Love Simon author Becky Albertalli comes out as bisexual after facing criticism for queer stories

Becky Albertalli has made a pretty penny off her book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which was adapted into the 2018 movie Love, Simon.

But the Atlanta-born author has faced a good bit of criticism for profiting off queer stories as a self-proclaimed straight woman.

She came out as bisexual Monday in a personal essay for Mic entitled ‘I Know I’m Late,’ explaining that the backlash she’s faced forced her to make the decision.

The 37-year-old wrote: ‘I’m thirty-seven years old. I’ve been happily married to a guy for almost ten years. I have two kids and a cat. I’ve never kissed a girl. I never even realized I wanted to.

‘But if I rewind further, I’m pretty sure I’ve had crushes on boys and girls for most of my life. I just didn’t realize the girl crushes were crushes.’

She wrote the 2015 YA novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, about a closeted gay teen in the suburbs of Atlanta who strikes up an anonymous online friendship with a fellow gay kid at his school.

It was later adapted into the 2018 teen movie Love, Simon, which was groundbreaking as the first gay teen film from a major studio, 20th Century Fox. 

The film also sparked a 10-episode series spinoff Love, Victor, which premiered in June on Hulu, following the journey another closeted kid at Simon’s alma mater.

Albertalli opened up about the criticism she faced for writing and profiting off queer stories as someone who seemingly didn’t belong to the LGBTQIA community. 

She wrote: ‘I was frequently mentioned by name, held up again and again as the quintessential example of allocishet inauthenticity.

‘I was a straight woman writing sh***y queer books for the straights, profiting off of communities I had no connection to.’

The former psychologist expressed the importance #ownvoices stories, which are those in which the author’s identity matches the protagonist, but she called out those who weaponize the hashtag.

She continued: ‘Let me be perfectly clear: this isn’t how I wanted to come out. This doesn’t feel good or empowering, or even particularly safe. 

‘Honestly, I’m doing this because I’ve been scrutinized, subtweeted, mocked, lectured, and invalidated just about every single day for years, and I’m exhausted. 

‘And if you think I’m the only closeted or semi-closeted queer author feeling this pressure, you haven’t been paying attention.’

Albertalli also revealed that she never met a bi person until college: ‘And even then, my understanding of bisexuality as a concept didn’t entirely track with how I see it now. 

‘For one thing, the idea of sexual fluidity wasn’t even on my radar. And there didn’t seem to be a word for girls who basically liked guys, but were sometimes (randomly!) fascinated by girls.’

But she ultimately came to terms with her sexuality after writing her book Leah on the Offbeat, the Simon sequel about his friend Leah, as she discover’s she’s bisexual.

The NYT bestselling author added: ‘It was my first time writing a love story between two girls — actually, it was my first time writing from the perspective of a character who’s attracted to girls. I worried I wouldn’t be able to feel what I’d need to feel in order to write a convincing love story.

‘Turns out, that wasn’t a problem — and maybe that should have been my lightbulb moment. But denial comes with its own kind of logic. I was just immersed in Leah’s perspective, I decided.’    

She concluded: ‘Anyway, all of this is to say: I’m bi. Sorry it took me so long to get here. But then again, at least the little red coming out book I needed was already on my shelf (in about thirty different languages). I think I finally know why I wrote it.’

Albertalli has written seven YA books, including four in the Simon universe, and she’s married to Brian Albertalli, with whom she shares two children.