Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms is a 2021 young adult graphic novel published by Oni Press. It is written by Crystal Frasier, with art by Val Wise and letters by Oscar O. Jupiter.
Annie is a smart, antisocial punk just starting her senior year, but despite the fact that she gets great grades, she has zero extracurriculars, so her mother encourages her to try out for the cheerleading team. On the cheerleading team, however, is Beatrice, Annie's former best friend, who came out as trans last year and has been working hard to make sure that everyone likes her...at the detriment of her grades.
So while Beatrice helps Annie with her cheerleading and social life, Annie helps Beatrice study for her classes and, in the process, they reconnect in a deeper level. But can their relationship survive the microaggressions of high school?
Tropes in Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms:
- Acrofatic: Annie is noticeably heavyset, but can still do good handsprings and gymnastics. Notably, she's also shorter than nearly everyone else so while she looks fat, Beatrice points out that she herself is actually heavier than Annie.
- Affectionate Nickname: Her friends tend to call Beatrice "Bebe."
- Ambiguously Bi: Beatrice doesn't know if she's gay or bisexual, but she does know that she likes Annie.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Edie. Annie tells Beatrice that Edie isn't comfortable with "girly" things, so Beatrice ends up gifting her with a hat instead of a bouquet of flowers and, at homecoming, Edie confesses to Beatrice that she was worried about joining the cheerleaders:Edie: I was worried about joining the squad 'cuz I'm... I mean, I'm not a girl, and you all are. But I don't think I'm a boy either. And you all have been so nice!
- Apologises a Lot: Beatrice, in her attempt to make sure that she doesn't offend anyone, tends to do this.
- Apology Gift: Annie gives Beatrice some strawberry shortcake as an apology.
- Armor-Piercing Response: The day after Annie and Beatrice kiss, Beatrice is worried:Beatrice: Did you want to kiss me last night because I'm not a girl?Annie: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Bebe, I like girls. I like you because you're a girl.
- The Big Damn Kiss: After Annie apologizes to Beatrice with strawberry shortcake, they end up talking and eventually have a First Kiss. The next day, Beatrice is upset because she doesn't know if Annie kissed her because she doesn't consider her a girl, but Annie reassures her that she kissed her because she likes girls. The book ends with them kissing during the Homecoming Dance.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Annie gets top grades in all her classes, but has zero extracurricular activities and a very poor social life, which means she might not get into the colleges she wants. She ends up trying out for cheerleading because of this, without actually meaning to actually join, until Beatrice stands up for her.
- Class Princess: Deconstructed. This is how Beatrice first comes across, as she's pretty, popular, and the captain of the cheerleading team. However, it turns out that the cheerleaders nominated her for publicity (even though they do like her) and she has an obsessive need to please everyone, just so she doesn't come across as the "bad trans girl."
- Cruel Cheerleader: Subverted and discussed in-universe. None of the cheerleaders are mean, just Innocently Insensitive at worst. But Annie, at the start of the book, hates the cheerleaders, even though none of them have hurt her before, basing her opinions of them on “TV and movies and stuff”.
- Dance of Romance: At the very end, when Annie and Beatrice dance at the prom.
- Dark Horse Victory: Annie winning Homecoming Queen. Subverted in that the other cheerleaders say that only, like, fifty people ever vote on those things anyway, so with the cheerleaders supporting her, she was probably going to win anyway.
- Establishing Character Moment: Annie is introduced yelling at the guidance counselor, while Beatrice is first seen putting up cheerleading tryout flyers. This establishes their current personalities … and then sets them up for their character arcs and growth.
- Extreme Doormat: Played with. Beatrice has drive and ambition, but she also wants to make sure she doesn't come across as confrontational or a "bad trans girl." She ends up ignoring the microaggressions or bad jokes her friends make and agreeing to do things they ask, like put in posters or become the cheer captain, even when she herself doesn't particularly want to do it. Hanging around Annie helps her overcome this part of herself.
- Gotta Pass the Class: Beatrice has to get good grades or else her dad will make her wear boy's clothes again. She says, in fact, that the only reason her parents approved her transition and getting puberty blockers was that she said it wouldn't affect her grades.
- Helicopter Parents: Both of Beatrice's parents are overprotective, but for good reasons: as a trans girl, Beatrice is a much bigger target for transphobes and bigots. Beatrice's dad, however, is the one that ends up trying to stop her from hanging out with her friends, insisting that she come straight home after practice. Finally, fed up with it, Beatrice insists to her father that she can handle herself and if she can't, she has friends around to protect her.
- High-School Dance: Homecoming, of course. The other cheerleaders want to submit Beatrice for Homecoming Queen at first, until Beatrice tells them that she really doesn't want it. So instead, they decided to submit Annie's name and Annie goes along with it, because it will piss people off.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- The other cheerleaders, even when they are defending Beatrice to the rival team's transphobic coach, come across as this, especially when one of them says Beatrice is "just like a real girl." They at one point even snark about Bea "using her man voice" when she tried to put her foot down as captain before the aforementioned "real girl" comment.
- However, when Annie yells at them for saying that, Beatrice rips into her, too. She says that she knows people slip up, that she didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but Annie went against her wishes.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: The rival cheerleading coach calls Beatrice "it" when refusing to allow her to use the girl's locker room.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Katrina. She tends to come across as an Alpha Bitch to Annie, but when Annie apologizes to her, she ends up apologizing in return and then invites her to a scary movie night.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Played around with: Annie starts out as a tomboy, but she and Beatrice get closer, she allows Beatrice to put makeup on her and eventually wears a dress to Homecoming. Beatrice, on the other hand, doesn't even know if she's gay, but she does know she likes Annie.
- Mistaken Identity: The rival cheerleading coach barges over to the Crane High cheerleading squad and says she was informed about the "little cross-dresser" and that she's banned from their locker room. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the coach ends up pointing at Tasha, who is so bewildered she says, "I think you're looking for her" gesturing to Beatrice. This ends up becoming a big deal, as Beatrice's friends jump in to defend her (often using insensitive language), which then leads to Annie trying to defend Beatrice from them, which then leads to Beatrice yelling at all of them.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The rest of the squad are all horrified when Beatrice finally snaps at them (and Annie) for their insensitivity, having not realized Beatrice felt that way. They then make a conscious effort to be more compassionate.
- Oh, Crap!: Annie and Beatrice's shared reaction when they learn Jonah Marshall was elected Homecoming King. Sure enough, he takes the opportunity to make a huge grandstanding effort to white knight Beatrice, saying she should've been Homecoming Queen instead of Annie as a "joke candidate."
- Open-Minded Parent: Annie's mother Celeste is an easygoing woman who firmly understands her daughter and acts patient towards her more narrow-minded assumptions, gently questioning Annie about her biases and nudging her to give new things a try.
- Pom-Pom Girl: With maybe an exception or two, the cheerleaders are typically kind and supportive towards one another.
- Senior Year Struggles: Both Annie and Beatrice are now in their senior year. While Annie is struggling to get any extracurriculars in order to look good on college applications, Beatrice is still struggling with all the microaggressions and outright hostility being a trans girl on the cheerleading squad brings.
- Stalker with a Crush: Jonah Marshall. Beatrice notes that after she transitioned, he started flirting with her, which she found nice at first, but then creepy. And he doesn't seem to take the hint that she doesn't want to go out with him. Eventually, during Homecoming, he even tries to pressure her to dance with him, which results in Beatrice finally standing up for herself and slapping him.Jonah: Stop making a scene!Beatrice: I said NO! [slaps him hard]
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Beatrice is a girl, but despite how she looks and acts, her cisgender friends will still sometimes use insensitive language or make bad jokes about her being trans. Also, there will still be transphobes who call her a "cross-dresser" and refuse to allow her in the girl's locker room.
- Under pressure to make every one like her and not be seen as the "bad trans girl," Beatrice has not just become an Extreme Doormat, but her grades are suffering as well.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Annie and Beatrice. Annie loves wearing black clothing and stomping boots, while Beatrice likes wearing makeup and dresses. Annie's such a tomboy, in fact, that when the coach of the rival cheerleading squad tries to yell at the trans member of Crane High's cheerleading team, she mistakenly yells at Annie, not realizing that Beatrice is trans.
- Trans Tribulations: Beatrice is a popular member of the cheerleading squad, but she also faces numerous microaggressions from her own squad mates, as well as outright transphobia from others. She also must keep up good grades or else her parents will make her start wearing boy's clothes again.
- The Unapologetic: Annie starts off like this, not apologizing or regretting any of the mean things she's done. Being around Beatrice lets her know that this kind of stuff is hurtful, though, so she changes and ends up apologizing to Katrina. Katrina ends up apologizing in return.
- We Used to Be Friends: Annie and Beatrice used to be friends and hide out underneath the bleachers together. However, Beatrice then came out as trans and joined the cheerleading team and Annie stopped hanging out with her, considering her one of the "popular" kids now.
