Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, 240 p.

"In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere."--Goodreads blurb

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes, so to speak, is the only way to grow as a person. I will never know what it's truly like to be Maia, but through her story and illustrations, I feel like I understand sexualities that differ from my experiences a little bit better. This story could have been very different had Maia not been supported by family. So many sexually questioning people end up very different because the people in their lives just could not accept them. This is a hard, yet important read for anyone trying to learn about people in different walks of life.