Who Am I?

Hallo, new followers and people of that nature, nice to meet you. I’m Serena. 

^ my animesona/picrew icon

I’m 20 as of time of writing this post, I’m a transgender sci-fi and fantasy writer, with a few works out and available for people to read, like Chlorophyll and Gasoline and Anoikis, with more coming along the way. Though honestly, most people probably know of me because of my Hot Take Posts about writing because I make those an a not irregular basis. 

Link to all my finished work

My stories heavily feature LGBT+ casts, often in stories where the LGBT+ nature of the characters isn’t actually that important to the story - in other words, I write stories where LGBT+ are accepted and don’t need to justify themselves to people. ‘Course, they still get hurt, I write military fiction and stuff after all, but it’s not like my work is about LGBT+ people who suffer because of their LGBT+ status. 

A lot of my works deal with fascism, totalitarian ideologies, the ways people interact and reconcile and amplify differences, and also cool guns. Lots of cool guns. It’s pretty cool tbh. But like, because of that, my stories tend to be pretty intense, but I do label trigger warnings. 

Anyways, long story short, if you like the sound of any of that, give me a follow, if you like what I write, you should consider supporting me on patreon, where I post a lot of my work early. Money that I make goes into supporting my transition and writing while I’m also dealing with university and home life. 

Final set of links: 

Patreon Goodreads Royal Road

HELLO BEANS

i have been informed that contrary to my hopes an expectations, one must face the mortifying fear of being known in order to be - gasp - known LUCKILY I HAVE NO SOCIAL ANXIETY!! HERE WE GO, BITCHES

Keep reading

Do NOT Support ‘Adam’ When The Film Comes Out

I’ve talked about this before on this blog but this is the most disgustingly transphobic and lesbophobic narrative I’ve ever come across. 

CWs: transphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, corrective rape, voyeurism

The book Adam by Ariel Schrag is being turned into a movie which has been named as one of the most exciting LGBTQ films of the year. You should know before watching that the book is about a cis boy who pretends to be a trans man in order to persuade lesbians to sleep with him.

Yeah… you read that right.

Book plot summary: 

It is deeply deeply transphobic. To imply that our identities are just costumes for other people to put on erases who we are as people. More than that, to imply it is done to trick people into sex is a dangerous lie that literally gets us killed.

It is also deeply lesbophobic. To fuel this narrative that lesbians can be “fixed” by having sex with a man leads to real corrective rapes happening. 

Here is a review of the book by a trans man. I have yet to find one by a lesbian but will edit this if I do.

This book gives out incredibly harmful notions about trans men and lesbians that are used to hurt them in real life. It’s so entrenched in the narrative that I don’t see how the film can possibly be any better.

I do not say any of this lightly. it’s very very rare for me to call out a piece of fiction or for me to decide that a story is unfixable. But this… there’s no excuse for the bigotry in this. 

I’d like to tell people to boycott it but I can’t tell you what to do. So instead I’m going to ask that you share this because it being named as an exciting new LGBTQ film is going to make LGBTQ teens want to see it. And they should know beforehand how hurtful it could be. They should be able to arm themselves with that knowledge.

Don’t make queer kids see this film believing it will represent them only to be exposed to this hatred of their identities. 

Please reblog.

It’s worth noting that this is explicitly transmisogynistic in addition to the above. What the title character does is exactly what terfs claim we are and do. According to terfs, trans women are men and trans men can be lesbians so a cis man pretending to be a trans man sideways-shuffles right into terf rhetoric and transmisogyny. Back when the movie was first announced it wasn’t 48 hours but that I saw terfs going “THIS IS WHAT TRANS WOMEN ARE YOU CAN’T BE OFFENDED AT THIS UNLESS YOU’RE OFFENDED AT TRANS WOMEN’S EXISTENCE”. Don’t go see it. Discourage your friends from seeing it. And be prepared for the fucking tidal wave of shit headed the way of trans men, lesbian trans women, and lesbians in general over this film with very firm responses that this does not represent any of the above. 

Daughter of Rebels Snippet #1

In which Avery is first a disaster and then pulls no punches

“Okay, then, explain your plan.” Anita crossed her legs.

There was a pause in which Anita, Sorrel, and Elva looked at Avery expectantly. Avery bit her tongue.

“Well…plans are usually Sorrel’s job.”

“By the goddesses, Ave, you’re a disaster. You were planning to just stroll out of school with no plan and somehow get your dad out of whatever trouble he’s got himself into?” 

When Anita said it, it sounded a lot more stupid than when Avery had been thinking it. She was just planning to improvise. It was her speciality. Mainly because nothing seemed to go to plan when she got involved. Part of that was down to her, but sometimes it was the situation, and there was no way Avery was taking the blame for all the problems every time.

“Can you come up with a plan?” Elva asked Sorrel, her face scrunched up in question.

“Sorrel’s the tactician,” Avery told her, saluting at Sorrel.

The tactician squirmed. “You know I hate it when you do that.”

“You know I hate it when your best friend’s family kill innocent people but we love each other despite our faults.”

Tag List: @sunrisecitrusuniverse @purpleshadows1989 @arieswriting @meafeminas @penumbrics @genderpunksap

Shoot me an ask or a message if you’d like to be added to the tag list for Daughter of Rebels!

Maggie McGill is a queer, nonbinary, fat YouTuber doing amazing work for those marginalised communities. Ever wondered about binding when you’re plus size? Want to see transmasc fashion for fat babes? Then subscribe!

They are so so close to their goal of hitting 10k subscribers by the end of today but they can’t do it without our help. 

There are 4 hours left to help them get the last 200 subscribers! Please subscribe and boost this!

@bodypositivitybabes @nonbinarycuties @the-queer-and-beloved 

Activists Don’t Owe You Our Time

guess my feeble mind just can’t comprehend their intellect O.o

This was a comment left on one of my YouTube videos - this person started off by saying that “they respect my identity but nonbinary isn’t real” (some respect) and then demanded that I debate them about it. When I politely declined I got a whole paragraph in response.

I replied with this: 

Because here’s the thing: I’m more than happy to educate. It’s why I do what I do in the first place. But if your starting point for the lesson is “I don’t believe in nonbinary” well, I’ve already covered that. That’s literally step one in the goddamn lesson plan. 

I am living life as a nonbinary person, over here at square 99 and I’m fully aware that many people are back at square one, only just hearing about the concept. That’s okay. It’s normal not to know things, none of us are born knowing things. But as an activist, I do not have time to go back to square one every single time someone new asks me too. I’d spend my entire life only covering that one thing over and over and over again if I did.

So instead I made a video about it. In fact, I’ve made several.

Go watch my videos, they’re right there. I’ve done the work for you already.

You’re the one that’s brand new to the topic so you don’t get to demand things. You’re not entitled to a debate especially when you literally don’t know enough to hold one. I think it’s an important lesson for anyone to learn - you don’t get to demand time off of someone.

If you don’t know something, that’s a you problem, I don’t owe you the time to fix that for you. Especially not when I’ve already spent hours creating resources for exactly that purpose. If you want to learn - use the resources. If you want to be an argumentative dickhead - move along, cause there are people behind you who might be open to learning. 

Anyway, if you respect activists putting the work in the please subscribe to my YouTube channel to help a nonbinary content creator out ♥️

A few thoughts on the James Charles situation: 

1). It’s frustrating that people of colour and trans folks have been calling out his awful behaviour for years and no one cared but the minute a cis white woman says something he actually suffers consequences. 

2). I hate that people are framing it as only bad because he’s doing it to straight guys like no??? It’s bad because pressuring someone into sexual things is bad, even if he was doing it to other gay guys, using his fame to manipulate like that is not okay. And talking about it like “omg leave straight guys alone” only reinforces homophobic stereotypes. It’s bad because he’s a predator and manipulator, not because he flirted with a straight person. 

3). Why is the bigger focus on some fucking hair pills like yeah okay, he betrayed his friend but the predatory stuff is clearly more important?

4). All his friends/peers now saying they’ve noticed creepy stuff about him for ages now, like then why the fuck didn’t you say anything? Even Tati waited until he had pissed her off personally before exposing him. Sorry, but if he’s an actual predator then you owe it to people to say something. And half of these people definitely have a big enough platform to do something. 

5). One of the victims literally made a video last week explaining his whole experience, I barely saw anyone talking about it and half of those who did were saying James probably just misread the signals/this guy led him on. Waaay to support victims there folks.

Tati Westbrook isn’t much better though, she has continued to cosy up to Jeffree Star even though the you has came out with some shockingly racist things in the past. Jeffrey Star has had a whole heap of controversies that I’m too sleepy to list. There’s always some kind of chatter on the r:BeautyGuruChatter (am I doing that right?) linking all of J* past whenever his name comes up. Tati seems to be very much not the mindset that if it isnt offensive to her then it isn’t offensive at all.

Most girls like her didn’t like the way they looked and hardly recognized themselves in the mirror, but Claudia was different. She liked to admire herself, and why not? She was a sight to behold.

At a mature 21 years old, she was no longer in her prime, but she had several years left to look forward to and could still attract the attention of younger males. She had a classic Mexican movie star beauty that would always be striking, if not in fashion. Her curves were rounded and well-developed. She turned a little to the side, standing on the tips of her toes to examine the full swell of her abdomen and the slender length of her graceful legs. She was not perfect, but then again, she’d yet to met anyone who could truthfully claim otherwise. Her form pleased her well enough, and she relaxed back onto her silken sheets.

She stared into the mirror in the corner and her own dark eyes stared back, small and close-set and glittering with unspoken thoughts. Her hair was dark and glossy, with strips of bright, coppery red for contrast. She kept it spiked in the back, in a pixie-like style she liked to believe said “don’t mess with me” that often irritated people. Her mouth was small and pink, tucked neatly away beneath her cephalothorax and protected by a pair of firm, pendulous chelicerae of even size, nicely separated and tipped with hard, pointy fangs. Her pedipalps were unusually sensitive. Her spinnerets were delicate and deft, but she usually kept them tucked away close to her abdomen.

Claudia was a strong, independent tarantula, and this post is only funny to spider enthusiasts who hate when women are written this way.

Hi folks! Sorry again that there was no video this Wednesday. But as promised I do have something very very special coming up for you on Saturday - my mum came up to visit so we had a discussion all about some different trans terms and what they mean (spoiler: she doesn’t like transmeds either!). 

Subscribe here and turn notifications on to make sure you don’t miss it ❤ 

And if you really want to help me out you can share this - you never know who might see it!

Hey folks, a reminder that I am on Instagram so if you wanna see more of my face or what I’m up to or you need some more trans rep in your feed, maybe consider giving me a follow over there? Thank you ❤

I really don’t understand why we keep having this “fiction doesn’t impact reality” debate to justify bigoted stories.

After Jaws (fiction!) came out, shark populations in the US fell by 50% because people were afraid of them. So yeah… Our views can be influenced by the media we consume…

And it honestly amazes me that “media can influence you, yes even fiction” is still a wild take to some people.

Why do you think we call social media personalities influencers? Do you think authors don’t have their own agendas and biases that might seep into their work??

Art isn’t created in a vacuum.

A bit of a rant about the fact that being nonbinary doesn’t automatically mean being genderless. 

Reblog if you too have a gender ❤

Hey folks! Since it’s #TransVisibilityWeek and #TransVisibilityDay will be tomorrow, I put this video together - in it I talk about what you can do to raise awareness and recommend some awesome trans people in the public eye for you to check out.

As a trans creator myself this visibility means a lot to me and you could help me out a lot by checking out my channel!

Reblog to help spread that visibility ❤

Send me what type of book you like and I’ll give you queer book recs

Okay, folks, you know the drill by now: send me what type of book you like and what type of rep you’re looking for and I’ll name you as many cool queer books that fit that as I can. 

Examples: 

I’ll record a video with all the recs in for Saturday so ask away! 

Hey folks, check out yesterday’s video if you haven’t already - I go through some of my favourite LGBTQ+ music to give you queer love songs and trans anthems to add to your playlists ❤

The Venus Society

Nova Foxhaven and Saint Copperwell

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added to the tag line)

@lexa-scribbles @maxseidel @mezvii @panticwritten @thatoneandi @queercrazywriter 

A witch puts a spell on a girl, a sleeping spell that promises the girl shall wake through true love’s kiss. Men come and kiss her. She slumbers. Women come and press their lips to hers, but still she sleeps. Many years past, and the girl remains still. One bright morning,  a lost little boy finds her resting spot and clears the dust and grime from her face. He offers her a kiss on her forehead, and her eyes flutter open. She never feels romantic love for a man nor a woman, and she cares for the boy until the day she dies.

A young woman is imprisoned in a castle by a monstrously formed prince. The servants of the castle hope for them to fall in love, and when the spell is broken they assume their prayers have been answered. They are all surprised, but nonetheless pleased, when it is revealed to them that the young woman and prince are the truest of friends, and nothing more.

They say the kingdom is ruled by an evil queen, a woman who is incapable of loving. She is unmarried, she has no consorts, and she wishes for no partner. She is the wretched queen, the heartless queen. She must hate her daughter, for her daughter is beautiful, and women are incapable of liking another woman who’s prettier than themselves. It must be for this reason that the princess was sent away, not for how she was attacked by a man in the woods. They say the kingdom is ruled by an evil queen because she cannot love. The queen loves her daughter, and that is enough for them both.

There lives a prince who is forced to choose a bride at the ball. He meets many beautiful women, but find none which he loves. He spies one in a gorgeous gown and wonder in her eyes, and he dances with her all night long. The kingdom is sure he has found his bride. When the clock strikes midnight he tells her how he will never love a woman, or a man, in the way he is expected to. The beautiful woman smiles and tells him she expects nothing from him. The next morning the prince and the beautiful woman are missing, having run off together to see the world. They leave their shoes behind in their haste.

Many kinds of love exist. It doesn’t all have to be romantic.