It’s official: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, the coming-of-age YA novel about “not-so-openly gay” teenager Simon Spier, is going to be a movie. And needless to say, I am EXCITED.
2016 was a hard year, especially for the LGBTQ+ community, and the lack of representation for LGBTQ+ people in media hasn’t made it any better. A study by GLAAD, an organization dedicated to promoting acceptance of LGTBQ+ people, showed that only 17.5% of movies had LGBTQ+ characters in 2015. Of that percent, only half contained five minutes or more of screen time for their LGBTQ+ characters. Although the report hasn’t been released for 2016 yet, you can bet it wasn’t much better.
Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda could be the spark to change all that. The book by Becky Albertalli follows sixteen-year-old Simon Spier, who has been secretly corresponding with a boy from his school. The catch? He has no clue who it is (think A Cinderella Story, except with a lot more Oreos).
The emails between Simon and his pen pal, who calls himself “Blue," are completely adorable. They talk about their family, their secrets, their passions (...for Oreos), and soon, they begin to fall in love with each other.
Simon Spier may be one of my favorite book characters of all time. He’s completely hilarious, hates beer, and is obsessed with Harry Potter. The fact that he’s gay doesn’t overtake his identity, like what happens in some LGBTQ-focused books.
This movie is going to bring so much needed representation to the teenage gay community, especially those who are in the process of coming out. Simon, who is being played by Jurassic World’s Nick Robinson, is going to be an amazing role model for future generations, and his story will prove that LGBTQ+ youth CAN have a happy ending.
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Sidney Wollmuth is technically sixteen years old, but her friends will tell you she's actually an old lady in disguise. She can be found running abnormally upright, fretting over her millions of unfinished drafts, or eating cookie dough ice cream with a small spoon. Her poetry has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing competition and Rookie Mag.
