Becky Albertalli: Queer Stories Help Make it Better

When New York Times bestselling author Becky Albertalli was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s in the suburbs of Atlanta, her access to queer stories was so limited, “I legitimately didn’t understand that someone like me could be queer.” 

That’s a big part of why Becky didn’t come out, even to herself, until she was in her mid 30’s — after she’d written a handful of successful YA books, including one of the most beloved queer YA books of all time, “Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” (you might know it better as the hit movie “Love, Simon.”). 

Becky joined us for the Summer Reading Challenge to share a part of her It Gets Better stories because she knows first hand how life-affirming seeing yourself reflected in the pages of a story can be. 

“It really does get better,” she says. “And queer books are a part of that. They make space for self-discovery, for exploring ideas around identity, and for finding community. Sometimes the books are your queer community.”

Watch Becky’s It Gets Better Summer Reading Challenge video here and explore the rest of our summer reading list and videos from queer authors.