Jonathan van Ness and Julie Murphy Talk ‘Let Them Stare’ (exclusively)

Jonathan van Ness Know what it might be like to grow up queer in a small town. And Julie Murphy is passionate about young people seeing themselves in the media, what it looks like.

So it’s no surprise that when the two collaborated to write their new LGBTQ+ young adult novel Let them stareIt was a match made in heaven. The book follows Sully, an 18-year-old sex-shaped teenager who lives in a small town in Pennsylvania who can’t wait to come out. But when their plans to do so they fall, do they refuge in a frugal store (retail therapy, am I right?). There, Sully finds a vintage bag that only happens to be haunted by Rufus, the ghost of a drag artist from the 50s without memory of how he died. Sully intends to help Rfus move on and in the process realize that their small town may have more to offer than they have ever seen before.

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Van Ness came up with the idea after having impulse to buy a “really elegant big-ass” in 2022 and thought about what it would be like if that bag was haunted. But since he had not written fiction before, he beat the idea to cooperate to best -selling Dumplin The author Murphy, and they were on their way to the competitions.

“She has just been the most incredible, patient, as a cool teacher and allowed me to help find my voice, but then designed her voice with mine,” explains Van Ness. “I feel that it is such a unique product, because it really is as much mixtures of our styles.”

Murphy agreed that both authors brought their own strengths and backgrounds to the page throughout the process. “I was prepared to be a kind of creative doula or sidekick, but in the end I think we both share so much ownership of this story,” she adds. “There were times, as with the action and narrative choice, when Jonathan would postpone me, but then with things like Queer’s history and Sully’s experience as a gender teens, I constantly looked to Jonathan. The best co -authors complement each other’s forces and fill in the gaps to each other’s weaknesses and it was over true in work with Jonathan.”

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Both authors wanted the book to show young readers a different way forward than they may have seen elsewhere.

“Stories teach us about the opportunity, so why shouldn’t we all have a chance to see what can be possible?” Says Murphy. “Plus size representation is important to me because I selfish want to see more people who look like me. You can’t see yourself as the main character in your own life if you can’t find examples of it in the stories you consume.”

“I took a mix of my experiences mixed with the world I wish I had,” says Van Ness, about his inspiration. “It was really like this version of a more free, more embodied version of me, someone I think I could have been if I had access to what I feel like an 18-year-old I would be now.”

The authors also wanted Let them stare To serve as an “opportunity model” for LGBTQ+ young people in small towns or rural areas where they feel suffocated. “We have to create opportunity models where people can stay and where they can be celebrated,” explains Van Ness. “Where they see future for themselves, and it can be as cool and successful.”

It goes contrary to the standard that comes in age, where the protagonist runs to the big city to find themselves, which is not always possible-or necessarily wise. “It’s so sad that Queer Youth, so many of them don’t see their hometown as a place that would be like a success, or as a goal for them to grow old there,” adds Van Ness. “I really wanted to tell a story that raises queer people and queer stories in the countryside, which is something that is really important to Julie and I.”

The uplifting message extends all the way to the book’s title, which is unintentional resemblance to Mel Robbins viral Let them theory. (Let them stare Got the name long before Robbin’s book came out). And both authors want it to be an inspiration and a rally crop.

“To me, Let them stare means that people are always fascinated (and sometimes scared) of what they don’t know. But the more we see something, the more normal it becomes for us, “explains Murphy.” I always ask people to diversify their social media feed and that is for this exact reason. So go on, let people stare. Let them stare and maybe they will soon learn that we all have much more in common than not. ”

Van Ness also wants to scream out LGBTQ+ Youth which is already further down the road than their ancestors were in their age. (“It is also about) just not sets us apart from our expression, not fog it, not not To put it, because we are afraid of other people’s reactions and I just think that young people can be so brave that way, “he says.” You have to give them their flowers that, I think young people are really just burning fantastic roads. So hopefully this can like to be an inspiration for them to like to continue. ”

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Let them stare By Jonathan van Ness and Julie Murphy there are now, wherever books are sold.