That said, Liz is reckoning with all those things on top of the massive responsibility of making decisions about who you want to be, and what you want from your life at 17 or 18 years old. Most of the things I consider in this book are things that I would consider at any stage: how my community is going to respond to my coming out, or how that's going to influence the ease with which I get to move through a space, whether it's at a school or a workplace or the way people receive me when I'm wearing a pride flag at Starbucks. What do you have to think about writing a queer Black romance for young readers that you wouldn't if you were writing for adults? There are so many young, queer Black people that deserve so much better than what we've gotten, both on the page and in the world. I write for all the girls in this town, who nobody pays attention to but deserve all of the praise and credit and all the happiest endings.

I write for my nieces, who are 14 and 18.

Ntozake Shange has this quote that I really love: 'I write for all the young girls of color who don't even exist yet so that there's something there for them when they arrive.' I think about 15-year-old me, who was scared of everything but wanted so badly for someone to love her and to be seen as a whole person for all the parts of who I am. Who is the primary audience that you hold in your mind while you're writing? I love those stories so much and wanted to see someone like me reflected in them as more than a sidekick. I wanted to write a book that was very much an homage to the work that I love the most, which were the John Hughes movies of the eighties, the teen romantic comedies of the late '90s, early aughts – we're talking A Cinderella Story, Drive Me Crazy, 10 Things I Hate About You.

You should see me in a crown book lgbt