In this comic, cartoonist
Maia Kobabe gives an illustrated biography from childhood to adulthood, with very heavy exploration of eir
note Kobabe uses e, em eir pronouns gender and sexual orientation. It is eir first full-length book, with previous writings by Kobabe having been shorter.
Examples:
- Ambiguous Gender: Maia is happy when other people are unsure of eir gender or e's been mistaken as a boy, as it suits em as nonbinary. E achieves this with androgynous clothing and hairstyles. However, it often doesn't work so e's called "she", but Maia's usually too shy to correct this.
- Autobiography: Specifically, an autobiographical Coming of Age Story revolving around artist Maia Kobabe's gender identity.
- Big Sister Worship: Maia includes a whole page on how cool eir little sister Phoebe is at one point, praising her effusively.
- Boyish Short Hair: Maia cuts eir hair short in adulthood, disliking long hair given it showcases a femininity which doesn't fit em.
- Butch Lesbian: Most of the women whom Maia dates are this, with short hair and very tomboyish attires.
- Coming-Out Story: Maia comes out successively as being bisexual, nonbinary and then asexual to eir loved ones.
- Cool Big Sis: Maia's younger sister Phoebe, whom e gushes about, is a very hip, accepting person (and illustrated this book).
- First Period Panic: Maia is quite dismayed after getting eir first period, at first trying to cover it up until e tells eir mom. It's also a continuing source of gender dysphoria for em.
- Gender-Blender Name: After eir mother says she'd originally planned Robin as Maia's name whatever eir sex, Maia gets taken with the idea, pondering several gender neutral names to use. None take though, so e remains Maia.
- Good Parents: Maia's father and mother are both kind, laidback accepting people, which makes things much easier for em when eir struggling with gender/sexuality issues.
- Groin Attack: Maia experiences pap smears as this, finding it excruciating to undergo them (in one case e sees the instrument had drawn blood too). It also makes em realize that e never ever wants to have penetrative sex, as any penetration's very uncomfortable.
- Hairy Girl: Maia's mom doesn't shave her legs and hasn't from childhood. It fits her hippie style.
- Has a Type: Maia says e's mostly attracted to androgyny. This appears to work out mostly as butch lesbians when e begins dating.
- Hereditary Homosexuality: Maia and eir sister Phoebe have a lesbian aunt, while both turn out to be queer (in different ways).
- Hippie Parents: Both Maia's parents are basically this, into alternative education, easily flouting conventional gender roles and highly accepting of their kids' personalities, whatever they are.
- No Periods, Period: Heavily averted, as Maia's menstruation is explored in very lengthy detail, because it was such a source of anxiety to em.
- Outdoorsy Gal: As a child before coming out as nonbinary Maia would have been perceived as this, happily playing outdoors all the time, along with eir sister and neighbor kids. This applies to eir mother too, who's very much into outdoor activities.
- Pronoun Trouble: Upon eir self-realization as nonbinary, Maia is unsure what pronouns e should use. Rejecting more standing ones nonbinary people often use like they/them, e settles on the rarer Spivak pronouns of e/em/eir (thus the previous).
