Growing up is realising that Sofia was just an 8 year old girl who had too many responsibilities and was pressured by adults to save her new family and a kingdom and realm she now has to take care of and protect and people have high expectations of her, and that she was never given any real time to grieve her missing (most likely dead) father who only passed away like a year before her mother's remarriage and she is a child with trauma and doesn't want to bother people with it or tell anyone her secrets because they might put her in danger. She is a prodigy in just about everything she tries and isn't used to the idea of failling or not getting the hang of things quickly.

Sofia is also constantly betting her own life or being forced to negotiate the lives of her family since she was 8. She was betrayed by 4 adults, 3 of which were her teachers and and 3 of them are redeemed. She watched two people be murdered and a man waste his life away. Her brother being distressed and angry because he wasted his childhood preparing for a position he was never going to get because their grandmother and aunt lied. She watched the reason the twins were born and the queen was killed. Has been trapped in the middle of no where multiple times. Her sister stole her amulet. She saved the world multiple times. And her friends were toxic to her for being better than them at a game and trying to help a girl out. Was tricked by Cedric into cursing the entire kingdom to sleep. Is very protective and suspicious to anyone who even looks at the Amulet. Was given a position that constantly puts her life in danger and told to protect an entire realm filled with like 50 kingdoms. Must watch or read peoples lives no matter how gory in order to give them an ending weather it's sad or happy as long as it's an ending. Is blamed if things go wrong because of an adult. Isn't believed even if she's right. And none of the adults listen to her and always underestimate her.

This child needs a hug, therapy, sleep, and should just go play Dazzle all, Flyer Derby, or Ice dancing, go back to the Buttercup scouts, do her homework, practice magic, and play with her animals.

The Percy Jackson Series

Starting off strong, we have the Percy Jackson series as one of the most exciting and inspiring depictions of queer characters. While the first series doesn't expand on explicitly queer characters, the theme of difference and community are central to the narrative. Percy, as well as all the other demigods, is ADHD and dyslexic, which isolates him from his peers due to his difficulty in school. It's not just these disabilities that differentiate him. It is also his godly heritage. He finds his community within Camp Half Blood, surrounded by people like him. This sense of community and connection between the demigods is essential to the series as it dictates their alliances and friendships.

Going into the second series, we are confronted with an entirely different group of demigods that descend from the roman counterparts of the greek gods. This presents an entirely different community and group of characters that directly conflict with the demigods of Camp Half Blood. There is one character who seems to bridge these two distinct groups, and that is Nico Di Angelo. Nico is a particularly interesting character as his descendants as a child of Hades distinguishes him from the other children in Camp Half Blood. He is different and isolated, more so due to the fact that he does not come from the same time as the other characters. Nico finds himself in limbo between worlds and expresses that through his connection to Camp Jupiter, the camp for roman demigods. As the series progresses, we see the rift created between Nico and the other characters. Nico does not try to connect with them any more than he has to, that is, until he is outed as gay to Jason Grace.

Nico is the very first explicitly queer character in the entire series. After his reveal as a queer character, more queer characters appear in the series, like Will Solace, Nico's boyfriend, and Alex Fierro, from the Magnus Chase series within the same universe. For those who grew up reading the series, these characters are some of the first we saw being explicitly queer in children's media. That's the most crucial aspect of these characters. They are queer characters in children's media.

I grew up on this series and connected very intensely to Nico and the other queer characters found in it. While Percy is not explicitly queer in the novels, his experience as a child that is inherently different from those around him resonated with so many of us and continues to do so.

Personal rating: 10/10. I think this is one of the best portrayals of queer characters in novels for pre-teens.

“Our own selves make us most unhappy, and that’s why we’re so anxious to lose them, don’t you think?”

– The Secret History

the "i definitely do NOT have feelings for them in any way shape or form" while obviously crushing on them trope might be cliché to you. it's about being doomed from the start, the desperate denial of the starved self, the tragic inevitably of love to me tho

I feel like a poorly written poem. Picture Credit ~ 📍 pinterest

@luciferslilith7

i just want my books to consume me devour me unstring my bones and spit me out reborn.

Beauty is terror.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

"Do you understand the violence it took to become this gentle?"

“Death is the mother of beauty.” “And what is beauty?” “Terror”

— Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Magical boy

For the first addition to the comics section, we have Magical Boy by The Kao. This graphic novel follows the story of Max, a young trans man suddenly thrust into a world of danger as monsters appear around his town. It's up to him to deal with this magical threat as his mom tells him he is a descendant of a long line of women who fought evil with their magical powers. Throughout the story, he has to deal with the body dysmorphia that comes with his powers that express themselves in very feminine manners. He deals with the homophobia and transphobia of the church in his community and the transphobia of his mother, as she refuses to accept him for who he is. As the story progresses, Max and his friends grow and accept themselves for their differences and queer identities.

This comic has a wonderful representation of a trans character and the struggles that come with transness. Max has to deal with his mom trying to make him into a woman and express his femininity despite being clear in his dislike of it. It's a beautiful story of acceptance as Max's mother learns to love her son for who he is. There are quite a few other characters that are queer within the comic who express and deal with their queerness in different ways. Max's best friend is loud and proud of her identity as a lesbian, while her future girlfriend deals with internalized homophobia due to her father's connection to the church. This is a story of acceptance and what happens when we lose ourselves to hate for those around us.

Personal rating: 10/10. Max was extremely well developed with a compelling story. The art is also fantastic, and it's such a great read. It's made even better because it's so accessible and set in high school, thus, making it an easy read and relatable to young readers.

Strange how old dusty libraries and stained pages of books makes you feel alive and fresh as new.

| pagesofjasmine

I need one of these!!! 😍😍😍

In the first week of April the weather turned suddenly unseasonably, insistently lovely. The sky was blue, the air warm and windless, and the sun beamed on the muddy ground with all the sweet impatience of June.

– Donna Tartt, The Secret History