I started Lavender Library Press because I realized I had something rare: I grew up comfortable in my own rainbow skin, blissfully unaware that being queer was supposed to be hard, hidden.

 

​I was lucky enough to exist in spaces where I never encountered the hate, never absorbed the messages that I was wrong or broken or too much. I just... was. Don't get me wrong, I had my own identity crises and figuring-myself-out moments, but never for being queer. That part always felt easy, natural, like breathing, and it took me a while to understand that this wasn't everyone's experience. That, for many queer people, even in today's day and age, simply existing feels like an act of rebellion instead of just a plain ol' regular Tuesday.​

 

As I noticed the endless stream of 'haterade' out there: the legislation, the fear mongering, the constant defending of our right to just be, I realized my obliviousness was actually a superpower. I knew what it felt like to belong in this world without question, and I wanted to bottle that feeling and share it. I NEEDED to bottle that feeling and share it. ​

 

That's what Lavender Library Press is: my way of spreading love in a world that sometimes feels heavy with hate. Every journal, every book recommendation, every design and goodie is a little container of queer joy. A reminder that we belong here, that our existence is not up for debate, and that sometimes the most revolutionary thing we can do is just live comfortably in our own skin.

 

​I'm not trying to fight the hate directly; there are amazing people doing that work. I'm just creating more love; more spaces where being queer is so normal, so celebrated, so woven into the everyday that it doesn't even register as noteworthy. 

 

Because that's the world I want to live in; that's the world I want to queerify; that's the world I want to be, share, and encourage representation for!