxes that society tries to place boys and girls into and it made me really angry. I didn’t want the external world dictating my kids’ interests, preferences and desires. I felt like the pink aisles and blue aisles were limiting my children’s experiences as human beings—something that was in direct opposition to what I wanted for them; I wanted their worlds to be wide open. I thought about the challenges a child would face if they really and truly didn’t fit into the “pink box” or the “blue box.” It was a few years later that the idea for Grayson came to me but I know the seed was planted when I was feeling this frustration.
Q: What would you say was your favorite thing about writing Gracefully Grayson?
A: Through writing GRACEFULLY GRAYSON, I really came to appreciate the power of the subconscious mind. Often, as I wrote, ideas would pop into my brain. I’d have no idea where they came from but they’d make perfect sense. My favorite thing about writing GRACEFULLY GRAYSON was learning how expansive the subconscious is and learning how to give my (usually overactive) mind the space and permission to be quiet and create.
Q: Grayson, the protagonist of your book, is a young trans girl. Can you share what your research process was like, to portray that accurately?
A: I did extensive research only after writing my first draft. I knew a decent amount about what it means to be transgender prior to writing draft one just from paying attention to the news and the world around me. I felt that, emotionally speaking, I could put myself into the shoes of a child that appeared to be someone she wasn’t. After all, haven’t we all felt at some point like our inner selves and our external selves are out of alignment? Haven’t we all felt like the world can’t see us for who we truly are? I was worried that if I did extensive research before writing a draft, someone else’s voice could seep into Grayson’s, or someone else’s story could get too tied up into hers. After I had a draft that solidly portrayed Grayson as a unique individual with a strong voice and strong emotions, I started to read and research more extensively. Then I was able to layer more detail into her experience.
Q: It’s clear that Grayson would prefer “she/her/hers” pronouns, but there’s no point in the book when it is really talked about. Why did you decide to go with that route?
A: You’re right—Grayson should be referred to as “she.” Grayson flinches when Uncle Evan refers to her as “son.” She says she’d never try out for the boy’s choir, and she wishes she could use the girls’ bathroom. There was never a conversation in the book about pronouns because, by the end of the book, Grayson is just getting up the courage to show the world who she really is. Plot-wise, a conversation about pronouns would come after that.
Q: I don’t want to say anything spoilery in case our readers haven’t read the book, but why did you decide to end the book in that particular way? (AHH!!!)
A: This is a question I’ve gotten a lot. The end of the book isn’t meant to be ambiguous. I love endings that are also beginnings. Readers have wanted to know how Grayson’s community will react to her now that she’s taking steps to align her external appearance to her inner self. The beauty of reading is that you—the reader—get to fill in the missing pieces based on your own knowledge and what you’ve learned about the characters. In response to the many questions I’ve gotten about how Aunt Sally, Uncle Evan, Jack, Brett, Paige, etc. will react is…they’ll each react the way you’d expect them to react!
Q: Do you think you’d ever write another book about Grayson? (YES PLEASE? WE NEED A SERIES ABOUT GRAYSON GROWING UP) If not, how do you see Grayson and family in the future?
A: Aw, thanks for wanting more! It never crossed my mind to make Grayson’s story a series and I really do believe that GRACEFULLY GRAYSON is a stand-alone novel. That said, I’d never definitively say no…but I will say that it’s unlikely. Again, I don’t want to do the reader’s job here by saying how I see Grayson in the future. I will say that, as the author, I gave Grayson all the tools she needs to live a life true to who she is and that in the future Grayson will be better than okay.
Q: What has the reaction from young readers been like?
A: It has been really heartwarming to get notes from young transgender readers telling me I’ve “gotten it right,” and that they’re grateful to see themselves reflected in a character in a book. I’ve also loved hearing from cisgender readers who are rooting for Grayson. I wrote this book for everyone—trans kids and their allies, and those who don’t yet understand.
Q: Do you have any other books coming out in the future? Do you think you’ll write about more queer characters?
A: The next book I’m working on is one I’m really excited about. It tells the intertwining stories of two girls who are on parallel journeys. Both girls are cisgender and gender identity isn’t a theme in the book. I don’t have any specific plans beyond that book right now, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if I wrote another queer character in the future.
Ami Polonsky
Q: Where would you like to see queer MG/YA go?
A: MG and YA literature needs to reflect the fact that gender identification and sexual orientation can be complex and varied and this complexity and variation is normal and beautiful and should be embraced. In this sense, queer characters should show up in MG/YA literature in the same ways that any other characters show up—as main characters, as supporting characters, as likable characters, as unlikable characters, as characters who have everything figured out and as characters who are struggling. While we still have a ways to go, I think we’re moving in the right direction.
Thank you so much Miss Polonsky for answering our questions and giving us such a great story!
You can buy Gracefully Grayson online, and find out more about Ami on twitter and on her website.
Cover Reveal Exclusive: The Tear Collectors by Billy Jolie
We have the great happiness of hosting our first ever exclusive cover reveal for The Tear Collectors by Billy Jolie. The Tear Collectors is a self published YA novel featuring a gay teen!
THE TEAR COLLECTORS is the story of three teenage misfits whose lives entangle over the course of one summer; where secrets revealed give way to an explosive finale of love, angst, and casualty.
Changes that accompany divorce can be hard. For Farrah, she’s forced to spend the summer at Crystal Lake with her alcoholic mother, but this is just the beginning of her problems. As her new life slowly unravels, an inner demon from her past surfaces and threatens her sanity. Binge and purge – it’s a lot easier for Farrah to cope when she’s ten pounds skinnier. And by summer’s end, she discovers looks can be a real killer.
Being openly gay isn’t easy for 17-year-old Brendan White. When his high school guidance counselor all but demands his disenrollment, he knows he’ll be in trouble at home. Fearing his father’s wrath, Brendan flees and finds himself at the edge of a cliff, contemplating a swan dive. He’s lost all hope, but a redheaded stranger appears and begs him to reconsider. Their chance encounter alters his future irrevocably.
The best way to piss off your Upper East Side parents is to narrowly escape an arrest for drug possession. Blaze’s antics find him exiled to his grandmother’s lake house for some fresh air rehab. There, he meets a couple of damaged souls and assumes a new role – protector. But even Blaze can’t derail what’s inevitable.
We’re putting the reveal under a read more, though if you’ve clicked through from Twitter or another source it will not show– the cover may be triggering for those who’ve struggled with eating disorders, body image, or people who are triggered by non-explicit nudity.
With that covered….