Photos: New dresses, hiking, amazing clouds

I am home sick AGAIN. I am taking Naomi's advice to prophylactically use the steroid inhaler from when I was sick for two months with bronchitis, in the hope of avoiding that happening again.

However, in between being sick, I recently managed to go hiking in Malibu and go to an exchange party where everyone brings things they don't want any more and takes what they want. I obtained three gorgeous dresses, one silk, and two skirts. The skirts are not shown as I went to the party in a dress, so I had nothing to wear on top.

Cut for pretty pictures.

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Photo post

Hiking, pretty dresses, and a spectacular sky.

Yes Gay YA strikes back!

Due to the upcoming release of Stranger, I am doing some interviews in which I will be asked how or if things have changed in terms of LGBT characters in YA novels. I am armed, of course, with the most recent statistics. (Summary: representation has increased from 0.6% of all YA novels to 2%. However, most of those books are put out by LGBTQ-specialty small presses, and the percentage of LGBTQ characters in YA novels from American large presses has actually gone down.)

However, I spent the intervening years mostly focused on grad school, and so am not caught up on recent books. Are there any YA novels that have come out since 2010 with LGBTQ characters that I should check out or at least be aware of? What about self-published books? Any prominent LGBTQ teenage characters in non-book media (comics, movies, etc?)

Any changes in your own personal experience? For example, I have noticed that just in my circle of friends/acquaintances, kids seem to be coming out younger (13-15, as opposed to 18-20) and with less or no negative reactions from others. Obviously, these are kids from liberal families in LA. But I always knew liberals in LA, and I did not encounter any kids coming out at age 13 until about five years ago. Ditto straight teenage boys wearing gay rights buttons.