Blog Post
Join It Gets Better’s Summer Reading Challenge
For more about the 2026 Summer Reading Challenge, click here. To revisit our 2025 Summer Reading Challenge, keep reading below.
Share or Donate
- Donate to one of our active campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.
- Share our fundraiser on with your community on social media and encourage folks to donate.
- Make a direct gift at itgetsbetter.org/donate.
Read Along With Us
Browse our official Summer Reading List, featuring new releases and classics from LGBTQ+ authors across genres. Use it to guide your fundraising challenge—or just to stack your summer-to-be-read pile.
This list of books is just meant to give you some thought starters, but we’d love to hear what you’re reading too. Suggest some of your favs in the comments on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok and we’ll add them to a “reader recommended” list midway through the challenge.
Fiction Reading List
Becky Albertalli – Amelia, If Only
Dean Atta – I Can’t Even Think Straight
Abdi Nazemian – Only This beautiful Moment
Shelly Jay Shore – Rules for Ghosting
Jen Ferguson – The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
Vichet Chum – Kween
Carli J. Corson – It’s a Love/Skate Relationship
Gia Gordon – The Redemption of Daya King
Natalie Naudus – Gay the Pray Away
Kyle Casey Chu – The Queen of Tybee County
Lily Braun-Arnold – The Last Bookstore on Earth
Novae Caelum – The King’s Weaver
Steven Rowley – The Guncle Abroad
Daniel Aleman – I Might Be In Trouble
Elizabeth Acevedo – The Poet X, With the Fire on High, Clap When You Land, and more
Zakiya N. Jamal – If We Were a Movie
Abby White – D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T.
L.C. Rosen – Emmett
Casey McQuiston – The Pairing
Aiden Thomas – Celestial Monsters
Victoria Zeller – One of the Boys
Jase Peeples – Twirl
Nonfiction Reading List
Dr. Sara Glass – Kissing Girls on Shabbat
Mia Bolton – As We Bloom
Maia Kobabe – Gender Queer: A Memoir
Alison Bechdel – Fun Home
Nicole Maines – It Gets Better… Except When It Gets Worse
Tommy Dorfman – Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation
Michael Arcineaux – I Can’t Date Jesus
Susan Stryker – Transgender History
Samantha Allen – Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States
Nico Lang – American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
Huw Lemmey – Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
Elliot Page – Pageboy
George M. Johnson – All Boys Aren’t Blue
Katerina Jeng – Gospel of a Whole Sun
Sarah Prager – Queer, There and Everywhere
Dan Savage and Terry Miller – It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living
Alok Vaid-Menon – Beyond the Gender Binary
Blair Imani – Read This to Get Smarter
Samra Habib – We Have Always Been Here
Audre Lorde – Sister Outsider
Matthew Reimer – We Are Everywhere
Jimmy Chen – Owning Your Voice: A Trans Voice Guide on Shaping and Finding Your Voice
Earn Fundraising Incentives
We know the goal is raising funds for It Gets better’s critical work while showcasing some incredible queer talent, but we also want to offer our thanks for folks who reach fundraising goals.
Raise $350 or more and receive a custom It Gets Better hardcover journal for your writing and random thoughts.
Raise $750 or more and receive a free copy of Perfectly Queer, our award-winning conversation card game.
Raise $1,000 or more and we’ll send you both.
This Campaign is Powered By All of You
Every book read, every dollar raised, every post shared helps amplify queer voices and directly supports It Gets Better’s mission to uplift and empower LGBTQ+ youth.
Let’s read with purpose. Let’s fundraise with pride. Let’s write the next chapter—together.