Imagine wanting to write an auto-biography but being reluctant to let strangers into your world. It was from this precise spot, between a rock and a hard place, that Maia Kobabe decided to write Gender Queer, an auto-biographical graphic novel, which illustrated author's quest for self-identity.
Kobabe prefers the pronouns e/im/eir, and has said that the book is not only a cathartic journey of self-healing but also a resource for anyone else going through eir experiences. What began as a book about what it meant to the author personally to be non-binary and asexual because something far more expansive in that it also became a book that helped others who identified in the same way find their own authentic self, and share it with those around them.
The book deals gently with negotiating the minefield of the adolescent crush and the confusion each of these crushes causes. Does a crush mean that one is gay? Curious? Straight but preoccupied with another same-sex person? Further through the novel we learn of Kobabe's indecision regarding the best way to come out to family and friends, without a mortifying discussion.
The book has become both a great success and a polarizing one, with several school districts adding it to the banned books list. Honored by the American Library Association with its Alex Award, the auto-biography has been removed from school libraries across the country and is now the most removed-book from libraries since 2020.
