not to be pjo-posting in the calendar year 2023 but GOD. every time i remember that leah jeffries is out there, playing annabeth, destroying everyone's preconceptions of what she's allowed to look like or who she can be—God, it makes me so!!! i was so worried that the fandom would never adjust. that i would struggle to reconcile this actress who—though fantastic!—looks so different from what i imagined with the fierce girl i loved so much as a child. but it hasn't happened! it hasn't happened. despite the shitty remarks a lot of people did make, the majority of the response has been so good—that fanartists, especially. what a bunch of literal chads. they took leah on first, with more grace and kindness and love than anyone, and now when i see a Black girl in braids pulled into a ponytail, wearing a camp half blood shirt, brandishing a dagger—it's instantaneous. i just think it now. that's annabeth chase! that's my annabeth chase, the first character i ever identified with and loved, and she is leah is the book version is whoever any of us need her to be, and i am so, so happy about that.