I think sometimes it\u2019s easy to forget that writing should be\u00a0fun.<\/p>\n
I write a lot about queer kids. About sad queer kids. About mental health issues, particularly how they affect queer kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I love making the space for that. I love giving sad stories and characters for sad readers who may need them. To see themselves, to see their feelings reflected, to know that it\u2019s okay to be sad, it\u2019s okay that things are hard, it\u2019s okay that you\u2019re struggling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In my newest book,\u00a0Brady Mason\u2019s Perfect Fit<\/em>,\u00a0Brady\u00a0struggles. She\u2019s an orphan who feels alone and yearns for family. She\u2019s a queer kid thrust into a public world of fashion that she doesn\u2019t understand or relates to. She\u2019s a tough kid who wants to find a safe and soft place to land.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But at the heart of it all, while writing about this kid and her journey, I also wanted to have\u00a0fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Devil Wears Prada<\/em>\u00a0is one of my favorite movies. There\u2019s something so delicious about watching Meryl Streep dressed in some of the best clothes I\u2019ve ever seen being mean and a little unhinged while Anne Hathaway tries to keep up with her demands. And, well, I\u2019ve always loved Anne Hathaway, will always love Anne Hathaway, from her\u00a0Princess Diaries\u00a0years and onward. Because there\u2019s something magical about that, too, isn\u2019t there? About being a fifteen-year-old who suddenly realizes you\u2019re actually a princess, that fairytale moment that I think we all have our own versions of.\u00a0<\/p>\n So\u00a0when I sat down to write this story, this emotional journey of a queer kid trying to find her place in the world, trying to find a family,\u00a0trying to be comfortable in her own skin\u2026well, I happened to be watching\u00a0The Devil Wears Prada<\/em>. And I knew, then, I wanted to take the things I loved about\u00a0The Devil Wears Prada<\/em>, with\u00a0Princess Diaries<\/em>, and decided to find a place and story for Brady within them. Inspired by them.\u00a0<\/p>\n And it was fun! It was fun imagining a younger modern version of Miranda Priestly and how she would come up in the fashion world and how she would deal with a smart mouthed, rough and tumble Jersey girl showing up and saying\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0her daughter. It was fun thinking about what the fantasy of\u00a0Princess Diaries<\/em> would look like for a girl like Brady. And it was fun to take these things and do what I always do when I write: make it queer, make it real, make it emotionally honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I still had to learn things along the way. I don\u2019t know much about fashion, for all my love of the\u00a0Chanel boots\u00a0Anne Hathaway\u00a0wears, and I maybe got myself a Vogue subscription to\u00a0prepare a bit more. I had to think about, if I wanted it to be honest and real while also being a fantasy (orphan is actually a rich woman\u2019s daughter), how can I still tell this story in a way that isn\u2019t too fantastical? How can I give Brady and kids like her the space to have this wish fulfilment story but not move too far away from feeling real?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But I think that balance was where the magic actually happened. Because while we need the mirrors that reflect our struggles, we deserve the windows that look out onto something spectacular, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Writing\u00a0Brady Mason\u2019s Perfect Fit<\/em>\u00a0reminded me that while we write to survive, we also write to play. And if I can give one reader the chance to see themselves not just in the struggle, but in the strut down the runway?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Well,\u00a0that makes the fun even more worth it.<\/p>\n Nicole\u00a0Melleby, a New Jersey native, is the author of highly praised novels for young readers, including the Lambda Literary finalist\u00a0Hurricane Season<\/em>,\u00a0ALA Notable book\u00a0How to Become a Planet<\/em>,\u00a0Camp QUILTBAG<\/em>\u00a0(co-written with A. J. Sass), and The House on Sunrise Lagoon series. She\u2019s also the author of\u00a0Sunny and Oswaldo<\/em>, as well as the co-editor of\u00a0Athlete Is Agender: True Stories of LGBTQ+ Excellence in Sports<\/em>.\u00a0She lives with her wife and their family and invites you to visit her online at\u00a0nicolemelleby.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think sometimes it\u2019s easy to forget that writing should be\u00a0fun. I write a lot about queer kids. About sad queer kids. About mental health issues, particularly how they affect queer kids.\u00a0 And I love making the space for that. I love giving sad stories and characters for sad readers who may need them. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}