Here’s Lambda Literary’s list of 10 LGBT teen novels that deal with bullying and suicide. Here’s a more upbeat list for LGBT teens (and straight kids, of course) with some more playful YA novels on it. And here’s a smart blog post on why positive narratives about growing up LGBT are so important. It quotes YA author and editor David Levithan on his 2003 debut novel Boy Meets Boy: “So much of gay teen fiction at that point was about misery and death and being the outsider… There was no room for happy gay kids. This book became what it was because of that.” The blogger, novelist Sayantana DasGupta, points out that Levitan’s work “makes room for a different gay teen narrative – full of usual teenage angst, but also full of romance, and whimsy, and three dimensional characters with full, complicated, funny, and touching lives.” DasGupta goes on:

Such texts change the narrative for LGBT teens – allowing a teenager to see him or herself in literature, and more importantly, see various possibilities for what an LGBT teen looks/feels/acts and lives like. But equally importantly, such books change the narrative for all readers (teen, LGBT, and otherwise). And the struggles of YA authors of color (LGBT and not), I think, is not only similar – but tied integrally to the struggles of LGBT authors — to get our multiplicity of stories out there – not just exotic, serious, tortured, or anachronistic stories…but crazy, silly, adventurous, romantic, and kick-butt superhero stories too.

The whole post is great. Read it here.