YA fiction has always pushed boundaries. In Judy Blume’s Forever (1974), ‘theatrical’ Artie tries to kill himself after questioning his sexuality. Almost thirty years later in David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy (2003), Paul and Noah attend a high school so inclusive, their sexuality is the least of their worries. Levithan dared to dream of a world free of intolerance and hatred. Sadly, we’re still dreaming.

Our books are widely ‘challenged’ or banned. My own This Book Is Gay (2014) was removed from Alaskan libraries in 2015 after parental complaints. Luckily, the librarians fought back and the book is still in the Wasilla library, albeit in a different section.

We fight on. We, as LGBTQ+ authors, know how important it is to see ourselves in stories. If we live in stories, it means we live in the real world too. We are claiming our space, claiming our oxygen. Since the dawn of time, we have been told in a litany of ways that we are ‘less-than’, ‘out of the ordinary’, ‘abnormal’, ‘subnormal’, or plain ‘different’. We are none of those things. We are gloriously ourselves, and we show the world our glory during Pride.

That is why Pride is both party and protest. It’s noisy, it’s colourful, it’s glittery and it’s very, very visible. It’s a statement to the whole wide world that we are here; we celebrate our varied and diverse culture; our history; our struggles.

Bringing me to this very book. All the wonderful writers and illustrators featured are LGBTQ+. We’ve all got here despite the barriers and struggles we’ve experienced. Oh, and I’m sure we have. I bet every last one of us has, at some point, felt like a misfit, an outsider, a prisoner in our own body. And yet here we are, spinning that straw into gold! We are proud of ourselves because I know that I often felt like I wouldn’t succeed because of my gender or sexuality, but I did.

I am SHOOK at the talent I persuaded to write for us. Pretty much everyone included in these pages said yes within about ten minutes. What a day that was! I am a fangirl for every last established writer and illustrator in this collection, and I can’t tell you what a rush it was to help choose the four previously unpublished authors we’ve unearthed. They’re all going to be stars.

The only shame was that I couldn’t call upon ALL the LGBTQ+ YA talent I love so much. When you’ve finished this anthology and bought all our books (if you love LGBTQ+ authors, buy LGBTQ+ authors or ask your library to get them in for you) also check out YA superstars Patrick Ness, Cat Clarke, Liz Kessler, Susie Day, Andrew McMillan, Adam Silvera, Nina LaCour, Will Walton, Josh Martin, Robin Talley, Alex Gino and Marieke Nijkamp … and those are just the ones I can recall without googling. VERY sorry if I forgot you.

See all those names? We’re not successful because we’re gay, or trans, or bi, or queer. We’re successful because we’re good. We are all skilled and talented. The best thing we can do to influence change is what we do best. We tell stories: stories about ourselves and stories about people like us. These stories are that (potentially fictional) brick that was first thrown at the Stonewall riots, the inception of Pride marches. We are hurling our messages of love, of kindness, of hope, out into the world. Enjoy! And share them. That’s what you can do. Tell everyone you know about this book.