I've loved serial fiction for a long time; particularly fanfiction—and now podcasts. There's something so thrilling and maddening about being hooked on a series and having to wait for the next installment to come out. So when The Gay YA was approached about covering Serial Box's new series Geek Actually, a diverse, geeky Sex and the City, we jumped at the chance. Serial Box is doing wonderfully innovative new things with serial fiction, and we absolutely can't wait to see where they take this series. We sat down with two of the writers, Cecelia Tan and Rachel Stuhler, to [...]

When I read Ashley Herring Blake's How To Make A Wish last year, I knew it would become one of my favorite contemporaries of 2017. It's almost Sarah Dessen-ish in feel, with an openly bisexual protagonist named Grace you just can't help but root for. Throw in messy, complicated family dynamics and a gorgeous setting and you've got an absolutely wonderful book. I'm so thrilled we got to ask Ashley about How to Make a Wish, and I know you'll enjoy her answers about this wonderful book. Be sure to get it when it comes out Tuesday! What inspired you to [...]

Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week Series: Day 5 by Ben "Books" Schwartz Let’s be honest: there’s not a lot of aromantic representation out there in the world of fiction. Here and there, though, on the fringes, aro characters are starting to show up, and every time I encounter one, my soul does a little dance of joy. As aro characters do appear, hopefully they’ll be good ones, represented thoughtfully, in ways that reflect the fullness and complexity of what it’s like to be aromantic. Aromantic representation is hugely, wildly important. I myself am agender and aromantic, but it took [...]

During our Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week series, 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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]