What I need, as a reader, is a character with a heart and a voice and a pulse. I need a character so vivid and so specific that she doesn't feel like fiction.
Becky Albertalli
There is no universal gay experience. All stories are relevant, and all stories are needed.
The Internet and social media can really be life-saving for some kids.
I am a psychologist. That's my training.
My book, 'Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,' is a gay love story. It's also a story about friendship. Quite honestly, it's also probably a 320-page product placement for Oreos.
It's funny, the moments that shape you as a writer.
From a plot perspective, what I finally found for my touchstone was that I consider 'Upside' to be a loose telling of Jane Austen's 'Emma,' or 'Clueless.'
I've been fat since fourth grade and bullied for it, but I still knew I couldn't represent every kids' experience.
Fat has a range of experiences.
There are so many different environmental factors for just how safe it is for a kid to come out.
I've worked a lot with kids who identify as LGBTQ or gender nonconforming, and they are unquestionably some of the bravest people I've ever met.
As a psychologist, I'm painstakingly careful not to borrow my clients' stories for my fiction - but in a general sense, I'm very much inspired by all the teenagers I've been lucky enough to know and work with.
Greg Berlanti is in charge of a lot of superhero shows on television. He is a literal superhero. He is absolutely brilliant.
I think we're all a little bit caught up in the drama inside our own heads.
Don't be afraid of growing up and changing and getting used to these newer versions of yourself and becoming more comfortable sharing those versions of yourself with the people in your life, even people who knew you when you were younger.
Love is bumping along together with the people in your life and making mistakes and trying to make them right by virtue of the fact that these are people you actually love; you care about them enough to muddle through it with them.
I guess I feel it's funny to be looked to for advice on writing when I am still taking in so much from other people.
'Simon' was such a charmed experience.
It's so easy as a teen to feel like everybody is having this normal experience - except you. You're on the outside.
There are so many kinds of normal.
It's really important to me to follow the kinds of conversations that happen around diversity and representation and writing inclusive books.
Most people don't seem to know that I am Jewish.
I lived in the D.C. area for eight years.
You have this idea that Hollywood is all about making money and is very impersonal. But 'Love, Simon' is such a passion project for director Greg Berlanti.
'Simon' was always a word-of-mouth book. When it came out in 2015, I don't know that anybody thought that 'Simon' could be mainstream. Publisher Harper Collins loved it in-house, but it wasn't a lead title. Nobody is more surprised than me that it's a film. It's the little book that could.
One of the things that 'Love, Simon' is doing that hasn't been done before is it's a gay teen rom-com with a mainstream wide release and the backing of a studio that previous gay rom-coms have not had. I'm really excited by that.
I actually don't know much about Jaclyn Moriarty's process or where her stories come from or who inspired her characters. I just know that reading her books feels like sitting with friends. Her characters feel alive.
When I read, I don't need a character to look like me, act like me, or think like me. I don't need to have my heart broken. I don't need to be surprised or amused or challenged, and I don't need to swoon.
I like the idea of a broader range of people feeling seen.
As a reader and as a viewer, usually when I watch a movie, I'm caught up enough in the movie that I'm not breaking it down to the details anyway.
I don't set up screenings. I can barely plan my kid's birthday party.
I'm very much a people-pleaser, and with a book out, I had to learn that you can't please everybody with your book.
