As a teenager, I rarely felt comfortable reading YA books, let alone gay YA books, because I felt so disconnected and rejected by my age group—having never really shared the same interests or ideals of people my own age, and often being bullied for it—that I did anything I could to subtly and quietly set myself apart from kids my age. Adults called me an old soul, which I was, but I also didn’t feel free to live my own life, and I faced the consequences of acting more grown up than I actually was when I reached early adulthood.
There’s a notion in gay culture that we actually end up experiencing our teenage years in our 20s, because our teens were not really ours to live. And while this professional introvert isn’t usually one to head out to clubs or hook up with strangers, I have found myself gravitating towards books with gay characters I relate to—and 99% of the time, they are YA books. Since I usually consider myself having grown out of the genre, I find myself thinking of the gay YA books I read as “guilty pleasures.”
But they’re not! The good ones give me a sense of myself and allow me to envision myself in the characters’ shoes—something that can’t be said for the vast majority of our media and culture. If you’re like me and struggle to find gay narratives you can relate to outside of Will & Grace or Schitt’s Creek, here are 12 gay YA books to make you feel yourself, or make you cry. Or both! It’s our party and we’ll cry if we want to.
What are some of your favorite gay YA books?
